Brainology By Carol S. Dweck: Article Analysis

Carol Dweck’s Brainology sets forth the “growth mindset” as the only factor in a student’s success. However, Alfie Kohn’s The Perils of ‘Growth Mindset’ Education: Why We’re Trying to Fix our Kids When We Should Be Fixing the System, proposes another view. Also, Home Life is a third factor that impacts a student’s success. I believe all three of these are integral to a student’s accomplishments.

There is a big difference living a life actively, and living a life passively. Once people start living a life passively, they tend to become too comfortable and committed to their life, which is devastating because they will never amount to their full potential. As for a life that is being acted-upon they are self – improving and opening new doors to experiences they never thought they could do. In Carol Dweck’s article “Brainology” describes two different mindsets students may have and how each can affect a student’s ability to reach a successful life. Also in connection with the mindsets based on Adrienne Rich speech “Claiming an Education” she argues about what receiving and claiming an education means. In the wake of these findings I come to learn that I had a fixed mindset, which only allowed me to receive an education. But now recognizing and understanding the “Growth Mindset,” I have decided to claim my education and see how putting the concept and process can help enlighten my academics and life.

In school, at the stores, anywhere, there are two types of people that can be encountered. What makes these two types of people different is their mindsets. One type has the mindset of a pessimist; they think they cannot do certain tasks and are afraid of looking stupid. The other type has the mindset of an optimist; they always try new things and are not scared to do so. In the article “Brainology” by Carol S. Dweck, she states that there are two different mindsets that people can possess, either a fixed mindset (pessimist) or a growth mindset (optimist); these mindsets are developed at a young age and will influence a person’s choices and opportunities.

Every student has a different mind, some either have a fixed mindset or a growth mindset. In the article, “Brainology: Transforming Students Motivation to Learn” by Carol S. Dweck greatly explains about the differences and struggles between students who have growth mindsets or fixed mindsets, along with students who deal with stereotypes that affect their performance in reading and writing. While Sherman Alexie, an author who wrote “The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me”, has a strong comparison and connection about the growth mindset which is featured in Dweck’s article about Brainology.

I’m going to tell you how student learn these mindsets. In the 90s parents thought the most important thing that you child should have was self-esteem. But were they messed up is that you cant just hand your kids self-esteem. They took a poll among parents and found that 85% of parents thought that it was necessary to “praise” their children’s abilities to boost confidence. Now were going to talk about growth mindset. These students believe that intelligence is something that can be gained through education and effort. I wish in high school that I would of taken it more serious because now I could have had a growth mindset witch would of helped me out a lot in college. Those students have growth mindsets. They believe that you can gain intelligence through learning. Those with a growth mindset had a very straightforward idea of effort. The idea that the harder you work the greater the outcome is and I think that’s true. When these students had a set back in school they simply just study more or differently next time. That was my biggest set back in high school. Many bright students find grade school fairly easy and get right through it. But later on in life like in college they struggle. They don’t want to put the time into something and feel dumb when they get a bad grade on it. That’s bad because you should never feel dumb about something that you tried your hardest to complete. I hope that this information was helpful

Have you ever thought about the choices that you have made in the past and how they have affected you as an individual? Truth is, as people grow and develop they each have their own way of thinking about what they can do or what they can learn. All of this is happening in the brain, and each person has a different way of thinking, learning, and solving problems. The study of the brain is a real puzzle that to this day, it is still unsolved. There’s study is known as Brainology, it has to do with a person 's mindset, and the idea of having a fixed or growth mindset. In the article “Brainology: Transforming Students’ Motivation to Learn” by Carol S. Dweck, she talks about different ways that our mind can be influenced and how by saying

Teachers and parents have dedicated their time to tell children that they are smart and talented every time they get a good grade. Praising children this type of way has had an impact on their lives. Dweck said “many students believe that intelligence is fixed, that each person has certain amount and that’s that”. Students with fixed mindset only care about how smart they look or how smart they appear. By having this fix mindset, they turn down the ability to learn new things. They believe that if you study hard, you are not smart enough, and that if you were smart things will come to you with no effort. This has made students lose their belief in oneself when they face complicated circumstance. Dweck says that the reason for kids to have a fixed mindset is “intelligence

In the articles “Leveraging the Human Brain’s Hunger for Story” by Doug Rekenthaler and “Brain Secrets” by Lisa Cron both articles provide information on how to write a compelling story. According to both articles to write a compelling story a writer needs to have conflict, a strong protagonist, and structure.

