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- Carol Dweck uses the terms ‘Growth Mindset’ and ‘Fixed Mindset’ throughout her presentation titled, “The Power of Believing that You Can Improve.” If a person has a growth mindset, “They understood their abilities could be developed”(Dweck 1:59). They understand nothing comes easy and if they want to change they can, but it takes full attention, focus and practice. They view change and difficult tasks as good. If a person has a fixed mindset, instead of viewing challenges as positive, they believed “their intelligence had been up for judgement…” (2:20). They believe they have failed, and they have no control over it. They believe challenge is not a good thing, and working hard at something means they are not smart enough.
- A growth mindset is stimulated by “engaging with error, processing the error” (Dweck 3:00). This point was very enlightening for me because most run away from their problems, myself included. I try to fix them or get rid of them as soon as possible. But Dweck speaks about the importance of engaging our brains with error, and igniting that fire within us to learn and grow. Later, Dweck discusses the importance of praising wisely. This means “…not praising intelligence or talent. That has failed” (Dweck 4:09). I used to work at a daycare, and they always said ‘never tell as student “you are so smart” or “you are so naturally talented.”‘ These phrases backfires, and the child starts to believe if they struggle, or another skill does not come as easy, they will believe they are a failure.
- When most think of intelligence or smarts, they think of book smart- receiving A’s on assignments, being able to earn a perfect score on an exam without studying. But this is not Dweck’s model of intelligence. Intelligence is “the process that kids engage in, their effort, their strategies, their focus, their perseverance, their improvement” (Dweck 5:05). Intelligence is thought of as the end goal, but Dweck views intelligence as the journey children and adults take to learn and change. Their intelligence is based on how they got to the end goal, not how fast they got there, how little they had to work to get there. Intelligence is the knowledge that change and improvement is hard work, and takes mental toughness and usually failure along the way. The journey to change is where ones intelligence is shown.
- I had a very fixed mindset from Kindergarten to about 8th grade. I had trouble completing assignments that were difficult, and I would become frustrated and upset with myself if I could not finish it on my own, or if I had to work harder or longer than my other classmates. I remember in 8th grade, we had a paper due for English class. We all had been introduced to noodle tools this same day, where you would input all of your citations for your paper. This website was so confusing to use, and I was so angry I was not a master at it by the first day. Thank goodness my parents are patient, because they helped me all night to complete this paper, with the correct citations. I did not engage with this challenge, instead I let it frustrate me, and I failed. I viewed trying and failing as negative, instead of viewing it as learning.
