GROWTH MINDSET
AND ITS EFFECT ON
1. In her TED Talk "The Power of Believing You Can Improve", Carol Dweck attempts to argue that teaching children to adopt a growth mindset will help them perform far better than they would have otherwise, on virtually every possible measure.
2. Professor Dweck's purpose is to educate on the value of a growth mindset, and how that should be the way things are taught in schools in order to help children learn the best they can. 3. This argument was delivered through an academic lecture on TED-ED. 4. The impetus for this argument was Dweck's extensive research on the topic, and also the example of the Chicago school that, as opposed to stating a failing grade on a report card, instead told the students "Not Yet", which Dweck said was an example of growth mindset in the real world. 5. The audience of this speech was everyone watching Dweck during her TED Talk, but in reality her targeted audience was educators who could attempt to put into place policies that would reinforce the ideas the Professor was pushing. 6. Professor Dweck arranged her argument by beginning with said Chicago school anecdote, and went on to back up the initial idea of this anecdote with a plethora of research and evidence she had amassed over her career, only to bring it all around in the end with another anecdote about a letter from a student who had come to the same sorts of conclusions as she had. This second anecdote helped add some pathos to her logical and trust-based argument 7. The evidence for the Professor's argument was extensive; It included many, many years of research and scientific study as well as a wealth of experience in education. 8. I think I can apply what Professor Dweck described to my life in a number of ways, but Im not sure I agree entirely with the idea of growth mindset as a whole. So much of what we are is pre-determined, outside of our control, and unable to be changed. Im not sure that "intelligence" or "talent" can be changed, but what I am sure of is that they certainly aren't everything. The best point Dweck made in the entire talk, I think, was the "Tyranny of Now vs. the Fruit of Yet". I think this is such an integral idea to success in every way that its hard to understate its importance. The idea of delayed gratification is something that needs to be understood by everyone in order to succeed, because in our increasingly hedonistic society that value is being lost, when its really the only way to succeed at anything. So, in conclusion, I agree with that idea, but Im not sure the whole concept of growth mindset and "changing" fundamental parts of you is correct.
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Written By: Luke HandAmateur Know-it-All, Semi Professional student with nearly 10 years in Education. |