Recently, David Miele, director of the Applied Educational and Educational Psychology program of Boston College, reminded me of this episode, because here is a lesson here linked to the motivation of the students.
Researchers have long known that as school tasks become more difficult, students can decrease as they find more failure. Building opportunities for success, for example, by giving them easier mathematical questions, can counteract this, but runs the risk of diluting the content taught, says Miele.
Separate research indicates that people remember the beginning and purposes of the tasks best through what psychologists call effects of “primacy” and “recent.” They also seem to remember better specific parts.
“People tend to overcome the pleasure or pain they experienced at the end of the task, but also at the most intense point of the task,” says Miele.
This is where the idea that George Costanza leaves in a high note is produced, the research carried out with adults has found what is called “successful success remembered” in which the academic tasks that begin or end with additional opportunities for the success was found that only challenging tasks are preferred.
Miele and his colleagues, including Bridgid Finn (who Miele underlines was really instrumental in this research), they wondered if they could increase the motivation of students without reducing academic rigor by providing rigorous questions in a text or activity, also including Some easier questions at the beginning. or end of the exam.
Ultimately, what they found suggests that there are some simple ways in which teachers can motivate students' activity.
The successful effect remembered
To study the successful effect remembered on children, Malle and their colleagues worked with 570 students of third and sixth grade to An article published in 2024
The study found that in both degrees, the students who obtained the additional questions at the beginning or at the end of the session enjoyed the sessions with the additional questions and had twice as probabilities to qualify the experience. Although the task with the easiest additional questions took longer to complete, it did not feel that way for students.
“There was also a tendency to perceive the longest task as the shortest task,” says Mielle. This study potentially has great implications on how teachers motivate students through difficult tasks.
Contrades of this research for teachers
Miele points out this research suggests that there are steps that teachers can make to maintain positive evaluations of students towards a really challenging task without diluting it. These steps have the additional benefit of being low cost and not require a lot of time for teachers to undertake, he says.
“It could be as simple as taking some problems that know they are relatively easier and position them at the beginning or end of the task,” he says.
However, some warnings are needed. To obtain the desired effect, these questions must go to the beginning or end of the task. In addition, some studies suggest that adding questions can still fatigue students, even if they do not perceive it.
“There may be possible fatigue effects associated with making more mathematical problems, although subjectively, they say: 'I enjoy more of that task.' It does not mean that they are not a little more tired by having solved more mathematical problems,” says Mielle.
Knowing this can influence how a teacher plans monitoring activities. In addition, if you are planning multiple activities, constantly adding additional questions could begin to be counterproductive due to fatigue, says Miele.
Of course, more research is still needed on all this to better inform how and when the remembered success effect can be better used. Miele is working on more studies to adjust how teachers can better use the remembered success effect.
But for now, we are going to follow the lesson of George Costanza and end here with a high note: “Very well, that's all for me. Good night to all!”
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