Effort brings success, but do students understand this?

Research seems to be catching up with me! There is a study out of Michigan University that links better grades with the vision students have of themselves as adults.

Students who wanted to become doctors or lawyers, and students who wanted to become rock stars or sport heroes both intended to go to college but only one of the groups actually did the work required to get there.

What made the difference between the two groups? Why did one group do the work required to get to college while the other did not?

The group that wanted to become lawyers of doctors understood that they would have to work hard to get the skills they needed in those professions. The group that wanted to be rock stars and sports stars thought that it would just happen, that they would be ‘discovered’, and did not think that they had to work hard to get what they wanted.

The difference between the groups was that one understood the direct connection between effort today and success tomorrow. It was the understanding of what had to be done that made the difference. The research suggests that being annoyed with a student for getting poor grades is not the best way to help that student improve their study skills. It would be much more effective to help the student understand the relationship between the amount of effort required and the level of success he will achieve.

I believe that students fail because they lack one or more basic learning skills. I have a list of the basic learning skills that all students need if they are to become good learners. One of the basic learning skills I talk about is the ability to understand the amount of effort that a task will require. If a student cannot do this he or she will soon become unmotivated and will fail to complete the learning task.

If you want to help your child learn, help him or her understand how much effort they will have to spend doing things. If you play the lottery and expect to get everything you want with little effort, think about what your child is learning from you. Play the lottery by all means, but don’t count on winning to solve all your problems!