Praise is often used as a reward for students in the homeschool classroom. It allows the appreciation of the homeschool teacher to be conveyed to the child with no additional promise of material rewards required. It makes the child feel good about himself. It can be a fantastic tool for motivating the homeschool student to do better, or it can become the reason why a child starts resorting to cheating.
Why It’s Important to Praise Properly
Recent research at the University of Toronto found that kids who were praised for being smart were likely to be dishonest and cheat to maintain that reputation. At the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, the study into praising children showed that praising children for being smart usually backfired, while praising children for doing well or performing nicely was a better alternative. The study was conducted on children in the age group of 3-5 years. It was disconcerting to see that the negative effects of ability praise promoted dishonesty in children of such a tender age.
Praise the Specific Behavior Rather than the Ability
Professor Kang Lee from the Jackman Institute of Child Studies said that giving children the wrong kind of praise makes them dishonest. Praising their ability for being smart makes them develop a reputation which they want to hold on to. Praising their performance on that particular day, makes them want to work hard the next time to repeat their good performance. So it makes sense to praise the effort that your homeschool student puts into a specific performance, than to simply tell him that he’s smart.
Focus on the Effort Put In and Specific Achievements
Praise is a powerful motivational tool. Listening to praise can be pleasurable for the homeschool student. It allows them to develop pride in their own achievements as the homeschool parent lists them out. The positive experience makes them self motivated to do achieve more the next time. Eventually it becomes a cycle of behavior that encourages the child to put in more effort and attain more goals. By praising them right, the parent gives them motivation to improve on each past effort.
