Growth Mindset Essay

Carol S. Dweck's article “Brainology – Transforming Student's Motivation to Learn” offers insights about student's mentality at school and why some students are better off than others. The article claims directly that students generally have two mindsets when it comes to learning; one is “fixed mindset,” a negative trait, and the other is “growth mindset,” a positive trait. Both of these traits contradict each other in terms of meaning. These two mindsets impact students on whether or not they will be successful on their academic road. In “Brainology – Transforming Student's Motivation to Learn,” Dweck explains how these two traits influence the outcome of having one of these two mindsets through

According to Judy Willis, “When you are experiencing highly negative emotions or severe stress, incoming information is routed to a different part of your brain”. When the high-level thinking happens, the information routed is to the reactive lower brain. When that happens, the memory is affected, all active learning stops. A fourth way is recognized and valuing incremental progress boosts a person’s motivation and enables him or her to deal effectively with setbacks. According to Dweck, “people with growth mindsets, believe their abilities can be developed though dedication and hard work- brains and talent are just the starting point. This view creates a love of learning and a resilience that is essential for great accomplishment. Virtually all great people have these qualities.” With a growth mindset, people realized by having a failure in the past don’t mean they will in the future.

Growth mindset and the fixed mindset: The two focal points of Mindset: The New Psychology of Success written by Carol Dweck. Pushing yourself further and further so that you can strengthen your intelligence, versus believing that the knowledge you know and have cannot be brought to a higher level. Even though the book was a difficult read, it really opens the mind to the different views on life, and the many ways that people go about their lives. How the fixed mindset may bring someone to success at first but later in their life lead them to a crisis. Or how the growth mindset may be difficult to grasp and achieve, but it will enact success in the future. The book advises ways to go from having the fixed mindset to the growth mindset, from saying things such as, “Yet those people with the growth mindset were not labeling themselves… Even though

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,

It’s difficult to be a successful author in today’s day and age, as there is competition everywhere, and it is easy to be drowned out, no matter how hard you try to put your name out into the world. Generally we tend to think of success as how much money an author makes or how well known they are among the common populace. However, true success should be defined by the quality of the story, regardless of how many people know it, and the satisfaction of having written it, regardless of how much it made. It takes a willingness to grow and to work hard to achieve literary success and notoriety. A successful author develops a growth mindset through the education and life experience they receive from their younger years into adulthood. Carol Dweck in Ken Bain’s What the Best College Students Do, describes a growth mindset as having a mastery perspective, “they believe that they can master something and grow in their abilities if they try. If they don’t succeed, they look for new strategies rather than deciding they ‘just can’t do it.’...Mastery students think abilities can expand. The helpless they’re fixed (Bain 109).” A growth mindset and strong ethos is critical to the success of authors as is demonstrated in the lives and works of Richard Adams, Dan Abnett and Hunter S. Thompson.

The way that people think about their ability to change and grow can impact their lives. In her book, Mindset: The new psychology of success, Carol Dweck introduces this way of viewing of the world as our mindsets. She proposes that there are two different types of mindsets: growth and fixed. People with a growth mindset see their abilities as something that can be cultivated and changed through effort. They are more willing to take chances to learn and grow.

Carol Dweck writes about an excellent concept to live by in Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, although it is not necessarily a new concept. She words her concept as the “growth” mindset versus the “fixed” mindset. The “growth” mindset is what she suggests the reader should translate into different aspects of their everyday life. The growth mindset is about learning from mistakes, and always trying as hard as possible to improve oneself. Whereas, the fixed mindset is when people have the idea that they were born with quantifiable traits, and are not able to change or improve them. In my opinion, for the growth mindset, she is essentially just rewording what I call the golden rule which is “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try, again”.

A fixed mindset is when someone believes the abilities you are born with are the ones you will always have, and they cannot be changed. Children who possess a fixed mindset are likely to attribute their success to pure luck and their failures to ability or lack thereof. This is also known as learned helplessness. Children with a growth mindset, however, have a contrasting perspective. They believe abilities can be improved over time with an input of effort. They attribute their success to their abilities and their failures to variables that can be easily altered. As I have mentioned in the past, I fall under the authoritative parenting style. Because an authoritative parenting style is firm but caring and encouraging, I have cultivated a growth

To fail is to succeed. Most people have had failure in their life from minor upsets to major problems, such as your favorite football team losing to getting rejected from a college. A fixed mindset would take that as a problem of their team losing, while the growth mindset would see that as an opportunity to put in new players and fresh faces. A fixed mindset would see being rejected from a college as a missed opportunity and they will never get accepted to any college, while a growth mindset could see that as an obstacle and apply to a college that they would never have thought of. For years I had a fixed mindset on math; I failed algebra 1 twice and algebra 2 once. I didn’t like math because I thought it wasn’t worth my time and I would

In the article “Carol Dweck Revisits the ‘Growth Mindset’,” Carol Dweck refines her definition of growth mindset, and she explains that since many have confused the concept, it is important to clarify the idea of growth mindset before people claim that they have one. Dweck explains that, although effort is an important factor for having a growth mindset, it is just as, if not more, important to ask others for help, to test out different strategies, and to ask what needs to be done in order to succeed the next time. Instead of claiming to possess a growth mindset just because it sounds better than possessing a fixed mindset, one should accept the mindset that they actually have. This will only help to develop a growth mindset, which is

Having a fixed mindset is ok. But having a growth mindset is even better. People with fixed mindsets, often give up and don’t believe that they can do better. Like being negative. Other people with growth mindsets believe that they can do better and they don’t give up when things get tough.

A growth mindset can encourage individuals to persevere, take on challenges, and become more motivated in the learning process (Briceño, 2015). Furthermore, cultivating a growth mindset is not limited to youth. In the education field, teachers, staff, and administrators are encouraged to see themselves as learners and foster a community that is open to mistakes as a form of learning to promote a growth mindset across all stakeholders in the school community (Heggart, 2015).

“The Growth Mindset” by Rona Elisa talks about the difference between people with a fixed mindset and a growth mindset and how to overcome from fixed to growth mindset. People with a fixed mindset believe that their basic traits and skills are permanent and that it is a natural talent. Therefore, they do not challenge themselves in order to avoid any failure situations because they want to prove they are smart. Whereas, people with a growth mindset put the effort in learning to improve their basic qualities and skills. So, when it comes to challenging situations people with a fixed mindset either they try to avoid it or blame others, make up excuses, and/ or criticize in order for them to save their self- worth.

A growth mindset strengthens your self confidence because, while fully aware of the challenges, you believe in the power of possibilities.

There are many ways a growth mindset can affect an individual. Commonly growth mindsets have a more positive effect on your life. The mindset you attain, growth or fixed, is dependent on the views you adopt from a young age. There are much more pros than cons for a growth-minded person compared to a fixed minded person. One of the ways growth mindset is more beneficial than a fixed mindset is that intelligence is developed over time. A growth mindset is associated with the desire to learn and the ability to continue despite an obstacle, whereas fixed mindset is associated with the desire to appear smart and will give up easier when faced with an obstacle. A few more differences between the two are growth mindset focuses on learning from criticism and is inspired by others' success, while fixed mindset ignores useful feedback and is threatened by others' success.