Developmental Change in Children's Assessment of Intellectual Competence

Development of Achievement Motivation

“…Much of the work on the development of children's achievement-related beliefs has looked at the development of children's ability and expectancy-related beliefs (e.g., see Dweck & Elliott, 1983;Stipek & Mac Iver, 1989, for reviews of the early work on this topic). We discuss three kinds of changes in these beliefs: (1) change in their factorial structure, (2) change in mean levels, and (3) change in children's understanding of them.…”

“…Another well-established finding in the literature is that children's competence beliefs for different tasks decline across the elementary school years and through the high school years (see Dweck & Elliott, 1983;Eccles et al, 1998;Stipek & Mac Iver, 1989, for review). Many young children are quite optimistic about their competencies in different areas, and this optimism changes to greater realism and (sometimes) pessimism for many children.…”

“…The negative changes in children's competencerelated beliefs have been explained in two ways: (1) Because children become much better at understanding, interpreting, and integrating the evaluative feedback they receive, and engage in more social comparison with their peers, children become more accurate or realistic in their self-assessments, leading some to become relatively more negative (see Dweck & Elliott, 1983;Nicholls, 1984;Ruble, 1983;Stipek & Mac Iver, 1989);…”

Effects of therapeutic intervention on self-concepts of children with learning disabilities

“…The competency subscale measures a person's view of her or his ability to succeed at tasks or attain goals (Bracken, 1992). A child's assessment of his or her ability is significantly improved through the use of positive praise from teachers (Stipek & MacIver, 1989). The use of praise, both physical and verbal, is one of the basic therapy techniques used in the treatment condition.…”

“…The use of praise, both physical and verbal, is one of the basic therapy techniques used in the treatment condition. In addition to the feedback from adults, childrens' self-assessments of competency are increased when they are made aware of succeeding at a task (Stipek & MacIver, 1989). The treatment program enabled the children to succeed academically and socially which, in addition to positive feedback, leads to increased self-competency assessments (Durrant, Cunningham & Voelker, 1990).…”