Jamie Carney
English Composition I Sabatino Magnini 9:35 2/20/17 There are two popular academic mindsets that people tend to have; A growth mindset and a fixed mindset. A growth mindset is the belief that you can train your brain the way to can train your muscles, through hard work and effort you can develope more intelligence. A fixed mindset is the exact opposite of that, people with this mindset believe that intelligence is a trait that cannot be changed no matter how hard you work or try to learn. You are either have it with or you do not. However one of these mindsets has been scientifically proven to lead to academic success for many, myself included. As someone who has had both a fixed and a growth mindset in my life I can attest to this claim and know which one helped me be the student that I am today. Let me explain. The ideologies of a growth mindset has become increasingly popular among teachers, parents, and students alike and this is not without reason. has been proven that students with a growth mindset are more likely to succeed with a growth mindset than a fixed one. In fact, those who have developed a fixed mindset are almost bound to fail. In a comparison between these opposed mindsets the growth vs. fixed mindset on youtube by @visalus explains the supportive ideologies of a growth mindset and the damaging ideologies of a fixed mindset. A growth mind set While those with a fixed mindset embrace challenges, persist in the face of setbacks, see effort as a path to mastery, learn from criticism, learn from the success of others, and as a result, reach higher levels of achievement. While a fixed mindset avoids challenges, gives up when set back, see effort as fruitless or even damaging, ignore useful feedback, feels threatened from the success of others and results in the underachievement of their capabilities. Not buying it? Well scientific evidence supports these statements. In a TED talk hosted by Stanford University psychology professor Carol Dweck, the founder of these two mindsets, recalls a study she did on how children cope with difficulty; “ From their more fixed mindset perspective…after a failure, they looked for someone who did worse than they did so they could feel really good about themselves. And in study after study, they have run from difficulty. Scientists measured the electrical activity from the brains students confronted an error. On the left, you see the fixed-mindset students. There's hardly any activity. They run from the error. They don't engage with it. But on the right, you have the students with the growth mindset, the idea that abilities can be developed. They engage deeply. Their brain is on fire.” (Carol Dweck, TED talk, 1:58). This proves that the main goals of the fixed student is to only look smart for others rather than be smart for themselves. When faced with error and difficulty they panic and do not engage, causing less electrical activity. The electrical activity in students who engaged in thought instead of running away they engage their critical thinking to overcome the challenge to improve. I personally have had to overcome my own challenges to succeed. Until my freshman year of highschool I have had a fixed mindset without knowing it. I have always believed that intelligence can be improved however I was too set in my ways to really act on that. There have been too many instances where a fixed mindset has crippled my work, particularly in my Math classes. Throughout grade school I have been set in the belief that I am absolutely horrible at math. Until my final year in grade school I never achieved had an A in any math subject; only Bs and the occasional C; I was sure I must have been mathematically deficient. Instead of working harder to overcome its difficulty I accepted I wasn't smart enough to do it and convinced myself that it was true. Because of this false accusation that I have always put math as my last priority. I hated because I wasn't good at it and never thought I would be. Every Time I looked at my math homework my brain went into a panic and gave up before I even put the pencil on the paper: my brain literally shut down. there for, a many math homeworks were eaten by the dog. When it came to it I simply said “Oh well, I was going to do bad anyway.” or “My grade will suffer whether I do the assignment or not so why go through the trouble?” When I even looked at the simplest math problem my brain literally shut down. So in my senior year when I decided to become an A student, I had to rewire my brain to be able to function when faced with a problem. Without noticing, I was actually doing something called neuroplasticity, which literally means the rewiring of your brain. In the youtube video “Neuroplasticity” by sentis, The narrator explains how our brains are adaptable. Our brains are filled with millions of pathways that line up when we feel think or do something. Roads well traveled consist of our habits, and the more the pathway is used the more accessible and easier it is for our brains to connect with. When we learn or think about something differently, our brain creates a new pathway. The more we use this new way of thinking or doing, the stronger the pathway becomes making it more accessible and making the old way of thinking less accessible. This is exactly what I had to do to get the A I desired in math. I had a goal and to achieve my goal I had to get rid of my habitual pathway. I Was not lack the intelligence to complete my work, I lacked the confidence and I lacked the drive. I never asked questions, I never studied, and avoided homework all because I was fixed to believe that I simply wasn't smart enough to do well. To create a new pathway, I seeked out tutoring, guidance from my teachers and family, and created new ways of studying. By actually putting the effort