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Zoe Young

ENGL 1S/ 242A

Professor Valerie Fong

3 December 2017

Understanding and a Growth Mindset

It is important to realize that when dealing in the education of others, especially with

children, to emphasis that failure isnt more than a stepping stone to higher understanding. This

belief is one of the key markers of a growth mindset. A growth mindset is ...the belief that ones

skills and qualities could be cultivated through effort and perseverance, as defined by Christine

Gross-Loh in her article How Praise Became a Consolation Prize (1). Those with a growth

mindset view setbacks and feedback, not as much about their abilities, but as information they

can use to help themselves learn.

In order to understand any concept, we must also understand its opposite, in this case, a

fixed mindset. A fixed mindset is ...the belief that ones abilities were carved in stone and

predetermined at birth, (Gross-Loh 1). Commonly, those with a fixed mindset ...give up in the

face of obstacles, (Gross-Loh 2). The problem with this is that is gives way to rigid non-forward

thinking and actions. Many with a fixed mindset are obsessed with the now, that is to say their

current metal position, and shrink away from challenges, feeling that they are an attack on ones

intelligence. According to Marina Krakovsky in her article, The Effort Effect, when those with

a fixed mindset are faced with this attack, they recoil from it and only pursue activities at

which theyre sure to shine -- and avoid the sort of experiences necessary to grow and flourish in

any endeavor, (2).

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It is unfortunate to admit that when it comes to understanding these concepts that we

must also address when it is misunderstood and acted upon under a false sense of reasoning. The

growth mindset may be misunderstood, especially, when the concept is explained adequately, or

when a personal trigger for a fixed mindset is tripped where a student to the growth mindset will

stop listening because they fit the ideology to match what they are already doing even if it isnt a

growth mindset. When the latter occurs, it is not uncommon for a student of a growth mindset to

try to deflect the blame from themselves, when the result is undesired, to another, claiming the

other just has a fixed mindset and that they can do nothing to change that. This is something I

like to call having a fixed mindset about a growth mindset. When someone is unable to fully

understand any concept, it is impossible to believe that that concept could be executed

effectively or in the proper way that would be beneficial to anyone on the receiving end. This

could be fix easily. For instance, in teaching, an educator should pay attention to their students

needs, specifically, what techniques work versus which that dont depending on the learning

modalities of each individual student. When discussing learning modalities, it must be known

that visual, auditory, and kinesthetic (learning by touch) learning are what is being referred to.

However, these accommodations are not all that need to be met. Some students need to be

allocated either more time, or even a collaborative group to work with in order to understand and

move forward with their learning in a way that aids them to improve. My mother did this for me.

I was a child that grew up with an IEP (Individualized Education Plan) to deal with my

dyslexia. I needed extra time to read through texts and tests so I could do what I needed to do to

be even marginally successful in my education. In order to succeed, I needed to learn differently

than the other children around me. I was placed in specialized classes to learn how to adapt the

way my brain is wired so that I can actually learn. This class made sure that I had the
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modifications specified in my IEP, which also meant that the work I did was very different from

the rest of my classmates.

When I was fourteen and exiting the eighth grade, my parents were divorced and my

father was preparing to remarry. My mother, on the other hand, was a single parent that was still

recovering from a failed marriage, not with my father. I hated my friends and knew that I would

go nowhere if I continued to live in the shadow of their vapid self-absorption. It was a difficult

decision to make, but it was completely mine; I moved away from my mother and in with my

father to the Central Valley. After my sister and I moved, I started performing far better in school

because I wasnt being held to a ridiculously high standard, not to say that my standard for my

own education had lowered by any degree. By the time I was sixteen and in my junior year of

high school, I was able to drop my support class with total confidence that my performance

would hold; and by the time I was eighteen and in my senior year, I was able to drop my IEP all

together.

Looking back, if I had been kept in that same cookie cutter learning environment, I

would have drowned in the work load and recoiled from my peers. It is important to make

allowances for struggling students to have successes just to keep them motivated to keep trying.

If a student, no matter how old or young, is constantly being proven again and again that all of

their effort is worthless, that they will go nowhere in life if they cannot demonstrate that they

have mastered the material according to a generic standardized test, then eventually all of that

criticism, that self-hate, the constant voice that screams in their ear you know you will never be

good enough at this so why even try begins to get to them. It is so frustrating to go through life

feeling like no matter how hard you try to understand something that you will never be at the

level you should be.

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Currently, I am employed at a private school as an afterschool teacher. My job is to make

sure that my students understand the lessons from their classes and to help them succeed in their

studies. I know from personal experience, both as a student and as an educator now, that it is

very hard to break a fixed mindset, especially when it comes to how we view ourselves. Carol

Dweck, a noted Stanford psychology professor studying the power of mindsets, states in an

interview with Christine Gross-Loh, that we all, students and adults, have to look for our

fixed-mindset triggers and understand when we are falling into that mindset, (qtd. In Gross-Loh

4). I have two students that exemplify this idea perfectly.

George and Brian have been widely agreed upon by the staff to be highly difficult

children to work with. Both of them have been written off, both by themselves and unfortunately

their educators, that they are just bad kids. Having a learning disability, myself, and growing up

feeling angry, I feel for these boys. I know the frustrations they are going through when it comes

to performance in classes. I know what it is like to feel like the cards are stacked against me.

These boys need help to change their mindset about themselves in order to succeed in life. They

are both very gifted boys that need the proper guidance; however, to get them there, the mindsets

of all of their educators, both academic and non, must also change to a healthy growth mindset to

diminish the notion that these boys are in any way just bad.

No one is either good or bad, just as no one has just a fixed or growth mindset. It is

impossible to insure the success of our children, or even progress as adults, if we cannot

understand that our failures are no more than setbacks and lessons that we should look back on

and move forward from. This will not be easy, but nothing lasting or impactful ever is. In order

to make a difference, we all need to understand full heartedly and three-dimensionally the effect
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we have on our children and the people around us, the different ways to make a difference with

them academically and behaviorally, and do our level best to set them up for success mentally.
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Works Cited

Gross-Loh, Christine. How Praise Became a Consolation Prize. The Atlantic, Atlantic Media

Company. 16 Dec. 2016, www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2016/12/how-praise-

became-a-consolation-prize/510845/. 27 Nov. 2017.

Krakovsky, Marina. The Effort Effect. Stanford Magazine - Article, Jan. 2010.

alumni.stanford.edu/get/page/magazine/article/?article_id=32124. 27 Nov. 2017.