Reinforcing Effort and Providing Recognition

  1. Think back to your own personal experiences and try to identify situations in which your learning was positively influenced when someone reinforced your effort or recognized your accomplishments in some significant way. You might also remember situations that would have been improved if someone had reinforced your effort or had given you recognition.
  2. Explain some of the reasons that, despite teachers' attempts to emphasize effort, many students still hold on to the belief that their successes and failures are due to their ability, or lack thereof, or to other outside forces.