Samantha Hawkins
Professor Mangini ENG 100 4 May 2017 Why a Growth Mindset? Carol Dweck, a Stanford University professor says “Many authority figures like parents and teachers praise for process, not intelligence” (Dweck). Your mind is full of imaginative thoughts and every person has different processes on how they learn and how much knowledge they can take in. Everyone in the world learns in different ways and they also believe in certain ways to learn and behave. There are two different mindsets that people take up on. There is a fixed mindset, which is when you believe that you are born to know certain things and your learning cannot evolve and a growth mindset, which means your knowledge can increase and you will continue to learn, improve, and correct yourself. A growth mindset has helped me become a more successful college student because it helped me learn not to give up as well as helped me strengthen my confidence. Dweck created and posted a famous video called, “Power In Believing You Can Improve” and it's turnout was successful. Dweck gave examples on how having a growth mindset is beneficial for students and how a person can increase their mind and thoughts in a view online. Dweck told viewers that a person can continue to learn and their knowledge can expand. Dweck gave examples of how some people can develop a growth mindset. She told her viewers that kindergartners in New York came into school barely knowing how to hold a pencil, but ended the year scoring in the 90th percentile (Dweck). Dweck also said that students in school would take a test and those who did not pass, also did not fail. Instead of failing, students would luckily receive a “not yet” grade. The “not yet” grade meant that they did not fail, but did not pass either. They simply just had to retake that test and try and earn a better grade (Dweck). Stretching your mind out and grasping new information is a great way to learn and is very different than being someone with a fixed mindset. The growth mindset approach helps a student feel more confident and more accepting to their work because they are constantly hearing, “You did your best, awesome job!” Parents and many teachers try to motivate students by telling them that if they put effort in, they will get some credit for the effort they put in the work (Kohn). Many people often argue on this because some people believe that students should not get credit for effort, they should get credit for correctness. Meanwhile, others disagree. After receiving half credit on some work that may not be right, teachers often consider new ideas to help a student re-word, redo problems, and redo essays to help a student create a better outcome (Kohn). This process help students move forward, feel comfortable, and get better grades after being corrected (Kohn). Dweck explained how there is something called the “Cheat vs Study which meant that if a student did not do as well, they would cheat their way through or they would study to get a better grade. Educational experiences, in my opinion, promote both fixed and growth mindsets (Dweck). Adapting to a growth mindset has helped me realized that I should never give up. For example, if I do not do as well on an exam as I thought I did, I learned that I should never chat my way out of something. In Dweck's discussion on “cheat vs study,” she was talking about students cheating their way through a class if they could not understand it. As a student myself, I will never learn that way and I may need to know it in the near future, so why not receive help from my professor? Another example was during my senior year of highschool. In my last year and last semester of highschool, I had a math teacher that constantly got aggravated with students in the class for being confused with the math questions. He often got angry when too many students would ask a lot of questions and rarely stayed after school to help those who struggled with math. Unfortunately, I was one of the people who struggled and he constantly got annoyed with the questions I asked, which resulted in me getting low test grades almost all the time. Not to mention, I had this teacher for two years in a row for different math courses that were held at my high school. In the end, I thankfully I passed the class by just enough points due to all of my effort and constant studying. Here's the twist, as a freshman in college, I had to pick classes for my first semester. I was extremely nervous about taking a math course because I thought I was terrible at math, but I knew I needed to take a few math courses in order to become a registered nurse in the future. I gained the confidence and picked a math course and I am beyond grateful I took the class. I had such a great professor who actually took time to sit with me and helped me understand math. He helped me realize that I was not as bad in math as I thought I was, I was just too hard on myself and having a teacher like I had in highschool did not help me. My professor this year even stayed later after class was over to make sure I understood what was going on. He knew I stressed about math, so he was a HUGE help. I needed that extra push and confidence and my professor gave me just that. I ended up passing his class with a “B” and I could not be anymore proud of myself as well as being grateful for the professor I had during my first semester of college. With the “cheat vs study” idea, I was more of a growth mindset who continued to study and get help until I eventually understood what I was doing. I never cheated my way through it even thought about it because I knew I had to know how to do certain math problems to become a nurse. I may have took much longer to study, but I can happily say that I overcame my troubles with math because I constantly kept trying my best. I continued to study, do practice problems, and I completed all assignments. I also received help and support I received from my professor before and after class when I needed it. As a result, I became more successful and I am still continuing to learn. “As the growth mindset has become more popular and taken hold, we are beginning to find that there are pitfalls,” says Dweck (Barshay). Although Dweck's theories are not perfect. and she admits that there are some downfalls; she also argues that there are children, teens and adults who have more of a fixed mindset and believe that who develops a growth mindset can set goals and achieve them. Our brains are able to grow with new information learned. Dweck says, “many teachers have to change how they teach, offering more critical feedback and giving students opportunities to revise their work” (Barshay). In the book, ‘Mindset: The New Psychology of Success’ Carol Dweck says, “Did I win? Did I lose? Those are the wrong questions. The correct question is: Did I make my best effort?” If so, he says, “You may be outscored but you will never lose” (Dweck). Dweck was referring to a person's effort they make to improve. Dweck believes that its not about winning or losing anything, but it is to be able to show an effort. I believe that having a growth mindset has helped me become a more successful college student rather than having a fixed mindset personally. Having a fixed mindset in my opinion is more stressful and made me feel as if I had to stop trying to advance in my work. Not everyone is perfect or an “all-star.” Having a growth mindset helped me strengthen my effort and become a better me than I was before. Having a growth mindset has helped me regain confidence and I will feel more motivated to continue to work hard on all of my work, Doing great at something is not always the accomplishment, but your effort is. Works cited: Link to assignment: http://www.sabatinomangini.com/uploads/4/5/9/6/4596832/assignment_sheet__hiraeth_eng_100.pdf Dweck, Carol. “Carol Dweck: The Power of Believing That You Can Improve.” TED, Nov. 2014, Web. 21 Feb. 2017. . Dweck, C. S. (2012). Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. Constable & Robinson Limited. Barshay, Jill. "Teachers, Parents Often Misuse Growth Mindset Research, Carol Dweck Says." U.S. News & World Report. U.S. News & World Report, 23 Nov. 2015. Web. 20 Feb. 2017. . Kohn, Alfie. “The perils of “Growth Mindset” education: Why we’re trying to fix our kids when we should be fixing the system.” Salon. Salon Media Group, Inc., 16 Aug. 2015. Web. 20 Feb. 2017.
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AuthorMy name is Samantha Hawkins and I am a college student studying Nursing. This is my blog post for one of my classes! Archives
May 2017
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