Learning That Sticks: Battling Praise and Ways That People Learn

Learning That Sticks: Battling Praise and Ways That People Learn

"Praise needs to be earned." - Joey Myers

We all have been there, whether that is teaching someone, or you being taught something. You don't understand all that is at work or your student or athlete doesn't understand what you are teaching them. After they seem to fall short of what you are asking, or you fall short of what your teacher or coach is presenting to you, frustration starts to build. How do we seem to defeat the frustration aspect of the learning curve? Well what if I told you that by looking at the eyes of your students and athletes that you can learn lots about how they learn best. 

While reading Joey Myer's The Catapult Learning System: How to Teach 100-Pound Hitters to Consistently Drive The Ball 300-Feet, he dives into how in less than five minutes you can get a snapshot into how a student learns by looking at their eyes. Myers wrote that there are three ways to learn, those ways are visual, auditory, and touch/feel. You are probably asking, how in the world does this tell me how a student can be a visual, auditory, or touch/feel learner by looking at their eyes? It is a good question, but this is all based on science and fact. That is why I have enjoyed reading Myers's work, it's all substance and no fluff. Studies have shown that when asked a question, if the eyes of someone goes up they are a visual learner. If the persons eyes go side to side, then they are an auditory learner. If the persons eyes go down, then they learn by touch/ feel. It is important to note that you cannot get the full picture of how that person learns by reading the eyes, but it gives you a snapshot and a pretty good idea on how that person learns. 

After we watch the eyes of that student or athlete, then we can figure out more about the person behind the title of student or athlete. After all, a positive relationship allows for trust and progress to happen. But how do we get our students and athletes to be the best that they can be? The answer is to hold back on giving inefficient praise. Inefficient praise is not giving direct praise. Instead of saying "good job", say "I like how you did (activity)." For example, as Joey Myers writes, "These statements are generalized, and therefore meaningless to performance." Direct praise allows the student or athlete to understand what they did well instead of guessing what they did well. 

I also must advice that we give this direct praise out sparingly. This allows our students and athletes to figure things out on their own. After all this is what we want out of our students and athletes. We want them to be their own best coach or teacher. Because there will come a time where we cannot coach or teach them. That would be either during a game or a test. 

The next question I will give to you is should you praise for intellect, or praise for effort? In John Medina's book, Brain Rules For Baby, he writes this about praising for intellect, "First your child begins to perceive mistakes as failures. Because you told her that success was due to some static ability over which she had no control, she starts to think of failure as a static thing, too- now perceived as a lack of ability. Successes are thought of as gifts rather than the governable product of effort. If the student or athlete gives their best effort and falls short, they understand they must grow, but they will be successful in the long run. Whereas praising for intellect will make the student or athlete gun shy when they fall short of their desired goal. 

With all of this in mind, I hope this makes you better in understanding how your students and athletes learn. I also hope that understanding how to praise your students and athletes in a way where they can have a growth mindset. After all if you have a growth mindset, then you would want your students or athletes to have that growth mindset as well.