Roy Baumeister, Jennifer Campbell, Joachim Krueger and Kathleen Vohs provided a sensible evaluation of the self-esteem myth in an article in the December 2004 Scientific American. The article brings to the popular press the results of the extensive scientific review by Baumeister and colleagues that was published in 2003 by the American Psychological Society. Here’s a quote that’s relevant to our areas of interest.
Modern efforts have…cast doubt on the idea that higher self-esteem actually induces students to do better. Such inferences about causality are possible when the subjects are examined at two different times, as was the case in 1986 when Sheila M. Pottebaum, Timothy Z. Keith and Stewart W. Ehly, all then at the University of Iowa, tested more than 23,000 high school students, first in the 10th and again in the 12th grade. They found that self-esteem in 10th grade is only weakly predictive of academic achievement in 12th grade. Academic achievement in 10th grade correlates with self-esteem in 12th grade only trivially better. Such results, which are now available from multiple studies, certainly do not indicate that raising self-esteem offers students much benefit. Some findings even suggest that artificially boosting self-esteem may lower subsequent performance.
From my point of view, teaching students effectively raises their levels of performance. And, those who perform well are likely to feel good about themselves.
I suppose that perspective’s a little too boring. Sigh.
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Also, Wes Becker and colleagues disaggregated data about students with IQ < 80 from the Direct Instruction model in Follow Through and had some pretty good looking results. Here's a an image of the reading outcomes from one of the reports they submitted to the sponsors.