Growth Mindset: A Concept New to Me and Somewhat Frightening
In her talks of the growth mindset, Carol Dweck emphasizes the importance of challenging the mind, not just giving it tasks that it can easily accomplish. While I think this is a great idea, I know that I would be quite anxious if I was continuously given problems I could not quite solve. Growing up, I have always been a straight-A student, with a few Bs here and there, but very rarely. A system in which I could easily complete the assigned material was what predominated my education, even in advanced courses that I took. I love new challenges as much as the next person, but when it comes to a grade, I prefer to do work that I can quickly catch onto and complete relatively easily. While in college, I have expanded my horizon quite a bit with the courses I have taken, from philosophy to anthropology to biochemistry, but always a subject that I knew I was likely to do well in. Though when I signed up for my first anthropology course, I guess I was following a sort of growth mindset, as I knew nothing of anthropology, but I should at least give it a try.
On the scale of a growth mindset to a fixed mindset, I would definitely say that I am closer to the fixed. Academic performance has always been my thing, the thing that I could always exceed in, and something my family likes to brag about quite often. Luckily, my parents never really pressured me to get good grades, only to get the grades that they knew I was capable of if I put my mind to it. My mom would probably be closer to a growth mindset than me, as she would often tell me that if I did not know something now, I always had the chance to learn it later and there was no reason to make myself feel bad when I did not do well the first time.
As a concept, I really like the idea of the growth mindset, but in practice, I know that I am not as likely to actually follow it, simply due to how anxious I get over not doing well academically. I would probably say that I am a hypocrite in my thinking, as I usually take a growth mindset approach when advising my younger sister in her academics. She is in advanced classes and sometimes wishes she was not, as she does not always make the best of grades. However, I always tell her that if she were to be in the regular classes, the work would be way too easy for her and she would not learn anything. I am very interested in learning more about the growth mindset though, as it may be something I can help instill in my younger sister as she approaches high school, where the pressure for good grades begins to rise further. Hopefully I can learn more about this mindset through the extra credit assignments that provide plenty of exposure to Carol Dweck's ideologies.
Hi Lanney,
ReplyDeleteI love how we focus on growth mindset and tools outside of the classroom here! Growth mindset is something we hear of a lot, but does anyone actually know what it means until they sit down to look into it? I appreciate your honesty about how you like the idea of it, but you're real that it's hard. I think it's a practice over perfection thing - the more we remind our minds to create those new pathways, the more the paths become worn down and clear to follow.