This week’s article summary is Carol Dweck Revisits the 'Growth Mindset’.
What I liked about this article is how Dweck's work and research has been misunderstood and misapplied resulting in consequences contrary to her recommendations (much like Frankenstein’s monster).
Fostering a growth mindset in students is perhaps the most influential topic in education over the past 10 years.
Yet as Dweck points out, many are missing some of the major points of her research.
First, a growth mindset is not just about effort.
Dweck worries that a focus on effort, rather than on learning, can perpetuate the failed self-esteem movement where everyone is made to feel good about themselves regardless of achievement and progress. When teachers and parents over praise kids for ‘putting in the effort’, kids may conclude that effort is the goal. To Dweck, when effort still does not lead to learning, one needs to try a new strategy and to seek help and support in another manner.
Second, she worries that because a growth mindset has become so popular that many teachers and parents have jumped on the bandwagon without really thinking about how to develop it in kids.
Third, Dweck believes that while many of us understand the importance of having a growth mindset, we still often fall prey to a fixed way of thinking. She provides a number of examples that can trigger fixed mindset responses.
Think of the article as Growth Mindset 2.0.
Joe
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For many years, I secretly worked on my research. I say “secretly” because, once upon a time, researchers simply published their research in professional journals—and there it stayed.
I found that students’ mindsets—how they perceive their abilities—played a key role in their motivation: Students who believed their intelligence could be developed (a growth mindset) outperformed those who believed their intelligence was fixed (a fixed mindset).
And when students learned through a structured program that they could “grow their brains” and increase their intellectual abilities, they did better.
Finally, I found that having children focus on the process that leads to learning (like hard work or trying new strategies) could foster a growth mindset and its benefits.
Many educators have applied the mindset principles in spectacular ways with tremendously gratifying results. But as I’ve watched the growth mindset become more popular, I’ve become much wiser about how to implement it. This learning—the common pitfalls, the misunderstandings, and what to do about them—is what I’d like to share with you, so that we can maximize the benefits for our students.
A growth mindset isn’t just about effort.
Perhaps the most common misconception is simply equating the growth mindset with effort. Certainly, effort is key for students’ achievement, but it’s not the only thing. Students need to try new strategies and seek input from others when they’re stuck. They need this repertoire of approaches—not just sheer effort—to learn and improve.
We also need to remember that effort is a means to an end to the goal of learning and improving. Too often nowadays, praise is given to students who are putting forth effort, but not learning, in order to make them feel good in the moment: “Great effort! You tried your best!”
The growth-mindset approach helps children feel good in the short and long terms, by helping them thrive on challenges and setbacks on their way to learning. When they’re stuck, teachers can appreciate their work so far, but add: “Let’s talk about what you’ve tried, and what you can try next.”
Recently, someone asked what keeps me up at night. It’s the fear that the mindset concepts, which grew up to counter the failed self-esteem movement, will be used to perpetuate that movement. In other words, if you want to make students feel good, even if they’re not learning, just praise their effort! Want to hide learning gaps from them? Just tell them, “Everyone is smart!” The growth mindset was intended to help close achievement gaps, not hide them. It is about telling the truth about a student’s current achievement and then, together, doing something about it, helping him or her become smarter.
Recent research found that there were teachers who endorsed a growth mindset and even said the words “growth mindset” in their classes, but did not follow through in their classroom practices. In these cases, their students tended to endorse more of a fixed mindset about their ability.
I have also found many parents who endorse a growth mindset, but react to their children’s mistakes as though they are problematic or harmful, rather than helpful. In these cases, their children develop more of a fixed mindset about their intelligence.
How can we help educators adopt a deeper, true growth mindset, one that will show in their classroom practices?
You may be surprised by my answer: Let’s legitimize the fixed mindset. Let’s acknowledge that (1) we’re all a mixture of fixed and growth mindsets, (2) we will probably always be, and (3) if we want to move closer to a growth mindset in our thoughts and practices, we need to stay in touch with our fixed-mindset thoughts and deeds.
If we “ban” the fixed mindset, we will surely create false growth-mindsets. But if we watch carefully for our fixed-mindset triggers, we can begin the true journey to a growth mindset.
Watch for a fixed-mindset reaction when you face challenges. Do you feel overly anxious, or does a voice in your head warn you away? Watch for it when you face a setback in your teaching, or when students aren’t listening or learning. Do you feel incompetent or defeated? Do you look for an excuse? Watch to see whether criticism brings out your fixed mindset. Do you become defensive, angry, or crushed instead of interested in learning from the feedback? Watch what happens when you see a colleague who’s better than you at something you value. Do you feel envious and threatened, or do you feel eager to learn? Accept those thoughts and feelings and work with and through them.
My colleagues and I are taking a growth-mindset stance toward our message to educators. Maybe we originally put too much emphasis on sheer effort. Maybe we made the development of a growth mindset sound too easy. Maybe we talked too much about people having one mindset or the other, rather than portraying people as mixtures. We are on a growth-mindset journey, too.
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