Growth Mindset

Growth Mindset

How do mindsets work?

You get a c+ on your midterm in your favorite class.

Later you find a parking ticket on you car.

Being frustrated you call your friend but are brushed off.

Fixed Mindset

vs

Growth Mindset

What would you think? What would you feel? What would you do?

People with a Fixed Mindset said things like:

"I'd feel like a reject." "I'm an idiot." "My life is pitiful." "Nothing good ever happens to me."

How would they cope?

"Do nothing." "Stay in bed." " Eat chocolate." "I wouldn't bother putting in so much effort again."

How would they cope? Directly.

"I'd start studying harder for the next test, I'd pay the ticket and I'd work things out with my friend the next time we speak."

People with a Growth Mindset would say:

"I need to try harder in class, be more careful when parking and wonder if my friend had a bad day." "The c+ would tell me I need to work harder in class, I have the rest of the semester to pull my grade up."

Growth Mindset

Fixed Mindset

Carol Dweck

Your personal abilities, intelligence and talents are set in stone. You are born with a certain level of intelligence and cannot grow or improve. Life provides opportunities to prove yourself.

Talents and abilities are cultivated

through effort and persistence.

Your true potential is unlimited and

depends on how you apply yourself in different situations. You are willing to stretch yourself and stick to difficult problems because YOU believe you can improve.

Misunderstandings

References

"It's the fear that the mindset concept will be used to make the kids feel good when they're not learning- just like the failed self-esteem movement."

- Dweck

Neuroplasticity

The brain's ability to change and learn

3 Common Misunderstandings of

Growth Mindset

I'm open minded and flexible.

-Praise the effort-

You can do ANYthing!

Who is Carol Dweck?

"...studies show that teaching people to have a 'growth mind-set,' which encourages a focus on effort rather than on intelligence or talent, helps make them into high achievers in school and in life." (Dweck, 2007)

Early Life and Education:

Born: October 17, 1946 (Age 70)

Graduated Barnard College 1967

Ph.D from Yale in 1972

Work and Career:

Best known for her research on motivation, achievement and mindset.

Has taught at the University of Illinois, Harvard and Columbia Universities, before she joined Stanford University in 2004, where she still teaches today.

Classroom Implications

Growth Mindset for Teachers

and Students

Growth Mindset Rap

Growth Mindset

• Teach students how the brain grows.
• Language of a Growth Mindset.
• Change your words, change your mindset.
• Praising effort instead of intelligence or talent.
• The POWER of Yet!

Scenario

Elizabeth, the gymnast

What would you do if you were Elizabeth's parents?

1. Tell Elizabeth you thought she was the best.

2. Tell her she was robbed of a ribbon that was rightfully hers.

3. Reassure her that gymnastics is not that important.

4. Tell her she has the ability and will surely win next time.

5. Tell her she didn't deserve to win.

By Valena Taylor and Robyn Johnson

MED 6030 Educational Psychology