Mastery Motivation: Persistence and Problem Solving in Preschool

Early childhood researchers call this persistence at mastering challenging tasks mastery motivation, and it plays a key role in children's learning and in their later academic achievement. Here are five ways to support mastery motivation: 1 Provide lots of different types of challenging activit...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inTeaching Young Children Vol. 11; no. 1; p. 18
Main Authors Young, Jessica Mercer, Reed, Kristen E
Format Trade Publication Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Washington National Association for the Education of Young Children 01.10.2017
Subjects
Children & youth
Learning Processes
Preschool Children
Problem solving
Young Children
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Summary:Early childhood researchers call this persistence at mastering challenging tasks mastery motivation, and it plays a key role in children's learning and in their later academic achievement. Here are five ways to support mastery motivation: 1 Provide lots of different types of challenging activities, like math games that have more than one way to solve a problem. 2 Support children's independence and let them make their own choices in activities or during play. 3 Try to resist the urge to fix the problem-it can take away children's sense that they are capable problem solvers. 4 Do provide gentle guidance when frustration starts to set in, such as holding the puzzle board steady while a child adds a puzzle piece or offering a well-timed, "What if you turned that piece the other way?" 5 Give children positive feedback by praising the problem-solving process and encouraging them to keep trying.
ISSN:1939-7283