WEBVTT 00:00:10.420 --> 00:00:19.420 I think it's particularly important for teachers to know they cannot give girls the gift 00:00:19.420 --> 00:00:25.670 of confidence by telling them how smart or talented they are. 00:00:25.670 --> 00:00:35.120 They have to teach them how to engage in a process that will allow them to address challenges, 00:00:35.120 --> 00:00:43.110 to remain resilient in the face of obstacles and to acquire math skills. 00:00:43.110 --> 00:00:51.490 I'm afraid that, by teachers' earnest desires to give girls confidence, 00:00:51.490 --> 00:00:56.850 they have been praising them for their abilities too much. 00:00:56.850 --> 00:01:02.580 And more and more research is showing, you must praise the process. 00:01:02.580 --> 00:01:05.150 Here are some ways to do it. 00:01:05.150 --> 00:01:12.800 You say, suppose a girl worked hard and didn't do well, you say, 00:01:12.800 --> 00:01:15.830 "Let's look a the strategies you used. 00:01:15.830 --> 00:01:19.090 Let's look at the ways that you've studied. 00:01:19.090 --> 00:01:21.110 Let's look at your mistakes. 00:01:21.110 --> 00:01:24.030 We can learn a lot from those things." 00:01:24.030 --> 00:01:31.400 So it's like, "Let's work together on the process and together we can build your math skills." 00:01:31.400 --> 00:01:37.280 What if a girl got an "A" on something and didn't work hard? 00:01:37.280 --> 00:01:41.520 "Well, I'm sorry I cheated you with that task. 00:01:41.520 --> 00:01:43.610 It was too easy for you. 00:01:43.610 --> 00:01:47.630 Let's work on something hard that you can learn from." 00:01:47.630 --> 00:01:52.710 Because too often, a girl will think-or anyone will think, 00:01:52.710 --> 00:01:56.650 "Oh an easy 'A', that really means ability." 00:01:56.650 --> 00:02:05.590 But what you really want them to think is hard work and learning, that's what ability is about. 00:02:05.590 --> 00:02:11.000 Praising effort, praising concentration, praising strategies. 00:02:11.000 --> 00:02:17.070 But I also think you need to get students used to being critiqued 00:02:17.070 --> 00:02:21.020 and taking feedback as something helpful. 00:02:21.020 --> 00:02:27.920 Early on in my research one little student said, "Mistakes are our friend." 00:02:27.920 --> 00:02:33.690 And I think that students have to really learn that and take it to heart. 00:02:33.690 --> 00:02:35.350 Mistakes are our friend. 00:02:35.350 --> 00:02:37.350 Struggle is good. 00:02:37.350 --> 00:02:41.480 A teacher can say, "Who had a great struggle today? 00:02:41.480 --> 00:02:43.430 Who wants to share their struggle?" 00:02:43.430 --> 00:02:47.330 And be really proud of that student for struggling. 00:02:47.330 --> 00:02:51.780 "Who has a fabulous mistake that we can all learn from? 00:02:51.780 --> 00:02:53.980 That's a great mistake." 00:02:53.980 --> 00:02:58.850 So it puts the premium on struggling, confronting difficulty, 00:02:58.850 --> 00:03:03.770 learning and not on being effortlessly smart. 00:03:03.770 --> 00:03:10.100 Often a girl will say, "I'm not good at math or I'm not good a geometry. 00:03:10.100 --> 00:03:12.500 I'll never be good at that." 00:03:12.500 --> 00:03:18.270 And the teacher needs to say, "Nobody is born with geometry. 00:03:18.270 --> 00:03:21.400 We build up the connections in our brain. 00:03:21.400 --> 00:03:30.610 We build up the knowledge of geometry by practicing and especially practicing things 00:03:30.610 --> 00:03:34.770 that don't come to us right away." 00:03:34.770 --> 00:03:39.600 Students often underestimate the trouble other students are having. 00:03:39.600 --> 00:03:47.770 So teachers need to say, "A lot of students get confused at the beginning of geometry. 00:03:47.770 --> 00:03:53.340 They haven't built their geometry brain connections yet. 00:03:53.340 --> 00:03:55.200 That's normal. 00:03:55.200 --> 00:04:00.890 If we all take on the challenge, work hard, learn from our mistakes, 00:04:00.890 --> 00:04:05.960 we'll all be good at geometry by the end of the year." 00:04:05.960 --> 00:04:11.470 It's very important to focus students on what they've done right, 00:04:11.470 --> 00:04:14.840 the steps that they've taken that have worked, 00:04:14.840 --> 00:04:23.040 and-in very matter of fact ways-the steps they have taken that haven't worked. 00:04:23.040 --> 00:04:30.150 and that they need to try another strategy for, or learn another strategy for. 00:04:30.150 --> 00:04:36.270 But teachers and coaches, too, now come to me and say, "Where are the teachable students? 00:04:36.270 --> 00:04:38.690 Where are the teachable athletes?" 00:04:38.690 --> 00:04:43.480 So many of them now think if you give them corrective feedback 00:04:43.480 --> 00:04:49.870 that you think they're not competent and they take it as a blow to their self esteem. 00:04:49.870 --> 00:04:53.560 So we need to train students to focus on the process 00:04:53.560 --> 00:04:58.570 and to want corrective feedback as a tool to learning. 00:04:58.570 --> 00:05:04.080 Some teachers think, "Oh, it's too hard to give step by step feedback 00:05:04.080 --> 00:05:07.850 on what a student has done right or wrong." 00:05:07.850 --> 00:05:11.360 But that's what teaching is. 00:05:11.360 --> 00:05:14.930 It's not teaching to say, "That was great. 00:05:14.930 --> 00:05:16.740 You're smart." 00:05:16.740 --> 00:05:22.910 Even when it's sincere, it's not helpful information for a student. 00:05:22.910 --> 00:05:27.350 It hasn't told them how they got to their good result 00:05:27.350 --> 00:05:30.900 or what to do when they're struggling in the future. 00:05:30.900 --> 00:05:33.960 Does it mean suddenly they're not smart? 00:05:33.960 --> 00:05:41.690 Students must know that a step-by-step process leads to an outcome 00:05:41.690 --> 00:05:44.270 and that the process can go wrong. 00:05:44.270 --> 00:05:48.500 And they need to learn how to make that process right again. 00:05:48.500 --> 00:05:55.650 So whether the teacher can fit it into the 45 minute lesson or whether the teacher has to give 00:05:55.650 --> 00:06:00.640 that feedback for homework assignments, it doesn't matter. 00:06:00.640 --> 00:06:05.600 That is how teaching and learning take place.