into my work I lost connection with the old pathway and made a new one. In the end, I achieved my goal. I ended up using this knew pathway for all my classes and got honor roll in my final grade school report card only having one B, and not in math. While I was able to change my academic outcome by converting to a growth mindset, there are a number of other factors that could have affected my resolve and may very well affect others.The educational system and the parents also have a roll. Educators control the curriculum, how it is taught, how students are treated and create the overall learning environment. While many schools base their teaching methods off of the growth mindset, many teachers misuse its principals. It is all easy to have the students take the blame for their performance and not the educators or parents themselves. In the perils of a growth mindset by book writer Alfie Kohn, he explains the flaws of the educational system; “ the problem with sweeping, generic claims about the power of attitudes or beliefs isn’t just a risk of overstating the benefits but also a tendency to divert attention from the nature of the tasks themselves:...Dweck is a research psychologist, not an educator, so her inattention to the particulars of classroom assignments is understandable. Unfortunately, even some people who are educators would rather convince students they need to adopt a more positive attitude than address the quality of the curriculum (what the students are being taught) or the pedagogy (how they’re being taught it).... she has never criticized a fix-the-kid, ignore-the-structure mentality or raised concerns about the “bunch o’ facts” traditionalism in schools…. It isn’t entirely coincidental that someone who is basically telling us that attitudes matter more than structures, or that persistence is a good in itself, has also bought into a conservative social critique. But why have so many educators who don’t share that sensibility endorsed a focus on mindset (or grit)...it’s a willingness to go beyond individual attitudes, to realize that no mindset is a magic elixir that can dissolve the toxicity of structural arrangements. Until those arrangements have been changed, mindset will get you only so far.” I have to say I agree with about eighty percent of this argument. In the end teachers are the ones who decide what is being taught, how assignments are graded, and what should be expected of the student. They use this power to control students to blame them for their faulty performance. It is surely a fine way to take the focus off the structural system of school and put all the blame on the student. He made a makes a great point, our system is indeed flawed in some ways. However many of his claims against are a misinterpretation a growth mindset that Dweck points out herself. The article Teachers, Parents Often Misuse Growth Mindset Research, Carol Dweck Says"You can't just declare that you have a growth mindset," said Dweck. “"Growth mindset is hard. Many educators are trying to skip the journey."’Dweck cited a recent Stanford Ph.D. thesis by Kathy Liu Sun, now a professor at Santa Clara University, which found that students continued to have fixed-mindset thoughts in math class when their teachers mouthed growth mindset phrases but didn't change their teaching practices.” But most importantly, khon never suggest a resolution. He whines about the system and only points out what's wrong with at Dweck's theory.. He gives us no means to cope with the system, no way to stop the system and is really just complaining about why everyone is wrong and he is not. Complaining will only get you so far, we can complain and whine all we want to but it will never have a resolve. So in the meantime while Khon waits,what is the student to do while they are waiting for the system to fix itself? Students still need to succeed regardless of a faulty system and Carol Dweck is the only one giving them a way to succeed. The growth mindset is all about learning to gain results, applying effort, hard work and learning will allow students to succeed. It may not be a magic elixir, But at least Dweck can realize the problem and know how to fix it. Clearly a growth and a fixed mindset are the yin and yang of mindsets; A growth mindset is the belief that through hard work and effort you can develope more intelligence. And fixed mindsets believe that intelligence is a trait that cannot be changed no matter how hard you work or try to learn. You are either have it with or you do not. However the growth mind set has been scientifically proven to lead to academic success for many, including myself. As someone who has had both a fixed and a growth mindset in my life I can attest to this claim and know which one helped me be the student that I am today. I hope this paper proves that through hard work, critical thinking, and effort that any level of intelligence is achievable. Works Cited https://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2015/11/23/teachers-parents-often-misuse-growth-mindset-research-carol-dweck-says https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELpfYCZa87g https://www.ted.com/talks/carol_dweck_the_power_of_believing_that_you_can_improve?language=en http://www.salon.com/2015/08/16/the_education_fad_thats_hurting_our_kids_what_you_need_to_know_about_growth_mindset_theory_and_the_harmful_lessons_it_imparts/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brpkjT9m2Oo
2 Comments
elisa blow
2/24/2017 07:01:26 am
can you expand more on electrical activity?
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Janai
2/27/2017 06:28:06 pm
I agree with you when you said you had a fixed mindset and didn't know it, I bet there are plenty of people who don't know they have that mindset.
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