Growth Mindset

I had not heard of Carol Dweck before this assignment, but I have heard of (what I now have a title by which to call it) the growth mindset. "Praise the effort not the result." Starting college, I would say I had a black-and-white fixed mindset. The credit goes to high school. How are you compared to your peers? GPA and class rank. It's about quantifiable differences in the students. I had it drilled into my brain that grades are all that matter. They're what get you high test scores, which gets you scholarships for college. I'm sure this routine wasn't designed with the intentions of conditioning students to not challenge themselves or to not take risks. But it was a side-effect, and we must now deal with it. However, like the video explains, we cannot solely treat the symptoms. In other words, we can't just tell everyone "C's get degrees!" to try and get students to challenge themselves. Instead, we must treat the "disease". Start way back where these mindsets first take hold -- at a young age.

Coming into OU was weird because I would hear a bunch of support for challenging myself while simultaneously hearing how important grades still are. These two ideas seemed, at first, to contradict each other. But that was because of my fixed mindset. Now I get it. Challenge yourself and you'll still do fine because you're putting in the effort. It's been a hard process to try and switch mindsets. At first, I was always looking for the easiest classes to fulfill requirements. After taking a few challenging courses, I see how much more rewarding they are. High school me would have scoffed at the notion of taking a perspectives class (a class that was primarily essay based and full of reading). But in hindsight, it's one of my favorite classes I've taken, and I accredit that to the challenges I faced.

This idea of a growth mindset is a rather fascinating thing. I've always had a competitive drive, and I've been satisfied with what that has brought me. But to know there's an arguably better way? Why aren't we pushing that?! Even if I don't (yet) naturally embrace challenges, I do try to be aware of it and force myself into challenges. I have three courses this semester that involve quite a bit of writing. That makes me uncomfortable. Really uncomfortable. But I know my writing should improve. And maybe I'll ditch the habit of putting off writing assignments! I hope that I someday enjoy the uncomfortable.

Source: Growth Mindset Memes. Image generated by Cheezburger