If so, it's time for us to adopt a growth mind-set and learn from our mistakes. It's time to deliver interventions that will truly boost students' motivation, resilience, and learning.
Great closer in my opinion. Doesn't antagonize those who think students are too sensitive and doesn't fault those students for their feelings. Closes out the article on a note of working towards very possible change.
Maybe we have produced a generation of students who are more dependent, fragile, and entitled than previous generations
Acknowledging the side of the argument that prompted the study to be conducted. I know this idea has not gone away at all since this article was published in 2007. If anything, it's more prevalent now.
Instead, we can help them gain the tools they need to maintain their confidence in learning by keeping them focused on the process of achievement.
Completely agree! Greatly constructive education method.
Adolescents often see school as a place where they perform for teachers who then judge them. The growth mind-set changes that perspective and makes school a place where students vigorously engage in learning for their own benefit.
Such a relatable though process. Living with anxiety, every social environment is a stage for judging, but school was some of the worst of it and could really put a dent in my confidence. Knowing there is hope to teach kids to escape those harmful thinking patterns that have hurt me in the past makes me happy.
“If you do not give up and you keep studying, you can find your way through.”
Such a drastic change of heart that attests to the effectiveness of the workshop. I'm happy to see such positive results and the author is making a really good case for her point of view.
One student noted that as a result of the animation she had seen about the brain, she could actually “picture the neurons growing bigger as they make more connections.”
Cute! and really nice to hear that the workshop was helpful to this student.
Students work through six modules, learning about the brain, visiting virtual brain labs, doing virtual brain experiments, seeing how the brain changes with learning, and learning how they can make their brains work better and grow smarter.
Really cool idea that I feel could be useful in making this workshop accessible to more students than the in-person workshop.
Aronson, Fried, and Good (2002) found an increase in students' valuing of academics, their enjoyment of schoolwork, and their grade point averages.
Similar results to the NYC experiment that support the author's idea.
Other researchers have obtained similar findings with a growth-mind-set intervention.
Providing a separate example of someone studying this topic. Adds additional perspective which further supports the author's idea. Contributes to lowering bias that may come from only presenting Dweck's opinion.
As a result of the training, he worked for hours one evening to finish an assignment early so that his teacher could review it and give him a chance to revise it. He earned aB+ on the assignment (he had been getting Cs and lower previously).
Bringing back mention of the kid from earlier is a great touch. Showing his improvement speaks to the effectiveness of the workshop and I'm happy for him!
What's more, the teachers—who were unaware that the intervention workshops differed—singled out three times as many students in the growth-mindset intervention as showing marked changes in motivation.
Interesting part of the experiment! Not allowing teachers to know which workshop is which contributes to the unbiased nature f the experiment. A teacher would naturally want to offer more support to a student they knew was not placed in the helpful workshop.
Those in the control group, despite their excellent study skills intervention, continued their decline.
Sad to hear but a good example of the author's argument. Really shows how much mindset effects academic performance.
Although both groups had experienced a steep decline in their math grades during their first months of junior high, those receiving the growth-mind-set intervention showed a significant rebound.
Super cool and makes me happy to hear!
the most unruly boy of the lot looking up at us and saying, “You mean I don't have to be dumb?”
Aww! This really hits close! Sometimes it really feels like you're stuck being a certain way and can't change. I'm happy the author included this quote. It's such a human feeling that shows her consideration for the feelings of the students in the intervention.
They learned that the brain is like a muscle—the more they exercise it, the stronger it becomes. They learned that every time they try hard and learn something new, their brain forms new connections that, over time, make them smarter.
I knew this about the brain already, and I can see why it would be useful to tell these students this fact.
We therefore developed an eight-session workshop in which both the control group and the growth-mind-set group learned study skills, time management techniques, and memory strategies (Blackwell et al., 2007). However, in the growth-mind-set intervention, students also learned about their brains and what they could do to make their intelligence grow.
Further explains the research environment and process.
We performed our intervention in a New York City junior high school in which many students were struggling with the transition and were showing plummeting grades.
Important to include, Clearly explains what the research environment was.
Many students take stock of themselves and their intellectual abilities at this time and decide whether they want to be involved with school. Not surprisingly, it is often a time of disengagement and plunging achievement.
I can personally understand where this comes from. I was definitely going through a lot mentally when i was in middle school and was very sensitive.
