"Growth" vs. "Fixed" Mindset

The podcast video I watched today was discussing and describing to mindsets. The first was growth. People with a growth mind set believe that intelligence can be developed through passion, studying, and education. The second was fixed. People with a fixed mind set believe basic intelligence is just to fix trade. They're very concerned with how much they have and based their activities on whether intelligence will be shown to their advantage.

Carol Diverck, Professor of Psychology and author of Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, has this program where they have an eight session workshop. Half of the participates are taking eight sessions of Study Skills, and the second group are having both Study Skills and Growth Mind Set. The first group showed little improvements and had low grades. This was mainly due to their lack of motivation for the activities. The second group came out on top and had overall better grades. They understood that the brain was a muscle and like all muscles the brain must be used in order to get stronger. The participates in this group learned various concept but also learned how to apply these concepts.

I really enjoyed this podcast video. I believe it relates to teachers in the effect that we should in steal in our students the "growth" mindset. They should never settle for less when more is to be accomplished. Having a "fixed" mind set only holds us from accomplishing great things. We have to stand up as teachers and insure that our students are trained and taught in the "growth" mindset.

Teachers are to be role models for their young students and establish stability in the classroom. This stability is not only good classroom management and good rules and procedures but also motivates their students to do well. For younger students stickers are fine. Have your students try to accomplish new goals each week.

Both of the first grade classrooms' that I'm observing this semester send home goal sheets every week. I believe this is an excellent way to get our students to working to the "growth" mindset. They are given goals and are not fixed on a certain way of thinking or fixed mindset. There are numerous of ways that these goals could be meet. That where parents can jump in and help on remediation for their child. This way the students are continually getting this "growth" mindset in steeled in them.