Today's session was on the next tier of the ITY pyramid, titled Giving Attention - Encouragement & Praise.
There was lots of discussion around praise, teacher attention and interaction, academic, social, persistence, and emotional coaching. Today's session caused me to reflect on the spicy cherubs we currently have at our kura. Particularly this statement: "Emotional literacy is the foundation for being able to self regulate."
The praise section of the session really got me thinking about my own personal philosophy on praise. My thoughts in recent years as a parent and an educator have been shaped by wāhine like Janet Landsbury and Carol Dweck (avoid 'you're so clever' type statements and promote growth mindset). I want children to feel intrinsic motivation - the desire to act for the fun, challenge, or personal satisfaction rather than because of external feedback, pressures, or rewards. This did not seem to align completely with the key ideas I got from today's session.
I've borrowed from 'The Way we Praise Matters' by Janet Lansbury - “Instead of praise, acknowledgements. Let’s acknowledge what children are doing. It’s all about being real with them...The thing about children is they’re so intuitive. They know when we’re gushing and it’s not quite anchored in sincerity."
The Way we Praise Matters has some really good thoughts around ensuring praise is authentic. It's written from a parenting perspective but it is completely transferrable.
A good reminder - Children learn what is 'valued' by the teacher by what they comment on (positive and negative reinforcement).
Positive forecasting - recognising the end product you want to see. Promotes self belief and self efficacy. Using statements like, "I can see you have learned ... if you keep working on it imagine how much more you will know next ... " or "I love hearing your ideas, and i know next time you are going to put your hand up."
We discussed the 4:1 rule around commenting - 4 comments before asking a question (based on the bucket filler idea). Children can become overwhelmed when hit with too many questions. We can get around this and still build strong relationships by noticing what tamariki are doing. Descriptive commenting can strengthen social skills, academic skills/language, and emotional literacy. We can use, "Tell me more." if we need to. This is something I will work on!
Examples -
"I can see you are grouping the blocks by colours" - academic skills
"You waited your turn, nice." social/friendship skills
"I can see you are feeling really frustrated and you're staying calm. Ngā mihi."
There were many more awful out-dated vignettes which makes it really hard to get behind the kaupapa with great enthusiasm, however I did find some good reminders and set a few goals to work on. I'm going to be more mindful about comments instead of questions and the 4:1 ratio.
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