Mindsets: Helping Our Children Reach

Their Potential

Carol S. Dweck

Self-Theories:

Their Role in Motivation, Personality, and Development

Other Work

Mindset: The New Psychology of SuccessBrainology® Program (along with Lisa Sorich Blackwell, Ph.D)

“I don’t divide the world into the weak and the strong, or the successes and the failures… I divide the world into the learners and nonlearners.”

- Benjamin Barber

Yet many of the things we do to help and to motivate our children make them into non-learners.

Sometimes we put too much emphasis on • Labels

• Test scores

• Getting into the right schools

Mindsets

• Fixed Mindset: Intelligence is a fixed trait

• Growth Mindset: Intelligence is a malleable quality; a potential that can be developed

How Do Mindsets Work?

The Mindset Rules

Rule #1

Fixed Mindset:

LOOK SMART OR TALENTED AT ALL COSTS

Growth Mindset:

LEARN, LEARN, LEARN

How Do Mindsets Work?

Looking Smart is Most Important:

“The main thing I want when I do my school work is to show how good I am at it.”

Learning is Most Important:

“It’s much more important for me to learn things in my classes than it is to get the best grades.”

Rule #2

Fixed: DON’T WORK TOO HARD“To tell the truth, when I work hard at my school

work it makes me feel like I’m not very smart.”

Growth: WORK HARD, EFFORT IS KEY “The harder you work at something, the better

you’ll be at it.”

Do Geniuses Work Or Does it Just Come Naturally?

Rule #3

IN THE FACE OF SETBACKS…

Fixed Mindset:CONCEAL MISTAKES OR DEFICIENCIES

Growth Mindset:EMBRACE MISTAKES, CONFRONT

DEFICIENCIES

How Do Mindsets Work?

StrategiesHelpless Response: “I would spend less time on this subject from now on.”“I would try not to take this subject ever again.”“I would try to cheat on the next test.”

Mastery Oriented Response: “I would work harder in this class from now on.” “I would spend more time studying for the tests.”

Math Achievement in Junior High School

7272.5

7373.5

7474.5

7575.5

7676.5

77

Fall Year1

Spring Year1

Fall Year2

Spring Year2

FixedGrowth

growth

fixed

Self-Theories, by Carol S. Dweck A Summary of Key Ideas

The Theory of Fixed Intelligence and the Fixed Mindset

Intelligence is a fixed trait. We all have a certain amount of it and that’s that. Results in worrying about how much you have and how to demonstrate that you have enough.

The Theory of Malleable Intelligence and the Growth Mindset

Intelligence is not a fixed trait that one simply possesses, but something everyone can cultivate through learning. Intelligence is increased through your efforts. Results in learners wanting to learn.

The Helpless Response

A view that once failure occurs, the situation is out of your control and nothing can be done. It includes the following reactions: denigration of your intelligence, plunging expectations, negative emotions, lower persistence, blaming, and deteriorating performance.

The Mastery Response

A hardy response to failure that allows you to remain focused on achieving mastery in spite of present difficulty. It includes: self-instruction or self-monitoring designed to aid performance, optimism, positive mood, and persistence.

“The fixed mindset provides no good recipe for recovering from setbacks…” Carol Dweck

How are Mindsets Communicated?

The Messages We Send

Praise Sends a Message

Intelligence Praise: “Wow, that’s a really good score. You must be smart at this.”

Effort (Process) Praise: “Wow, that’s a really good score. You must have tried really hard.”

Control Group: “Wow, that’s a really good score.”

“Smart” Praise vs. Effort Praise

MINDSET FIXED GROWTHGOAL LOOKING SMART LEARNING

AFTER DIFFICULT TRIALCONFIDENCE LOW HIGH

MOTIVATION LOW HIGH

PERFORMANCE DECREASED INCREASED

Number of problems solved on Trial 1 (before failure) and

Trial 3 (after failure).

4.5

5

5.5

6

6.5

Trial 1 Trial 3

Effort PraiseControl PraiseIntelligence Praise

Num

ber

of P

robl

ems

Solv

ed

Lying Students who misrepresented their scores

0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

Intelligence Control Effort

Type of Praise Given

percentage

Examples of Process Praise To Foster A Growth Mindset

Studying

• You really studied for your English test and your improvement shows it.

• You read the material over several times, you picked out the main points, and you tested yourself on them. It really worked!

Persistence

• It was a long and hard assignment, but you stuck to it until you got it done.

• That was really hard, but you never gave up! That’s impressive!

Trying Many Strategies

• I like the way you tried all kinds of strategies on that math problem until you finally got it.

• You thought of a lot of different ways to do this problem and found the one that worked!

• That didn’t work. Can you think of another way to do it? Great!

Praise for Challenge-Seeking

• I like that you took on that challenging project for your science class.

• Great choice. That project will take a lot of work—but you’re really going to learn a lot of wonderful things.

Compare:

• “You did that project beautifully. You see, you are smart. I’m proud of you”

• “You did that project beautifully. Your practice and hard work really paid off. Are you pleased?”

Low Effort Success

• You got an A without working. You must not be learning much.

• You did that so quickly and easily. I’m sorry I wasted your time. Let’s do something you can learn from.

Changing Mindsets

• Stress effort based learning

• Expect ALL students to learn - avoid rescue mode

• Be explicit with helpless vs. mastery responses

• Help students set learning goals

• Avoid making performance goals most important

myth of praise

Types of Goals

Performance Goals

These goals are about winning positive judgments of your competence and avoiding negative ones – wanting to look smart and avoid looking dumb. They may be accomplished by playing it safe and completely avoiding mistakes or taking on a harder task that you’re pretty sure you’ll do well at. The best tasks for the purposes of looking smart are ones that are hard for others but not for you.

Learning Goals

These goals are about increasing your competence. It reflects a desire to learn new skills, master new tasks, or understand new things – a desire to get smarter.

ConclusionA growth mindset allows students to:

• Embrace learning and growth

• Understand the role of effort in creating talent

• Maintain confidence and effectiveness in the face challenges and setbacks

ConclusionA growth mindset allows students to:

• Embrace learning and growth

• Understand the role of effort in creating talent

• Maintain confidence and effectiveness in the face challenges and setbacks

…and it can be taught.

EE Action Team Goals Relentless commitment to effective teaching and

the middle rings to reach educational equity.

Awareness and understanding of the barriers students experience that negatively impact student learning.

Develop effective relationship building strategies that connect parents and students to EVHS.

One Final NoteA Growth Mindset for Educators Too

• As teachers and administrators, we must constantly be learning and improving—the world is changing, kids are changing, tools for acquiring knowledge are changing .

• If we don’t change too, how can we make sure our children fulfill their potential?

Thank you!