Basically, individuals with a fixed mindset often feel measured by a failure, sometimes permanently. Unfortunately, failed attempts are viewed as a label rather than an opportunity to plan a new path of succes. On the other hand, an individual with a growth mindset views a failed attempt as an opportunity to take action, to confront obstacles, to keep up with their schoolwork, and/or to better manage and organize their time. Growth mindset individuals believe that qualities can be developed, expanded, and eventually result in a successful outcome. A second lesson learned is the power of labels and the stereotype of ability; this lesson is undoubtedly one of the most enlightening. Dweck discovered in one of her studies that, “... ability praise often pushed students right into a fixed mindset, and they showed all the signs of it too. When we gave them a choice, they rejected a challenging new task that they could learn from. They didn’t want to do anything that could expose their flaws and call into question their talent” (72). One’s mindset determines their reaction to labels and stereotypes. An individual with a fixed mindset will settle for a positive label and chose stagnation and permanent inferiority rather than risk losing the label; whereas,

In the article, “The Secret to Raising Smart Kids” by Carol S. Dweck, he states, “The students held hard work in high regard, believing that the more you labored at something, the better you would become at it” (23). What he means by this is that there are students who don’t try in academics or are naturally smart but just lose interest in school. The quote means that students who keep a goal in their mind, the better you will get at it. Dweck also states that “As we had predicted, the students with a growth mindset felt that learning was more important” (23). Again, the quote basically says that students who have a clear mindset on what goal they would like to accomplish, nothing would keep them from learning. Any student can be successful in their own ways, it's just about how they want their mindsets to be. If they have a growth mindset they can accomplish anything if they put themselves to

When it comes to the topic of having a growth mindset, most of us will readily agree that students who are praised are motivated to learn. Where this agreement usually ends, however, is on the question of how they are praised. Whereas some are convinced that praising students for their intelligence will motivate them to learn, others maintain that encouraging them for their efforts has a better impact on their motivation.

A growth mindset is usually set in middle school but you can change many fixed mindsets by telling them otherwise. The way the author describes what causes a fixed mindset is pretty interesting because I was like this and my grades decreased but now I'm realizing this more. Teachers need to stop praising students “We found that intelligence praise encourages a fixed mindset more often than did pats on the back for effort. Those congratulated for their intelligence, for an example, shield away from a challenging assignment- they wanted an easy one instead”(25) which means teachers need to stop giving students treat because it causes them to do worse in school by making them have a fixed mindset. This would help Anaheim students drastically because that's what many of the students coming from middle school come in with the growth mindset but then get crushed with how hard the work is and then they give

Intelligence can be developed through experience and learning. In Carol S. Dweck’s who is in fact a PhD expert in the field of psychology wrote an article, “Transforming Student’s Motivation to Learn,” she states, “Results showed that what students believe about their brains - whether they see their intelligence as something that’s fixed or something that can grow and change – has profound effect on their motivation, learning, and school achievement.” Essentially what this is illustrating is that having a fixed or growth mindset can minimize students from being terrified of failure and in addition faced and embrace their challenges rather than running from them. Students need to understand an intelligent mindset is a paramount pathway in becoming successful, and eventually one needs to not be easily discouraged at the first sight of a challenge, but become motivated and driven by failure, and in turn willing to work harder to accomplish something they want to succeed at. A perfect example of this is through Mike Rose’s school experiences, we can see how he demonstrates the concepts of a growth and fixed mindset.

Dweck believes that someone who possesses a “growth mindset” is almost the polar opposite of someone who has a “fixed mindset.” A person with a growth mindset is able to think positively and see the silver lining of an unfavorable situation. They are able to improve from their mistakes, and always finds a way to become better at different aspects of life. Growth mindsets come with an open mind, making these people extremely versatile in any circumstance. In addition, their mindsets increase in complexity through maturity. They believe that as long as anyone puts in the effort, they have the potential to succeed.

People who have a fixed mindset usually want something easy and not challenging; they feel scared to lose while growth mindset people tend to love challenges and making mistakes lives within their body as a trait. The author proves when she said that students with fixed mindset will never showed any interest when they found difficulties in completing those assignment. Only when they did well right away, they will feel the enjoyment. In contrast, the harder it gets, the more urges for the growth mindset to grab the knowledge and feel excited to learn something. Carol Dweck also gives an example in Columbia where she met a lot of intelligent med students who always get A’s in their test. It only took a day to make them a failure, when they said