Family

How words and comments impact pupil performance

Pupils like these need posttive encouragement to excel
Pupils like these need posttive encouragement to excel

Gertrude Chirwa (not real name), a pupil at Chirimba Primary School in Blantyre, believes she is dull and will never excel in education.

“Even my parents know that I am dull. It is Thomas my brother who is intelligent. He gets better support than me because my father believes he has the potential to make it to university,” she says.

Gertrude is just one of the children exposed to what experts call ‘psychological violence’ towards their potential to do well in school.

The experts say children live to what the community or family say about them. This means- if exposed to positive comments—they will excel in that direction and achieve the opposite if furnished with negative comments.

Rebecca Mgolo, a mother of four ,believes a child who is intelligent can never be influenced by negative comments to an extent of affecting class performance.

But noting that negativity was common among teachers in schools, retired primary school teacher, Simba Chibaya, says whatever is said about a child plays a role in shaping their mind.

“If you constantly call a child bright, over time, expect to see the child excelling. If the opposite is said, expect poor results. You can observe that students who are in top 10 are always among the best performers every time. This means after labelling them, they absorb the labels and their brains adjust to that,” said Chibaya,

Chrissie Mwiyeriwa, an education activist, concurs with Chibaya.

“I would say teachers and parents’ attitude affects how one performs in class. Some teachers easily develop negative attitude towards students. In any class, there are some people who they label intelligent.

“If you are labeled intelligent, your brain strives to remain intelligent and vice versa,” said Mwiyeriwa.

She believes that everyone has the potential to do well, given equal opportunity to excel.

Muyeriwa, therefore, asked parents and teachers to avoid psychological violence, saying it is costing Malawians who could have done well academically. She said everyone should believe that everyone is intelligent and students should be given equal and positive support to excel.

Psychologist Chiwoza Bandawe said any comment carries psychological impact. He said words such as ‘dull’ have a psychological impact that can affect the child’s class performance.

“We call this self fulfilling prophesy and a research was done. A group of children, half knowing that they are dull and another knowing that they are intelligent were put in one place. At the end of the experiment, it was observed that those who knew were dull proved to be dull and the other remained intelligent.

“Similarly, some children who were not clever were put together with others who were clever. The result is that they maintained their status. It is called self fulfilling prophesy,” said Bandawe.

Related Articles

Back to top button