Dvorah is an energetic fifth grader who does well in school. Her neighbor and friend, Michelle, seems less focused and is not so successful.
Both girls are bright. Both come from families that value education and school success.Like Dvorah, Michelle did very well in school through the second grade. Third grade had a different emphasis. Her teacher encouraged the children to read independently, and to "log in" what they had learned from their reading.
Arithmetic was different too. By the middle of the school year, Michelle remembers that "it was hard, and I didn't want to try it. We had to multiply, and we never did that until one day and we just started doing it."
Michelle recalls that "I remember wishing I had another teacher."
By fourth grade, there was a real difference in the two girls. Dvorah often "took too long" and her teacher reminded her to finish up. Michelle often finished quickly.
At home there was a difference too. Dvorah seemed comfortable with the "do homework first" rule; "I still do it all by 4 o'clock," she says.
By the end of fourth grade, Michelle and her parents had established a routine of arguing and struggling around her doing her homework. As Michelle's parents became increasingly frustrated with her lower grades and struggles at home, she was evaluated for learning problems. She was found to have high IQ scores - actually, slightly higher than Dvorah's.
She does not have an attention deficit, nor does she have any form of dyslexia. Like Dvorah, she comes from a middle class family, where both parents work. The girls attend a school that encourages parent involvement. All four parents volunteer.
So why does Dvorah do well while Michelle struggles and falls behind?
An inside look at these children reveals that Dvorah naturally carries on a "self dialogue" when she reads. She makes learning personal. She compares what she is learning with familiar experiences and knowledge. And she reflects on her personal experience of learning - mostly when the effort is challenging.
Michelle's approach to learning is performance and avoidance directed. She says that her learning is "easy" or "hard" and that "I just need to get good grades."
When asked about how she thinks about what she is learning, she draws a blank. When she is helped to talk about what a short story reminds her of, she enjoys the conversation - but she doesn't have much curiosity.
These two girls are healthy, happy, enthusiastic youngsters. Differences in their personal learning experiences, however, contribute significantly to scholastic success.
In my travels through classrooms, I interrupt and question children when they are learning. I find that more successful students react to and reflect on what they are learning. When they are presented with a new idea, they stop for a moment, and they ask themselves, "What do I think of that?"
It is as though, even when they are reading or listening in class, they have a conversation with themselves. In their self dialogue, they ask, "Is this what I would have guessed?"
"I guessed, before she (his teacher) told us those birds stayed with their same mates, that birds didn't do that - I was surprised," a fourth grader told me.
Successful learners continually ask themselves, "How does this new information fit with what I already knew?"
Dvorah remembered her teachers and paper balls she made way back in preschool when she read about atmospheres of different planets.
Michelle told me, "I hate memorizing stupid stuff."
Children who carry on self dialogues seem to care, at least in elementary school, little about their grades or in comparing themselves with others.
In contrast, children like Michelle seem more concerned about who knows how they did, and whether they'll have to do a task rather than being curious about the task.
Less successful learners seem more concerned about how their learning reflects on themselves. More successful learners are more focused on the task and their internal experience.
Successful learners seem familiar with difficulty and confusion that comes with learning. Less successful learners are more apt to think of their difficult experiences as bad.
When "environment word problems" were introduced in the girls' class, Michelle told me, "When I could get it right away, I hated it. We didn't do that before."
Dvorah reflected that "I was confused. It was hard. I remembered how I felt when we first did multiplication and when we started Spanish. That's what happens when it's new. First you're mixed up."
My impression is that this self dialogue is born early in life -perhaps during play with a parent.
As parents try to think out loud about what they expect, how they are surprised, and what they think their child might anticipate, learning attitudes can be developed.
When parents read to children, the added dimension of wondering, "What would we have done if we were that little girl, and her doggy ran away?" can begin dialogues that help with school work years later.
(Dr. Schwarzbeck is assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of British Columbia and is on the faculty of the University of Washington Medical School.)