"Apparently learning that science does not always come naturally—even to geniuses—helps children succeed.
Students who learned that great scientists struggled, both personally and intellectually, outperformed those who learned only of the scientists’ great achievements, new research shows.
Ninth- and 10th-grade students in low-performing New York City schools who read about Albert Einstein’s struggles, including multiple school changes and trouble convincing others that gravity from a large object like a planet could actually bend light, performed better in science than a control group who learned only about what the scientists achieved."
“In our culture we always say you don’t want to intimidate kids, you don’t want to tell them how hard the work is,” she noted. But the experiment showed the opposite strategy works better: Showing how great scientists had to muddle through lots of tough stuff made the subject matter real and allowed students to connect with them as people.
“We think kids are so fragile,” she told Quartz. “Tell them the truth. They are resilient.”
http://qz.com/622749/teens-do-better-in-science-when-they-know-einstein-and-curie-also-struggled/
I hope this important new study will been seen and shared by teachers and parents.
Attitude and mindset are critical to how well teens learn.
This study also confirms the work done by Carol Dwerk at Stanford.
https://alumni.stanford.edu/get/page/magazine/article/?article_id=32124