When encouraging children to become excited about learning, it is very important to help them develop a positive academic self-concept. A person’s academic self-concept is the way they identify with what type of student they are. It is how you would describe yourself as a student. A person has many different aspects to their overall self-concept and likely identifies with each aspect differently. For example, every person will identify with their athleticartistic, musical, social, emotional, or academic self-concept in different ways. A person might identify with being “really creative” or “bad at art” when thinking about their artistic self-concept or “really friendly” or “a loner” when thinking about their social self-concept. While there are numerous aspects to a person’s self-concept, the academic self-concept tends to be the most ingrained and difficult to change once it is established.
When thinking about your own academic self-concept, you are likely to have a quick answer to the question about what type of student you were. Adults will often make comments like, “I was never good at math,” “I was always smart in school, “I wasn’t a good student, “School was easy,” or “Teachers never liked me.” Very often, how children see themselves as students comes from the objective markers we use to evaluate them, i.e., their grades.
Because school poses multiple challenges for students, it offers many opportunities for parents to help shape the way their children view themselves as students. Students begin to define their academic self-concept early on, usually by comparing themselves to other students. For example, if a child is not able to complete math problems as quickly as his or her peers, weekly timed tests can become a source of frustration. If they are not at one of the top levels in the class, parents may begin to hear, “I am not good at math” or “I am not one of the smart kids.” How quickly a child can complete a math sheet is in no way indicative of whether he or she is “good at math” or “smart” but this is the message that the child internalizes. These comparisons happen all the time. Parents can use this opportunity to help reframe the idea that a specific skill does not define their child.
One of the best ways for parents to help their students hone a positive academic self-concept is to focus on their achievements as a whole, rather than just grades. Achievements can be defined or identified by the effort, consideration, sensitivity, and awareness a child brings to their schoolwork. There are many amazing personality traits that are there when a child is sensitive to different aspects of their performance. I suggest identifying and naming positive traits for your children, as it is possible they are not consciously aware of them. “Wow, you work so hard on your assignments, I am so impressed”, “you do such a good job of getting started on your homework without anyone asking you to, that takes a lot of self-discipline,” or “your writing is so creative, I just love how your mind works.” These are great ways to reinforce the way your child works, or their self-discipline, and they may not always align with how fast they do a math worksheet.
Always try to be supportive of effort and initiative as these two traits may take your child a lot further than a grade on a worksheet in 4th grade. Their academic self-concept is important and encompasses a lot more than their grades.
