Seven Lessons for Helping Children Make the Most of Their Abilities

We describe seven essential lessons for anyone involved in teaching or research on education. These lessons emerged from our research on developing thinking skills in children and adults. The lessons focus on helping children develop self‐confidence and a belief in self‐efficacy, teaching children to ask good questions, helping children discover their true motivations, encouraging children to take intellectual risks, teaching children to take responsibility for themselves, showing children the value of delaying gratification and encouraging children to put themselves in another's place. We discuss the insights of each lesson through examples from our own and others’ work, and review the recommendations of each lesson for educators and researchers.