We decided to aim our intervention at students who were making the transition to 7th grade because this is a time of great vulnerability
Good detail to include. Explains why the choice was made and makes a good point. Studying vulnerable and impressionable students is a good choice when investigating the malleability of their thinking patterns. Additionally, fixed-minded students may be clearer with how the idea of failure hurts them.
“I liked the effort you put in. Let's work together some more and figure out what you don't understand.” Process praise keeps students focused, not on something called ability that they may or may not have and that magically creates success or failure, but on processes they can all engage in to learn.
Same importance as the previous annotation. Providing encouragement for other types of students and explaining how this praise would effect how they think.
I would say, “All right, that was too easy for you. Let's do something more challenging that you can learn from.” We don't want to make something done quickly and easily the basis for our admiration.
Constructive words that could be used by a teacher reading this article. It was a good choice for the author to include suggestions for alternative ways to praise students. otherwise the premise of the paper would just be "The way you're praising your students is harmful" without a way to avoid that harm.
almost 40 percent of the intelligence-praised students lied. Apparently, their egos were so wrapped up in their performance that they couldn't admit mistakes
Really interesting! Also important to include as it shows how deep the idea of failure can cut for these students, leading them to lie to make a better impression.
When the problems were made somewhat easier again, students praised for intelligence did poorly, having lost their confidence and motivation
I didn't expect this! i know I'd be happy if presented with easier work, but it does make sense why they would have lost motivation.
Only the effort-praised kids remained, on the whole, confident and eager.
Very interesting. This whole article has made me really consider how praise works and how it could hurt kids on their learning path. The author was successful in making me think deeply about the subject!
As a group, students who had been praised for their intelligence lost their confidence in their ability and their enjoyment of the task as soon as they began to struggle with the problem.
Definitely relate to this. I can understand how the fixed thought pattern would lead students to this conclusion.
Most of those praised for intelligence wanted the easy task, whereas most of those praised for effort wanted the challenging task and the opportunity to learn
I'd pick easier too! I definitely expected this choice from my perspective.
praise for intelligence tended to put students in a fixed mind-set (intelligence is fixed, and you have it), whereas praise for effort tended to put them in a growth mind-set (you're developing these skills because you're working hard).
I already noted what could be a good thesis, but this statement clearly acts to express the main argument of this article.
Students praised for intelligence made significantly more references to innate, fixed capacity, whereas the students praised for effort made more references to skills, knowledge, and areas they could change through effort and learning
Interesting question to ask the students! i'm not sure how I would define intelligence myself, but seeing the clear differences in their responses to the question is interesting and really buffs up the author's claim.
Students praised for intelligence agreed with statements like these more than students praised for effort did
Given what I have already read, I expected this result.
the teacher praised some of them for their intelligence (“You must be smart at these problems”) and others for their effort (“You must have worked hard at these problems”).
Interesting experiment! Good basis for direct comparison in this approach.
Praising students' intelligence gives them a short burst of pride, followed by a long string of negative consequences.
Probably a good thesis statement for this article. Presents the further contents, and makes readers interested in knowing what those consequences are.
as young as 4 years old and as old as adolescence, in students in inner-city and rural settings, and in students of different ethnicities
Buffs up the credibility of the research, having studied students of many ages, communities, and ethnic backgrounds to make sure everyone is represented.
Many educators have hoped to maximize students' confidence in their abilities, their enjoyment of learning, and their ability to thrive in school by praising their intelligence
Definitely true, and they definitely don't mean harm.
we find that those with growth mind-sets outperform their classmates with fixed mind-sets—even when they entered with equal skills and knowledge
Definitely important to consider. I've seen many times people believe that students aren't trying or aren't skilled enough, when they may really just be overwhelmed and struggling.
She listens to everything the teacher says, asks the teacher questions after class, and takes her textbook home and reads the chapter over twice. As she begins to get it, she feels exhilarated. A new world of math opens up for her.
This is definitely easier said than done for neurodivergent kids, and a lot easier to do for neurotypical kids. From the fixed thinking perspective, I can attest that seeing others' seemingly easy success with certain subjects contributed to feelings of jealousy and inadequacy that further pushed me to want to give up. The efforts of successful growth-minded students shouldn't be ignored, but maybe another thing holding fixed-minded students back could be comparing themselves in the presence of their more successful peers. The example fixed-minded student definitely struggled with that!
