Personal Perception of Intelligence
http://news.stanford.edu/news/2007/february7/dweck-020707.html
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7406521&sc=emaf+
A person’s belief of their intelligence is closely related to how academically successful they are. The key is to believe in yourself and have confidence that you can learn and apply new information or skills. The belief that your mind is malleable and can suck up new information your entire life is called a growth mindset. The opposite, a fixed mindset is only detrimental to your learning. Fixed mindset people believe that they are born with a certain value of intelligence and it cannot be changed. Dweck has done multiple studies that demonstrate how students that are taught about growth mindsets will excel better than students who are simply taught about study skills.
After reading both articles I now really understand the personal effects of both mindsets. Having a fixed mindset doesn’t just limit you in what you will achieve over time, but limits your motivation. It’s all about personal perception. If you think you are not going to be able to learn something, either because you don’t understand or it is very challenging, then you will have little motivation to try. On the contrary, if something seems challenging but you believe in yourself, which provides motivation, then you will work hard and study to achieve your goal.
I took note of Dweck’s idea that effort rather than intelligence should be praised. That encourages every student to work hard because even if they are not successful at first, they feel good about themselves and will try again. This is very significant to the field of education. Every teacher should explicitly teach their students about a growth mindset and how they all equally have the capability to learn. Also every teacher should recognize effort in the classroom. Dweck explained how her 6th grade classroom was setup to praise the “intelligent” kids, while disregarding the “dumb” kids. As a teacher, it should be your priority to help every student achieve goals and excel in the classroom, not just the ones that do well on the prior weeks IQ test.
I really enjoyed both of these articles and I recommend others read it. An idea such as growth vs. fixed mindset almost seems like common knowledge, but is highly overlooked. I feel like I see situations way too often where certain people are discouraged from trying out a new experience or task because they don’t believe in themselves and don’t think they can do well. If everyone were to read articles like these and taught about the idea of growth mindset than we would be way more motivated and productive as a whole.