1) A growth mindset is a state of mind in which a student can comprehend the future and what it holds in regards to their improvement. For example, progress based learning puts you into a growth mindset because if you aren’t doing well now, you have the future to improve; and your grade is based on that improvement. “They understood that their abilities could be developed. They had what I call a growth mindset.”
A fixed mindset is a state of mind in which a student focuses on the present and not the future, getting stumped by difficult questions, failing, and then giving up because they don’t know how to cope with the stress of the moment. Fixed mindset students use “now” while growth mindset students use “yet”. “Instead of luxuriating in the power of yet, they were gripped by the tyranny of now.”
2) “First of all, we can praise wisely, not praising intelligence or talent.”
This is a very efficient way to reward students in my opinion. “Praising wisely” basically means rewarding students for the progress they have made overall instead of instant gratification or failure based on fixed mindset learning. This just sounds healthier and more helpful for students, including myself. One thing that does bother me is that this type of mindset could make students worry too much about the future, and stress about what it holds. Coming from someone whose mantra is take it day by day, the future can definitely be as scary as it is bright.
“We recently teamed up with game scientists from the University of Washington to create a new online math game that rewarded yet.”
This idea is also very good in my opinion, because it utilizes something that kids really understand and use today: video games. Educational games are great as is, but ones that reward progress are much more satisfying to play and learn from, in my opinion. This is a great way to engage students and help them develop a growth mindset in the 21st century, and is very realistic.
3) Dweck uses the example for almost this whole presentation of comparing intelligence to grades in school. She also uses the scientific description of “the neurons in their brain can form new, stronger connections, and over time, they can get smarter”. I personally believe that this is true in many ways, that intelligence can be measured based on how well we do in school (Math, Science, etc.). Dweck uses examples of fourth-grade students who live in the Bronx becoming the number one class on the state math test. While this is incredible and shows what a growth mindset can do, there are other forms of intelligence besides school smarts. I know a couple kids that did amazing in highschool with A’s and A+, but their social/ people skills sometimes lack. She also explains we shouldn’t praise intelligence because “That has failed”, but instead praise the process that kids engage in; which I agree with fully.
4) I feel that my fixed mindset moment would be with art classes that I’ve taken in the past. I used to be a huge procrastinator, and in Dweck’s words “in study after study, they have run from difficulty.” I would do assignments last minute and feel stressed up until that point, and I was exactly who Dweck was talking about having a fixed mindset. Once I realized that some teachers would gauge my academic progress based on how I’ve improved, I felt way less stressed and anxious than I did before. I had a commercial arts class that I took in Portland that was similar, where we’d do critiques and try to improve on our work next time if there was any criticism. This gave me room to breathe and felt way better than having huge projects with letter grades that, if I did bad; would make me feel like I did a ton of work for nothing. I’m very excited now because this semester I have a drawing and design class here at UNE, and the first day the teacher let us know that the class would be based on our individual improvement over the entire semester. This is a huge breath of fresh air for most students in my opinion, and the growth mindset learning should be implemented into more classes! Overall I think that this is an effective way to teach and learn as students.
