Sunday, August 30, 2015

Growth Mindset


Carol Dweck has an interesting approach in the video “The Power Of Believing That You Can Improve” when she explains the importance of using the words “not yet” and praising the effort rather than the final product.  I have never seen this video or even thought about this subject before but everything she explains to us in the video makes perfect and plausible sense.  We have the scientific proof in the research that this approach improves the minds and lives of kids even in the areas where people would least expect it.  We have always been praised for the completion of a task or receiving a good grade in a class but it would be a lot easier to stay motivated and to keep pushing yourself if you have praise throughout the journey no matter how big or small.  On the spectrum on the growth-fixed mindset, I feel like I do like to challenge myself in many situations.  Sometimes this can get exhausting and I slack to take the easy road for a small amount of time, but overall, I always love a great challenge.  I challenge myself the most in my relationships that I build in college and networking.  I am always reaching out to make new friends and be in a thousand different organizations.   I think I need to be more motivated to improve my growth mindset in the classes that I take.  As a child, I pushed myself in every subject because I wanted to learn as much as I possibly can.  Now, with a busy schedule and a focus on getting into graduate school, my main concern is to get an A in the class even though I may not be completely engaged in the material.  This semester will be much easier to challenge myself and be very engaged because they are all classes that I am interested in.  As a senior, the majority of the classes I am taking from now on are classes within my major.   I was very intrigued with the Growth Mindset Challenge and would love to know more and apply this to my life.



I loved this image because this is something I feel very strong about.  So many people are too scared to make mistakes and mess up, but in my opinion, mistakes create the smartest people because they have the most to learn by.   

2 comments:

  1. Hi Alyse,
    I couldn't agree any more with your sentiments on the motivational meme. I think certain aspects of life can be so intimidating and we get so preoccupied with the actual mistake than what you could actually learn from it.

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  2. Alyse,

    I think that you made some very valid points. As we get closer to being done we get lost in just trying to get the grade to get into the programs that we are interested in. My friend was once told my a professor that grades did not matter because they weren't going to save anyone ( we are wanting to go into health careers) . She said, "knowing how to do something and apply yourself is what will save a person. I then took this as something that I want to stand by because whenever we cram for the grade is it more likely to forget that information rather than learn the information. I wish that concept could be told to many other students around us.

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