Is praising students' aptitude harmful?
A universal once-for-all answer to the question is impossible. There's a lot of subjectivity in here and a lot really depends on the particular student in question. In general, both praising and not-praising can potentially have their pros and cons:
Praise them -
Positives - Given the kind of students you mention, with an undeniable possibility of stereotype threat, it is generally a good idea to have the "growth mindset" in mind, and make sure they stay interested. They may start putting in more from their side, when you praise their potential.
Negatives - There is of course a possibility of 'I'm so good, I can get away with working less, and still sail through' mindset creeping in. And if effort drops, the I'm so good part becomes useless. One of my teachers in grad school used to convey this sentiment by saying:
A person with B grade intelligence and A grade effort, is always going to end up further than one with A grade intelligence and B grade effort.
Don't Praise Them -
Positives - The only positive seems to be that you are projecting yourself as being hard to win over. There could be an occasional person who may take this up as a challenge and work extra hard to impress you. But again, not every body would think in that manner, and there would be some other blokes who'll say - 'He almost never has anything good to say about anyone, let's just stop caring about what this tough nut says'. So, again, it is not universally going to be positive.
Negatives - Davidmh may disagree, but it does put off some people (like the example right above). Especially when the the students are typically
... the first in their families to attend college and/or from underrepresented ethnic groups
It is easy to imagine that they could be fighting odds, and wouldn't be having a very high self-esteem. In that case, this attitude is unlikely to help them come up. Plus, if their performance suffers at any time, add low self-esteem and this attitude, and you'll most likely have them regretting their decision to join this program. Again, that's not universal - may work for some and not for others.
The best policy is to remember that your entire batch is not a bunch of (as we say in Physics) identical, indistinguishable particles, and approach this one small step at a time. Focus on one, let's say A. Try praising A at an instance, and see how he/she responds. Accordingly modify the approach further, if they are getting more confident about themselves, and effort goes up, then good. If they are getting more cocky and casual about work, retract the approach - be less charitable in praising and show them there's still some way to go. And please remember, what works for A may not be the same for B.
