Critical Analysis of The Secret Of Raising Smart Kids”, Carol S. Dweck

Dweck’s ‘The Growth Mindset’ postulates that if a student’s intelligence is something that can be improved thru hard work and being challenged, he (she) will only get smarter. And too, she proposes adopting new strategies to learning if effort and challenges fail to work. In Wes Moore’s book The Other Wes Moore, Wes Moore (the Rhodes

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.

The overall theme of the sources we studied was about growth mindset.The most important thing about growth mindset is that intelligence can be developed. Also, the brain can grow by hard working and practicing. In “You Can Grow your Intelligence,” the author maintains that contrary to the belief that a person is born either smart, average, or dumb, instead the brain is more like a muscle, it changes and get stronger when you use it. Lastly, Carol Dweck, in a Ted Talk titled “ The Power Of Believing That You Can improve,” narrates how she researches about the growth mindset and the fixed mindset, and the benefit of having a growth mindset. Also, in her video she gave many good advice of how you can change a person that have fixed mindset to a growth mindset.

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

Dweck uses an analogy that was written by the French in the 1100s, to support the idea how people with a growth mindset can accomplish their goals because they give enough effort in learning not just passing a class without understanding. It supports the idea that people with growth mindset have patience, confidence, and a belief that their intelligence is changeable, not like what fixed mindset people think. According to Dweck in chapter 1, “If Rome wasn’t built in a day, maybe it was not meant to be,” (pg. 10). This analogy explains how goals can be reached only by giving enough effort and having a passion and confidence that their intelligence

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.

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

This technique, used in the countries where high levels of achievement are observed, can be seen to support Dweck’s theory of growth mindset. Dweck (2012) writes about the progression possible for children who have a strong self-belief and excellent work ethic. She believes that they are able to grow their brain’s capacity to learn and solve problems. Mastery in Mathematics aims to build children’s confidence in the subject, by giving them more opportunities to fully understand and practice their learning.

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

Inspiring people to have a “ growth mindset,” invigorates development rather than having an aptitude, this stimulates high achievers in school and in their

To further prove that we should praise children on their hard work rather than just telling them they’re smart, Dwek and her colleagues performed an in-class experiment. The experiment consisted of splitting a group of ninety-one seventh graders. They specifically chose students with low math grades in their sixth-grade year of school. Roughly half solely focused on just study skills and tips while the other learned the same study skills as well as learning about the growth mindset and the connections neurons make as we

Debbie Millman once said, "If you imagine less, less will be what you undoubtedly deserve". When you doubt yourself, you have already convinced yourself that you will fail. The problem with this "fixed mindset" is that when things get difficult, kids who have been praised for performing smart, become insecure. They will believe that because they do not know the answer, they are not smart. This causes them to run away from challenges and fail to apply themselves. A person's attitude towards their level of intelligence determines their potential growth. Having a fixed mindset inhibits your intellectual growth, though believing intelligence is a potential, you are focused and motivated to apply yourself to difficult tasks in order to grow.