Replying to LO24359 --
Morty Lefkoe wrote in response to Winfried:
> First, American kids stating "I am good at mathematics" is not necessarily
> a reflection of high self-esteem. It may be that very little is expected
> of them and they are doing well with what is expected. Kids from other
> countries may be expected to do far more, therefore they learn far more,
> but it is more difficult for them and they don't live up to the teachers'
> expectations, so they feel "I am not good at math." The important point
> is that the survey is not necessarily reflective of high or low
> self-esteem.
Somewhere I seem to recall reading or hearing of a presumed negative
correlation between one's skill at certain types of tasks and one's
assessment of one's skills at those tasks, based on some testing or survey
or something. I presume part of the reason may be that the more skilled
know more and thus realize how much further they could go; the less
skilled haven't seen the farther horizon. (I seem to recall that being
said about professional people or managers--anyone recall anything like
this?)
So, yet another, alternative hypothesis would be that it's not so much
their self-esteem classes, nor the lack of expectations imposed upon them,
as the internally generated optimism that comes from not having struggled
with or even seen the _really_ hard stuff yet.
Does this ever affect us as mature professionals? How does it affect our
abilities? What do we do about it?
Bill
-- Bill Harris 3217 102nd Place SE Facilitated Systems Everett, WA 98208 USA http://facilitatedsystems.com/ phone: +1 425 337-5541Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <Richard@Karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>
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