That poor kid had clearly attached too much importance to the checkmark, as if their behavior had been shaped so as to get as many checkmarks as possible. Marking everything as correct seems to not have helped, either. It would be nice if the kid could find for themselves the value of what they were doing, and weren’t pressed into a pre-determined mould — even if it’s just “do stuff to get checkmarks”.
I want to note that I see something similar in many university freshmen, who attach way too much meaning to points and grades. When I switched to a similar approach as shown in the story (mark almost everything as good enough, as long as an answer was present), some got it. For others, it seemed to be too late.
That poor kid had clearly attached too much importance to the checkmark, as if their behavior had been shaped so as to get as many checkmarks as possible. Marking everything as correct seems to not have helped, either. It would be nice if the kid could find for themselves the value of what they were doing, and weren’t pressed into a pre-determined mould — even if it’s just “do stuff to get checkmarks”.
I want to note that I see something similar in many university freshmen, who attach way too much meaning to points and grades. When I switched to a similar approach as shown in the story (mark almost everything as good enough, as long as an answer was present), some got it. For others, it seemed to be too late.