Growth Mind-Set or Fixed mind set, which are you?

I was an educator in a previous life, and I am a firm believer that anyone can learn. I did have some colleagues over the years that did not believe this fact. I wish I had known this when I was working as it would have helped me understand the thinking of others. I recently read of Carol Dweck’s two theories of intelligence: incremental and entity. The former sees intelligence as malleable ‘the brain grows with new learning whereas the latter sees intelligence as fixed.

The key is the belief that we can grow our brains through hard work and persistence. Making mistakes and figuring out where we went wrong and trying again and again until we solve a problem is how we grow our brains. Having a growth mindset changes the conversation from ‘I’m not smart enough to ‘Give me challenges and give me support and I’ll keep trying until I reach my goal.’

One way to help avoid responding to the stereotype threat of thinking you cannot do something by focusing on performance and to convince people that their intelligence is expandable. Convince them that they can grow their brain through hard work and persistence. In one study, these researchers taught Black and White students about the expandability of intelligence and had them write about the concept to middle school students. Students in a control group wrote ‘pen pal’ letters, and another group didn’t write letters. Both Black and White students in the growth mindset group had significantly higher academic year GPAs than students in either of the control groups. Black, but not White, students in this group reported increased engagement and identification with school. The articulation of the growth mindset through the writing task seems key, as students produce a persuasive argument, they may themselves be internalizing the message more deeply.

Growth Mind-Set Beliefs

People can change how ‘smart’ they are by learning new things and growing their brains.

With hard work and effort, anyone can learn and do just about anything.

No matter how smart people seem, they can still learn and improve their knowledge and skills.

People may seem to have certain characteristics, but they can change them with hard work and effort.

The smartest people work hard, studying and practicing, so they can grow their brains and improve their skills.

It’s in facing new challenges and learning new things that the most growth happens in our brains.

The most important thing is to learn and grow; mistakes are just part of the process.

Only if people give each other constructive feedback about their work can we know where we need to improve and work to do it.

Fixed Mind-Set Beliefs

People are born as smart as they’ll ever be; intelligence is a fixed quality.

Hard work and effort are futile; if a person is not good at something, that’s just the way it is.

Even really smart people can’t get any smarter; it’s just the way they were born.

You’re a certain kind of person, and you can’t change that.

Only people who aren’t very smart or skilled have to work really hard, like doing homework or practicing music or sports.

Challenges are just frustrating and defeating; it’s better to stick with the things for which you have natural talent.

If a person tries something new and fails, people will know he or she is not smart.

People shouldn’t criticize others; it just makes them feel bad about themselves, and, anyway, they can’t help it if they make mistakes.