Mindsets: Promoting Growth

SPA PresentationJoseph D’Intino, M. Ed

April 14th, 2015

Outline

Dweck: Growth vs Fixed

Ability vs Effort

Language

Questions and Discussion

Carol Dweck

Stanford University

Changing beliefs changes motivation Fixed vs Growth

Fixed Mindset

Fixed: How intelligent am I?

Shouldn’t have to try Should be easy More willing to cheat – all about perception More likely to compare to others below them More likely to avoid difficult tasks

If intelligence is fixed, and I failed, where do I go from there?

Self-handicapping

Sacrificing achievement by not trying Preserving sense of ability

Feeling good now is better than feeling good later

Attributions can be based upon (Weiner, 1985) Effort Ability Level of difficulty Luck

Growth Mindset

Growth: How can I improve? What type of effort?

Growth develops resilience

Great way of promoting metacognitive skills and the development of executive skills.

If I fail, I can learn from the mistake, adjust my plan, and try again.

How do we know ability can be improved?

Neuroplasticity

Motor memory

Practice

Caveats

More effort does not always equal success.

People do have inherent strengths and weaknesses.

Nature of evaluations

Language Matters

Praising intelligence promotes fixed mindsets

Praising effort can seem as a consolation if we are in a habit of praising ability

A matter of changing our language

Try these phrases for success

“You should be proud of yourself.”

“What did you do to earn that grade?”

“What technique or study trick did you find particularly helpful?”

“Would you use that technique again?”

Try these phrases for unsuccessful attempts

“How did you come to that conclusion?”

“What made that test or assignment challenging?”

“How did you prepare?”

“What will you do differently next time?”

Simply Stated…

Praising Ability: Promotes fear of failure Promotes negative coping mechanisms Less resilient Focus on the outcome

Praising Effort: Promotes learning More control and higher self-efficacy Higher resilience Focus on the process

Discussion Questions

As parents, what are the main challenges for promoting a growth mindset or praising effort?

What feedback do you most often give to your daughters when they earn high grades?

As successful people, how did you learn? Do you consider yourself process or product oriented?

What are the differences and similarities between the attributions that you make for your own learning and the ones that you make for your daughters’ learning?

Resources

Mindset (Dweck, 2008) http://mindsetonline.com/whatisit/about/index.html

http://www.ted.com/talks/carol_dweck_the_power_of_believing_that_you_can_improve?language=en

Tips for increasing self-efficacy through praise: http

://www.aboutkidshealth.ca/En/HealthAZ/FamilyandPeerRelations/life-skills/Pages/Self-efficacy-children.aspx

Attribution Theory – Base for recent motivation research (Weiner 1985) http://mina.education.ucsb.edu/janeconoley/ed197/

documents/weinerAnattributionaltheory.pdf