Carol Dweck Summary

In regards to learning, students with the mentality have a theory that everyone was born with a certain IQ; smart folks were naturally born smart, and the imbecile ones were forever imbecile. In fact, students who possess a fixed mindset would falsely believe that they are not smart enough to complete difficult tasks, or to fulfill class's expectation (Dweck 1). This creates anxiety whenever students encounter academic tasks. Eventually, being fearful leads to failure in achieving one's mission. Dweck further asserts “This means that every time something is hard for them and requires effort, it's both a threat and a bind. If they work hard at it that means that they aren't good at it, but if they don't work hard they won't do well.” (Dweck 2). She points out that a fixed-minded person would think that if one is smart enough, then one would not have to go through any hardships, and that seeing a task as being difficult meaning one lacks the capability to achieve it. In broader sense, this trait generates a negative-thinking mentality and hence discourages students to exploit their academic potential. Fixed mindset, therefore, is not a trait that students would want to develop. What Dweck is trying to promote, in the article, is encouraging students to steer their ways of thinking to that of growth mindset

Do you think intelligence is a fixed trait? If you do, then you might be one of many people with a fixed mind-set. In Carol S. Dweck’s an essay, “The Secret to Raising Smart Kids”, she describes fixed and growth mind-sets. She describes how they affect school, and how they affect social relationships as well. The two central ideas of “The Secret to Raising Smart Kids” are that fixed mind-sets can make a person shy away from a challenge and that growth mind-sets can be put into place by parents.

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

They’re two different beliefs the author focus on, the fixed mindset, and the growth mindset. Fixed mindset students avoid challenges, and ignoring useful feedbacks to improve certain skills. People who are fixed mindset gives up easily or pursue less challenges. While students with a growth mindset accept challenges, learns from criticism, and sees failure as an opportunity to get better. On the two faces of efforts article, it states “students with growth mindset out preforms their classmates with fixed mindsets.” Especially when the article compared two different students confronting algebra for the first time. While the student with a fixed mindset barely pays attention in class, the student with a growth mindset puts the effort to learn the topic.

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

People believe that in order to be Smart, you have to become Smart, in other hands the brain works like a machine, the more you teach it, the more it learns. Usually students with a Growth Mindset are most likely to Succeed in Society. The changes that should be changed in Schools is that Students should be Congratulated on how hard they’ve worked on an Assignment etc.,“Wow… that’s a really good score, must of Worked hard” (25). The Researcher has Experimented the students with Test to see how they do and how they react to it. College students may pick up this Article to Study for Child Behavior, Counselors may also read this Article to get an ideal on how and why students Fail or Succeed. Schools should complement on how they're doing their work for it can motivate them, “We found that intelligence praise encouraged a fixed mindset more often than did pats on the back for effort” (25). Comparing the Two Articles “Marita’s Bargain” shows how they got their Intelligence unlike this article which states why students Fail or Succeed. After all, the students should be Praised for their efforts and not their

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.

In today's education, educators encourage students to endorse a growth mindset for their learning. A growth mindset is when someone believes that their intelligence can be developed through hard work and dedication. A fixed mindset is when students believe that they can not develop intelligence rather they are smart or not. In the United States education system, the US is struggling to keep pace with other countries student academic achievements. In the article,”Leveraging Mindsets to Promote Academic Achievement: Policy recommendations”, the authors state, “ Academic mindsets are powerful when implemented correctly: they can left grades and motivation, particularly among struggling students, and they can reduce racial, gender, and social class achievement gaps.” Growth mindsets are praised in the education communities because it's reflects high results of studies that show that student raise their grades and intelligence through persevering through hard work. Students who adopt a growth mindset, will further develop their intelligence and achieve academic goals

She states, “...a genius, is typically the result of years of passion and dedication,” (line 369-370). Effort is what leads to academic achievement, not pure brain power. The amount of effort in which a student puts into their schooling determines the lengths they are willing to take to achieve in education. Their persistence leads to their brilliance, which helps perpetuate their ability to challenge oneself and strive for greater. Also, Dweck believes that intelligence is not a fixed trait. It shows in the quote “...a growth mindset, which encourages a focus on effort rather than on intelligence or talent, helps make them into high achievers in school and in life” (lines 43-46). Intelligence is like a spectrum, in which a person is not simply bolted down to a certain point in said spectrum. The idea of being able to grasp that intelligence isn’t predetermined is what Dweck highly focuses on in her concept of a growth mindset and the idea that the lengths a person is willing to go to get smarter is the fulcrum that dictates their

Dweck speaks about how children are not born smart but rather learn to be smart. Since early in childhood, we have grown up believing that we are either born smart or are just not meant to achieve more academically. Dweck believes if you can teach a child that hard work is more important than being considered the best without trying, the students can go further or achieve more than they thought they could. Dweck gathered up information by running tests on sixty-fifth graders, through a process that took years, they concluded that the ability to succeed depends on the ability to take failure. The “smart “ students failed and decided they did not want to continue trying. The growth-minded students decided to try until the students understood

Then after the sets of problems they conducted another study to assess each kids mindset, they asked the children to agree or disagree with certain mindset related statements such as “Your intelligence is something basic about you that you can't really change” and they discovered that the children who were praised for their intelligence agreed with this statement more often than those praised for their effort. In another study researchers asked students to give their definition of intelligence, the students praised for their intelligence gave more definitions related to having a fixed mental capacity while the students praised for their efforts gave definitions related to knowledge, and being able to improve from effort and education. They came to the conclusion that praising students for their intelligence tends to send students into the fixed mindset, while praising students for their efforts put them in the growth mindset. So after their conclusion the researchers and educators offered both groups of students a chance to work on an assignment that would either challenge their skill

Intelligence is most important in today's society. Some individuals have high intelligence, some have low intelligence. An appropriate environment plays an important role in the development of a child’s intelligence. Stephen Jay Gould exchanged many views on intelligence in his book The Mismeasure of Man

Our intelligence is what we are; it never changes or developes as we grow. Then there is growth mindset which is the belief that our intelligence grows with every experience we enter. A growth mindset believe that as we learn and try new experiences our minds grow. The effects of having a growth mindset benefits

We must educate parents and teachers that praising a child based on effort has a positive impact on development rather than praising intelligence. We can do this by grading individuals on personal improvement rather than comparing their intelligence with other children. It is unfair for children of different skill levels to be examined on the same exact test. Rather we should alter the test to fit the individual; we can then see personal improvements. Also, when a child is rewarded for personal effort, they have greater confidence which in the long run increases individual

    Carol S. Dweck, age 70, graduated from Barnard College in 1967. She then received her Ph.D. in Psychology at Yale University in 1972. Dweck held positions at Columbia, Harvard and the University of Illinois before she accepted her current position as the Lewis and Virginia Eaton Professor of Psychology at Stanford University in 2004. She currently teaches teaches courses in social development and motivation. Most of Dweck’s leading research focuses on personality, development, and motivation. Her book Self-Theories: Their Role in Motivation, Personality, and Development was named Book of the Year by the World Education Federation.