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.
