Any form of labelling is misguided

I READ with interest the StarEducate report “What it takes to get ahead” ( Sunday Star, March 11).

I strongly agree with McKinsey partner, Li-Kai Chen, that a growth mindset is a key driver of student performance and that parents (and teachers) should acknowledge hard work rather than, for example, intrinsic intelligence.

Chen pointed out that one reason why a majority of students “feel that working hard won’t make a difference” may be because they have constantly been told that they are not intelligent, or that they’re delinquents who would never amount to anything in life.

Thankfully, it is widely, if not universally, accepted at least within educational theory that labelling of that sort is detrimental to student performance.

However, is there any reason to suppose that it is any less detrimental for students constantly to be told that they are intelligent? Surely, labelling a student according to perceptions of his or her intrinsic intelligence is unhelpful, irrespective of whether the student is perceived as being of below or above average intelligence.

If it is our intention to raise performance we, as Chen explicitly observed, ought to be acknowledging students’ hard work rather their being smart. In which case, isn’t labelling of students as, for example, “gifted and talented” misguided?

MR CHIPS Kuala Lumpur