When I was 13 or so, I had a Sunday School teacher that tried to tell our (very noisy) class that if we worked hard enough at something we could become, literally, the best in the world at that thing. The example I remember him using was specifically about me because I played the violin. He told me that if I practiced hard enough on the violin I could become the best in the world. I really didn't believe him at the time and I'm still pretty certain on that point. However, after reading Mindset by Carol Dweck I can see that maybe I needed to accept the challenge to become the best violinist I could become.
Carol Dweck is a psychologist who, as a young researcher, wanted to understand how people cope with failure. So she brought children one at a time into a room at their school and gave them puzzles to solve, starting with easier ones and progressing to harder ones. She was expecting to see differences in their approaches but was surprised to see just how different they were. Some children absolutely loved the challenge while others definitely didn't. One child would rub his hands together and say, "I love challenges!" What a wonderful outlook on life!
She noticed that the type of praise she used also made a difference. Praising a child as being "smart" influenced the child to not want to try hard puzzles because they did not want to be perceived as being less smart. Praising a child's effort influenced the child to want to try harder puzzles. As she did more and more research, she started to recognize that some people have a "fixed" mindset while others have a "growth" mindset.
People with a fixed mindset believe that their qualities are carved in stone and can't be changed. You're either smart or you're not. The author herself had this mindset and it was very much reinforced by her 6th grade teacher who actually seated her students in order of their IQ, if you can believe it. Only the highest IQ students could be trusted to do special jobs for their teacher.
People with the growth mindset believe that your basic qualities can be cultivated through personal effort and there is no way to know how far you can go through that effort. This mindset is much less limiting for people. The rest of the book illustrates how these two mindsets impact people in lots of different areas: athletics, business, relationships, and life.
In some areas of my life I believe I have a growth mindset but in other areas I can see that I have limited myself. This book has helped me to think about challenges a little differently. I really want to see the challenges in my life in a positive way, as an opportunity to grow.
So the big question for me is, how can I help my children and others around me have that mindset of valuing growth and challenge? Most people (myself included) are a little bit lazy and would rather get by with the minimum. The book gives a few ideas. She says to stay away from praise that judges their intelligence or talent and instead to praise them for what they have accomplished through practice, study, persistence, and good strategies. I think also emphasizing the need for practice helps. My daughter was complaining last night that she's really not good at art. I told her that she just needs to practice it like she has practiced the piano and violin.
Recently I came across a math homeschooling website that tells how to encourage children to have a growth mindset, especially in math: http://www.homeschoolmath.net/teaching/value_of_mistakes.php. The blogger says we should encourage mistakes as being a way to help our brains grow.
When I first started the violin at the age of 9, I got a lot of positive feedback about being really talented. It made me think I could get by on sheer talent. Frankly, I did not practice very much or very well so I didn't progress as much as I could have. I look back and regret not practicing more. Eventually, after some years, I did figure out that more practicing was the key to success because my talent wasn't going to carry me very far. What if I had been praised less for having talent and more for practicing hard and making a stronger effort? I'm not blaming my teachers for my own lack of effort but it is something to think about...
Carol Dweck is a psychologist who, as a young researcher, wanted to understand how people cope with failure. So she brought children one at a time into a room at their school and gave them puzzles to solve, starting with easier ones and progressing to harder ones. She was expecting to see differences in their approaches but was surprised to see just how different they were. Some children absolutely loved the challenge while others definitely didn't. One child would rub his hands together and say, "I love challenges!" What a wonderful outlook on life!
She noticed that the type of praise she used also made a difference. Praising a child as being "smart" influenced the child to not want to try hard puzzles because they did not want to be perceived as being less smart. Praising a child's effort influenced the child to want to try harder puzzles. As she did more and more research, she started to recognize that some people have a "fixed" mindset while others have a "growth" mindset.
People with a fixed mindset believe that their qualities are carved in stone and can't be changed. You're either smart or you're not. The author herself had this mindset and it was very much reinforced by her 6th grade teacher who actually seated her students in order of their IQ, if you can believe it. Only the highest IQ students could be trusted to do special jobs for their teacher.
People with the growth mindset believe that your basic qualities can be cultivated through personal effort and there is no way to know how far you can go through that effort. This mindset is much less limiting for people. The rest of the book illustrates how these two mindsets impact people in lots of different areas: athletics, business, relationships, and life.
In some areas of my life I believe I have a growth mindset but in other areas I can see that I have limited myself. This book has helped me to think about challenges a little differently. I really want to see the challenges in my life in a positive way, as an opportunity to grow.
So the big question for me is, how can I help my children and others around me have that mindset of valuing growth and challenge? Most people (myself included) are a little bit lazy and would rather get by with the minimum. The book gives a few ideas. She says to stay away from praise that judges their intelligence or talent and instead to praise them for what they have accomplished through practice, study, persistence, and good strategies. I think also emphasizing the need for practice helps. My daughter was complaining last night that she's really not good at art. I told her that she just needs to practice it like she has practiced the piano and violin.
Recently I came across a math homeschooling website that tells how to encourage children to have a growth mindset, especially in math: http://www.homeschoolmath.net/teaching/value_of_mistakes.php. The blogger says we should encourage mistakes as being a way to help our brains grow.
When I first started the violin at the age of 9, I got a lot of positive feedback about being really talented. It made me think I could get by on sheer talent. Frankly, I did not practice very much or very well so I didn't progress as much as I could have. I look back and regret not practicing more. Eventually, after some years, I did figure out that more practicing was the key to success because my talent wasn't going to carry me very far. What if I had been praised less for having talent and more for practicing hard and making a stronger effort? I'm not blaming my teachers for my own lack of effort but it is something to think about...
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