Mindset: The New Psychology of Success |
By: Dr. Carol Dweck |
Dweck formed a theory stating that your beliefs can affect your success rate in life. There are two core mindsets that are able to differentiate between successful or not: fixed mindset and growth mindset.
Fixed mindset refers to the belief that our skills and abilities are fixed at birth and are unchangeable. Because they believe their ability to learn is hindered from the beginning, those with fixed mindsets evolve behaviours to protect themselves from failing or getting hurt and when they do fail, they excuse it on things that are "out of their control." Individuals with fixed mindsets are not always negative, but they are more likely to reveal this negativity in the face of challenges and failures. |
Overall, growth mindset has been proven to help students towards a shift in their beliefs about their abilities to improve their intelligence, which can lead to a positive increase in academic performance. Approximately 75% of achievement is contributed to psychosocial skills, like growth mindset. This can aid itself to an impact in engagement and a willingness to attempt new challenges. Additionally, growth mindset can positively impact "time management skills, organization skills, and motivation;" and improve study behaviours (Brougham, L., & Kashubeck-West, S., 2017, p. 4).
Some students in the primary grades become exposed to what is called "math anxiety," in which they have negative reactions towards math that often result in avoidance. This anxiety can begin in early years and reaches its peak during middle and high school. To help counter this issue, growth mindset gives them the tools they need to take on new challenges and persevere. For example, problem solving is strongly effected by growth mindset since students will believe in their abilities to try even if they may not see an answer right away and use their existing knowledge and skills to solve it. Growth mindset is "the key to providing all students in all classes in all schools with opportunities to learn and succeed in mathematics," (Chapman, S., Mitchell, M., 2018, p. 64). |
Interview with Jo Boaler, Professor of Mathematics Education, Stanford University. SCOPE Brown Bag Speaker 2012-13.
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She also found "intrinsic motivation is associated with the mid-brain regions," (p. 6) which are connected to sensory and motor information, auditory and visual processing, motor movements, and more. Most importantly, intrinsic motivation is associated with the striatum in the midbrain, which is related to the sensitivity of feedback processing. The striatum plays a key role in reinforcing behaviours and producing adaptive behaviours. "Striatum activity is associated with reward processing, indicating that an intrinsically motivated task could foster the individual’s intrinsic motivation," (p. 5).
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