The student feels anxious and thinks, “What if I'm not as good at math as I thought? What if other kids understand it and I don't?”
Too relatable! Especially having ADHD and anxiety, I have thought this many times when I've struggled in school.
His interest in math begins to wane, and his attention wanders.
This sounds like a kid with ADHD, honestly! A lot of us tend to fall into this fixed thinking pattern and throw away things that don't interest us or that we aren't immediately good at. A big reason why is RSD as I mentioned earlier! A brain caught in an RSD spiral can easily wander to extremes like this student's immediate urge to give up under threat of failure. Maybe there's an argument to be made here about the fact that public schooling wasn't built with neurodivergent kids in mind.
Let's look at another student—one who has a growth mind-set
Important to include perspectives from both thinking patterns.
For them, effort is a positive thing: It ignites their intelligence and causes it to grow
While I definitely fall into the fixed-thinking pattern, I definitely agree with this notion! It's easy to give up and not try, but trying hard leads to the most satisfying rewards. Sometimes it's difficult to find the motivation, but it's worth it!
Let's get inside the head of a student with a fixed mind-set as he sits in his classroom
This is important to include. Without a look into how different students think and feel as a result of their experience with praise, the entire argument falls apart. It was a good choice by the author to write a hypothetical situation that teachers may be able to connect to one of their real students.
confronted with algebra for the first time
Oh God, not algebra! Algebra is the worst! Being stuck in algebra would definitely lead me to want to give up on trying.
decreasetheir efforts and consider cheating
I've definitely done this before, especially in math!
students in the fixed mind-set don't recover well from setbacks
Interesting. I have definitely felt overwhelmed by perceived failure or setbacks, but I never considered the bigger picture of how my thinking patterns may have caused me to think that way.
This is one of the worst beliefs that students can hold
Strongly agree
They believe that if you have the ability, you shouldn't need effort
In my case I can't relate well to believing this idea, but it does seem very important as a reason students who fall into this thinking model may struggle.
rather than correct them, they try to hide them
Also relatable, now I'm sure which model out of the two I fall into!
students with this mind-set reject opportunities to learn if they might make mistakes
Hits close to home for me.
students care first and foremost about how they'll be judged: smart or not smart
Good summary of the model (and relatable).
he meant his test to be a tool for identifying students who were not profiting from the public school curriculum so that other courses of study could be devised to foster their intellectual growth.
Very interesting! I didn't know this at all! Nowadays the impression an IQ test seems to give to most people is just a "are you smart or are you dumb" assessment. I'm both happy to know that the test was created with consideration for students who may not benefit from usual schooling and upset that the test has been used so differently from its original purpose. The current public schooling system is worthy of loads of criticism, and I wish Binet's original idea that the test could lead a student to a form of education that may benefit them more was properly executed today!
that fundamental aspects of intelligence can be enhanced through learning (Sternberg, 2005); and that dedication and persistence in the face of obstacles are key ingredients in outstanding achievement
Important (and something I already thought before reading)
We are discovering that the brain has more plasticity over time than we ever imagined
Important (and interesting)
Not worrying about how smart they will appear, they take on challenges and stick to them
I've seen kids like this before, and I can't say I fit into this category very well. Excited to see if the author explains how this thinking model operates/how it should be handled by teachers.
excessively concerned with how smart they are, seeking tasks that will prove their intelligence and avoiding ones that might not
Can definitely relate to and agree with this, having grown up with both ADHD and social anxiety. I can add that a major player in this desire to avoid potential failure (at least for me) has to do with Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria, an ADHD symptom.
Praise is intricately connected to how students view their intelligence. Some students believe that their intellectual ability is a fixed trait. They have a certain amount of intelligence, and that's that.
I agree with this and have felt this about myself before!
Fixed or Malleable?
Reminds me of the nature vs. nurture argument.
specific interventions can reverse a student's slide into failure during the vulnerable period of adolescence.
Reveals purpose of article: to make aware of issues with praise and to suggest ways a student's growth can be improved.
Research shows
Also provides credibility, argument is supported by research.
As a psychologist
Important, provides credibility to the argument.
Our research has shown that the first belief is false and that the second can be harmful—even for the most competent students.
Interesting! Initially I agreed with the first idea, but I'd like to know more about why it is apparently false. Mixed feelings about the second idea, not sure what I think about it.
Is this true? Have we inadvertently done something to hold back our students?
Good question