How a growth mindset can help every learner fulfil their potential

Carol Dweck’s is a psychologist and researcher who has over four decades of research experience in motivation. In her work, Dr. Dweck has found that some students have a fixed Mindset about their intellectual abilities and talents.These individuals think that intelligence is a fixed trait and they believe in the notion that there is nothing they can do to enhance their ability to learn.

On the other spectrum of belief systems, there are learners who have a growth mindset. These individuals believe that intelligence can be nurtured through hard work and dedication.

Mindsets impact academic performance early in life

One of Carol Dweck’s most fascinating studies involved following the progress of hundreds of students transitioning to 7th grade. These were children entering into their teenage years, on their way to master more challenging learning materials.

Their transition was one of substantial difficulty, as the learning that they were about to undertake was substantially more difficult than what they had ever encountered previously.

As these children entered junior high school, Dr. Dweck’s team measured their mindset and categorised each child with either having a fixed or growth mindset.

Dweck’s team monitored these students grades in math over two years whilst also measuring their attitudes towards learning. Most students entered 7th grade with almost identical achievement test scores but by the end of the first term, their grades diverged and continued to separate over the following 2 years.

The only thing that differed between the students was their mindset.

How a fixed mindset works

Students want to look smart all the time

Students with fixed mindsets have completely different goals in school. These students want to look intelligent at all times. This leads them to sculpt a life oriented towards avoiding tasks that might show that they have some form of deficiency in their life.

Students think effort is bad and avoid setbacks to reveal limitations

In a fixed mindset, effort is a bad thing. Students with  fixed mindsets believe that if they have an ability, then they shouldn’t need effort.

According to Carol Dweck, this is perhaps the worst beliefs that anyone can have.

Dr. Dweck thinks that this belief  hinders brilliant students from not achieving their potential. Student’s who rely on their natural talent to succeed, will coast along their formative years and eventually quit when they encounter a hurdle – all because they believe they can’t overcome setbacks.

How do these mindsets come about?

Dr. Dweck attributes the cultivation of fixed mindsets down to praise. Dweck has researched for 15 years about the effects of adults praising children and through her research she has found that praising children on how brilliant or talented they are actually harms them intellectually.

Praise essentially primes students to develop a fixed mindset.  It turns them off to challenge and learning.

Dr. Dweck tested a series of students aged 10-11 years to determine what the effects of praise are. These children were brought to a room in a school and were given 10 questions from a non-verbal reasoning IQ test. Most of these students did well on the test because they were matched to their age level.

After the tests were completed, each child was given one form of a praise.

• A third were praised on their intelligence. These children were told how smart they were for completing their test.
• Another third were praised on their process. These children were complimented on their focus, persistence or technique for tackling the problems.
• The last group of children were just given a positive mention of their score.

After praising these children, Dweck and her team asked them if they wanted to do something challenging or if they wanted to finish a puzzle that was easy.

Unsurprisingly, those students who were praised for their intelligence mostly chose to take the easy option. Those who were praised on their process of tackling the problems overwhelmingly wanted the more difficult task because they didn’t feel threatened if they struggled for a while.

Once these children completed the second set of puzzles, everyone was given a difficult set of problems and it was only those students who were process praised who kept up their confidence and worked at the tougher questions for longer. They also reported to enjoy the problem as well.

The children who were praised on their intelligence, did the opposite.

What does it mean for you?

Dr. Carol Dweck’s research helps us understand that learning can be hindered with a fixed mindset. Those with a growth mindset tend to thrive in difficult learning environments and they are the ones who usually succeed.

Dr. Dweck’s work shows us that we must enjoy working at the hard things in life because believing that our mind can grow to learn new and wonderful things is what ultimately leads us to succeed.

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