Mind Sets

I just finished watching the Standford podcast on "fixed" and "growth" mind sets. The experiment was to determine whether or not children that were taught growth mind sets did better in school. One group of students were taught only study skills throughout 8 sessions and they remained in the fixed mind set. They believed that their intelligence was badsed on inherited traits. They were very discouraged even in the activities they took part in, and they often were very concerned about failure. After the 8 weeks, that group showed no changes in their grades. Along with study skills, the other group were taught to have a growth mind set. They were taught about how the brain grows with hard work and passion. They were also taught how to accept their mistakes in order to learn from them and grow in knowledge. This group learned how to apply these skills to their school work and get better grades. At the end of the experiment, the teachers could pick out which students were in which program based on their work and having now prior knowledge of group members.

I could really use the findings of this experiment in my classroom to encourage my students to work hard and learn. They have to realize that education takes some work, and if they all put some effort into it, they all have the same opportunity to grow. I was quite intrigued by this experiment and the discoveries that were made. I plan to teach my students to all have a growth mind set and that if they want to, they can learn just about anything!