Now that a new academic year has commenced, parents tend to engage themselves in colloquy about their children’s future in the field of education. If there is any question that will linger in their mind with regard to their children’s journey in school, it will be like “will my beloved child someday succeed in earning a degree?” And when their children graduate from college, parents will catechize ubiquitously, “will he succeed in life?”
Measuring academic success
Academic success is measured by a student’s intelligence or ability to pass tests, quizzes, exams, class participation, group work including the satisfactory fulfillment of course requirement such as timely submission of homework, assignment, term paper, thesis, project and other deliverables within the required period. Successful completion of a degree can earn a student the desired diploma or even graduation honors in three years to five years, depending on the chosen major.
What about success in life? Is there really such a thing as successful life? Many believe that the level of academic intelligence is a good indicator of students’ success in life. However, can success be measured or predicted in terms of grades or years in school? Life is not in a constant state and changes happen all the time. Students undergo psychological changes which can influence behavior and attitude towards self-achievement.
Going through a rite of passage
Entering college for the first time seems like a rite of passage for most students who find themselves in “big schools.” New environment, new classmates, new professors and new subject matter sometimes create intimidating circumstances that may result in lower self-esteem, lower self-motivation and even anti-social behavior.
However, others find college as a venue for academic competition. It’s a place and time to put their intelligence into a litmus test to determine their ability to survive the collegiate challenges. They become interested to discover how to unleash their potentials. Their desire to improve and to become better becomes stronger as they mature. In the process, some students tend to focus more on their achievement in terms of grades while others become more concerned in constantly increasing their effort to learn more skills such as logical creative thinking, effective communication, ethical decision-making and applying models, concepts and frameworks.
Linking praise and performance
According to the study of world-renowned Stanford University psychologist Carol Dweck, “praise for ability or intelligence may lead children to adopt a performance goal orientation toward their achievement in which the documentation of high ability levels through successful performance becomes their primary motivational aim. That is, telling children that they are smart when they perform well may cause them to want to continue to prove that they are intelligent by receiving high scores.”
In other words, students can get motivated to perform assigned tasks if they receive high grades for accomplishing them. Motivating students to get high grades, according to the study, can be detrimental if students become more focused on their grades rather than on the effort they exert in performing the assigned tasks.
To determine the students’ knowledge of the course, batteries of quizzes, tests and examinations are conducted inside the classroom. Many believe that higher grades translate into higher intelligence, while lower grades mean lower intelligence.
Doing things right
According to the study, intelligence of children is not fixed from birth. Intelligence can be developed and can be improved through continuous efforts. Likewise, intelligence can deteriorate and can even disappear overtime. Intelligence is synonymous to the ability to perform assigned tasks.
The ability to perform better can be increased through one’s efforts and mastery. Therefore I can theorize that it is better to teach children the different strategies or options on doing things right than just doing the right things. To read is the right thing to do but to read in a dark area is not doing it right. In other words, it is better for parents to praise the effort devoted by their children on the job rather than to praise them for the job well done.
Ensuring success in school and in life
Let us teach our children the value of perseverance rather than the importance of getting high grades. When students persevere, they learn competency and mastery of work. They become unafraid to venture and even to fail, for failure allows them to look for other options to succeed.
Perseverance provides better understanding of success through prolonged effort. Intelligence based on high grades cannot measure what children are capable of doing in the future but intelligence based on skills and competency can. Therefore, let us increase our children’s intelligence and their rate of success in life, not by the grades they receive in school but by teaching them the value of strategy, hard work and the importance of the effort they place on everything they do. Then perhaps, their extended efforts will lead them to their real success in life.
Fred S. Cabuang, BSC. MBA. teaches “Human Behavior in Organizations” and “Strategic Management” at the Ramon V. del Rosario College of Business, De La Salle University, Manila. His email is [email protected].
The views expressed here are the author’s and do not necessarily reflect the official position of DLSU, its faculty, and its administrators.