It’s the new big thing in teaching although it’s kind of intuitive. Good teachers don’t belittle the efforts of their students. Sure, most problems may have correct answers but there are ways you can help students who may not understand the answer get the answer without feeling insignificant. I think making a student feel small in order to feel superior illustrates small intelligence.
Side note: Went to a faculty meeting about growth mindset and there were several teachers who believe in fixed mindset. Why teach then?
In my experience, kids who think they are good at math are more or less OK even if they are somewhat wrong. It’s the ones who think that they are bad at math who get into trouble; they don’t even try. Some amount of overconfidence may be beneficial if it gives you experience — and if the consequences to failure are relatively low.
People who belittle their students need to get out of the profession.
Occasionally, I’ve tried to explain to students about the basic idea of growth mindset because they seem to be stuck with the idea that they are “bad at math” and avoid doing their homework, studying, or engaging with the material because of it. I’ve had very little success convincing them; I often get “that’s fine for you…” as a response. (As if I was born this way.)
It may be that I’m teaching college students who are already set in their ways. It may be that I need a better tactic.
I just remind them that they’re not always supposed to get it or else they could test out and move on. I deal with English, so it’s often new vocabulary/reading comprehension that troubles them. I remind them that I had to study and I went to college so that’s why I know more than they do…at this point. I also told them that I used to carry a dictionary in undergrad and grad school, and I was not an ELL. I may not get every one on board right away, but I do see some whose lightbulb goes on when I say this.
I also try to make fun of my mistakes and get them to laugh at their own. Humor helps.
I totally agree with this. I was told how smart I was all through my childhood and teenagerdom. My high school saddled me with a reputation as a “genius” as my sister discovered when the librarian (whom I never really talked to) pointed to her and told her colleague, “Her brother is a genius.” My other siblings had a similar experience encountering the apparent wake I left behind me (I’m the eldest). By then I was out of high school, but I do think I was somewhat unfairly saddled with a lot of expectations and I was too naive (ironically) to realize that it wasn’t normal. I learned to get bored with easy problems and it really hurt my ability to learn new things that required concerted effort and practice.
On the other hand, people consistently set low expectations for my brother, whom I’ve always believed was a capable and intelligent person in his own right, sibling rivalries aside. But he was typecast as, “good at sports.” And he was, but he always had more in him than that.
Now in my day to day life, I strive to understand the secret genius of others that no one ever acknowledges and try to learn from it. The genius of focused hard work and effort, for example, is something I’ve only had incremental success with.
It’s not so binary. I think that the philosophy behind growth mindset is that you can train your brain to work harder and you shouldn’t get down on yourself when you think you’re not as smart as one or more of your peers.
Obviously, there are brilliant minds out there and it doesn’t mean that all people have the possibility of becoming the next Einstein. But some people mistakenly believe that intelligence is static, and that there isn’t any chance increasing the capacity to learn. I think these people believe this in order to make themselves feel better (smarter).
Indeed, one of the things you can see in this study (which was already known and is therefore not reported as a novel finding) is that people overestimate themselves. Which seems maladaptive at first glance but must not be, and probably serves the purpose you describe.
Hmm. That I don’t know. I’ve read the stuff from Dweck some time ago, which was cited in this study. This particular paper seems to have a rather small sample size (and one that uses volunteers who get extra credit for their class).
It’s ironic that the author of this post (over-confidently?) used the wrong word (‘innate’) in the subject header. Of course, that’s what made me click on the tweeted link — how could intelligence not be innate?! — but yes, it seems that most of us who have more than a modicum of it have grokked that intelligence isn’t fixed at birth.
Thanks. This is interesting because one would infer that the opposite would hold true. Some of the very specific personality traits/quirks of separated twins seems incredibly interesting.
I found Dweck’s research applicable to teaching in that it’s similar to cognitive behavior therapy. You’re really working with the negative voices that children and adolescents (okay, all of us) listen to when struggling with concepts.
As @ActionAbe mentions upthread, comments about performance (even positive ones) may backfire. That’s why working with growth mindset in conjunction with improving study skills can help.
Well, this article aligns pretty well with advice I’ve seen with kids, which is that you never tell them they are “so smart” because they did something right, instead saying “you must have worked really hard at this.” The effect described in this article (seeking easier problems instead of working on hard ones), can be induced in grade one students by just saying one or the other of those things once.
It’s actually really intuitive. It works the same way as the 100m dash. You can practice and get faster, you can’t get as fast as Usain Bolt (I feel confident saying that). Similarly, you can practice and get smarter, but you can’t get as smart as me.
