How to Become Gifted
In a study of educational techniques, a teacher was told that the students in her new class were all gifted children. “You should get above-average results from them,” she was advid, and by the end of the term she was getting just that, better than average work.
The remarkable thing about it all was that in reality the class was not unusual. They were just an average group of students with IQs within the normal range. The teacher had been deceived about their potential.
This study uncovered many answers to many questions unanswered. One point it did make with unusual clarity is that a child will usually live up to a teacher’s expectations when the child believes tho expectations are honest.
An unanswered question was: In what way did the teacher communicate to the students that they were special and could do superior work? She didn’t tell them that in so many words, but obviously something about her attitude convinced the students that they were gifted.bnw
Further studies showed that the special “something” in the teacher’s attitude was, in part, the type of work she gave the class, and in part how she prented it. But the strongest “something”获得英语 was the teacher herlf and her attitude toward the class and toward their ability.
There was an extra amount of confidence and interest in her voice that said. “You’re bright children.” There was a constant reassurancing tone that told them they would do well, very well. The children picked up the signals and reacted positively to them.
When a student’s work did not measure up to the teacher’s expectations, as often happened, the student was not treated with disappointment, anger, or annoyance. Instead, the teacher assured that this was an exception, an accident, a bad day, a momentary slip ---- and the student believed her and felt reassured. The next time around, he tried harder, determined to live up to what the teacher knew he could do.
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The exact part of communication that tells a child, “I expect the best,” is difficult to pinpoint. In part it consists of a level tone showing assurance, a lack of verbal impatience,
an abnce of negative questions such as irony, put-downs, and irritation. The teacher who expects the best asks her questions with conviction, knowing the answers she gets be right, and the child picks up that conviction.
Most of this is transmitted through the voice, but a surprising amount is in the attitude, in touch, and in facial expression.
dedicationAn experiment similar to the one done with “gifted”suffer children was done with “gifted” mice. A scientist was given a group of ordinary mice, but told that they were a special breed, trained to run a maze in record time. Working with the mice, the scientist found that they did learn faster than other mice and did run the maze more quickly.
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But mice know nothing of our language. How was the scientist able to communicate his expectations to them? An examination of all the variables in the test concluded tht the unusually good results were due to the way he had handled the mice, the way he talked to them and the tone, the reassurance, and the certainty in his voice. They absorbed all the messages and performed accordingly!
In a broader view of both the experiments, the teacher and the scientist ud a principle common to all societies at all levels bringiton– the principle of labeling. All our expectations are prejudiced, and we have very different expectations for different people, even on a national level. We think of people in terms national characteristics. We expect Americans to be greedy, after the big buck, and we label them that way in our minds. We label Germans neat and orderly, English cold, distant, and rerved, Italianx emotional, Japane polite ---- and so it goes. We pin a very narrow label on a very broad, far from homogeneous group. We do it on racial levels too. Blacks are musical, Indians are stoic, Orientals inscrutable. We even label the xes ---- men are aggressive, women passive.
On a family basis, the labels are sometimes attached by the neighbors. “Tho Jones are trash… always on welfare.enhance” Or the label may be attached by the family itlf. “We Smiths would rather go hungry than ask for government help!” The Smith boy, growing up with this label of awesome independence, lives up to it as readily as the Jones girl live up to her label, “They all think we’re trash? I’tidehunterll act like trash!环球雅思学校”
The label may be less inclusive, even xist. One family might say proudly, “The men in our family are always professionals.” When Bill, a son in this family finds that carpentry is the work he loves best, he faces a family conflict ---- and a conflict with himlf. His inner strength may allow him to go through with his own desires and become a carpenter, but then he knows that he hasn’t lived up to the family label and he goes through life with a n of guilt. He may even create his own label. “I’m a failure, really.” It doesn’t matter that Bill is a success in his field, that in time he owns his own business and makes more money than his brother Bob, who became a lawyer. Bill is still not a professional man, and as a result his inner label still reads failure.
