Growth Mindset

 Ctrl+Alt+Delete; source: Laura Gibbs

At first glance, Dr. Dweck's philosophy on the growth mindset seems to be a no-nonsense way of improving even the most lackluster students. This was my first encounter with the professor, but much of what she said in her TED Talk seemed like common sense. Encouraging children that failure isn't permenant certainly encourages them to make more attempts at a problem. Incorporating this type of participation in the classroom leads to more equality. The problem of favoritism is something I observed a lot in grade school; the brighter children are set apart at an early age and continue distancing themselves from their peers until their intelligence seems exponentially higher. 

I don't believe that the growth mindset is as universal as Dr. Dweck explains it, but traits of it can help student excel in specific subjects. I think the strongest tool a student can have is genuine interest in the subject they want to pursue. The growth mindest, when applied to this interest, can help fuel it and keep students motivated when they are struggling. People may not have fixed intelligence, but on some extent, they develop a fixed interest in other areas as they grow into young adults. For example, a business major required to take a basic chemistry course would not feel motivated to do well in the class, since it doesn't benefit him or her at all. In this scenario, the growth mindset should still work in theory, but the lack of motivation nulifies it. 

Applying the growth mindset to a whole classroom, much less a whole school, comes with its own practical challenges. Many of the schools that need it most have a smaller teacher to student ratio than other effluent neighborhoods, and at the end of the day, teachers simply do not have as much time to invest individually in each student. One thought that kept popping in my head while listening to the TED Talk was how the growth mindset doesn't take a holistic approach on students. This is a term and concern Dr. Wood brought up in his KPBS interview. The growth mindset ignores the other factors that might affect a child's ability to learn in favor of the simpler explanation that any student can have high level of achievements by practicing "yet". Motivation is just one aspect of learning, but so is concentration, patience, problem-solving ability, creative thinking, etc. The effectiveness of growth mindset depends on how it works in conjunction with these traits.  

 Diversity; source: Laura Gibbs