Reinforcing Effort

Denise Burson
Oct 27, 2008

Research makes clear the connection between effort and achievement-believing you can often makes it so. Since students may not be aware of the importance of believing in effort, teachers should explicitly teach and exemplify the connection between effort and achievement.

Students who make this connection recognize that effort is something they can control. When students attribute success to ability, luck or task difficulty, they are less likely to exert effort and take ownership over their learning. However, when students attribute their success to effort, this can translate into the willingness to engage in and complete a task. Students' beliefs and attitudes have a significant effect on their success or failure in school.

Remember from the Learning-Focused Strategies Workshops, students need multiple opportunities to succeed. Success leads to efficacy and efficacy to esteem. As the work of David Perkins (1995) and Lauren Resnick (2001) shows; strategies, ability, confidence and acceleration help produce effective effort which leads to achievement.
 
Below are some articles that shed more light on this subject.

  • Not all students know the connection between effort and achievement (Seligman, 1990, 1994; Urdan, Migley, & Anderman, 1998).

  • Student achievement can increase when teachers show the relationship between an increase in effort and an increase in success (Craske, 1985; Van Overwalle & De Metsenaere, 1990).

  • Rewards for accomplishment can improve achievement when the rewards are directly linked to successful attainment of an understood performance standard (Cameron & Pierce, 1994; Wiersma, 1992).