stanford university’s ca...ucation _ onedublin
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Stanford University’s Carol Dweck on the Growth
Mindset and Education
JUNE 19, 2012 by James Morehead“You’re so talented!”, “You are gifted – a natural!”, “You’re doing so well in school, you must be reallysmart!” – children receive these messages (or their negative counterparts), along with many other messageson a daily basis from their peers, parents and teachers. Are these just words or do they mean more? How arechildren affected by the words we use to praise, coach and criticize them?
I recently met with Stanford University’s Carol S. Dweck(https://www.stanford.edu/dept/psychology/cgi-bin/drupalm/cdweck) (Department of Psychology –Lewis and Virginia Eaton Professor) to learn more about her fascinating research into “self-conceptions (or
mindsets (http://mindsetonline.com/)) people use to structure the self and guide their behavior”. Ireached out to Dr. Dweck after reading her book “Mindset: The New Psychology of Success(http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345472322/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0345472322&linkCode=as2&tag=oneduborg-20&linkId=MO3OAMMQVNG6AQJY)” which challenged my belief system about intelligence. While I
believed hard work can make the difference between two intelligent people, I also believed intelligence to bemore of a fixed trait – something you are born with, rather than something you can develop.
Dr. Dweck’s research, compelling and thorough, challenges this widely held belief, or ‘fixed mindset’, bydemonstrating how powerful a ‘growth mindset’ can be in achieving success and happiness.
OneDublin.org: What sparked your interest in the field of psychology?
(http://onedublin.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/lewis-and-virginia-eaton-professor-of-psychology-at-stanford-university.jpg)
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Carol Dweck: “I was always interested in people and why they do what they do, and that crystallized incollege. Psychology combined many of my interests: I loved the scientific method – putting your ideas to thetest – and I liked the human subject matter of psychology.
“W e’re always being told nowadays to ‘find your passion’. I say ‘build your passion’ – find or create a topic,and a way of studying it, that will become your passion. What I do in psychology didn’t exist – I had tobuild it.”
OneDublin.org: What was your trigger to pursue research into mindsets?
Dweck: “I was fascinated by how people cope with failure or obstacles. I was curious about why somestudents love challenge, and others who may be equally talented, shy away from challenges – play it safe. I
just wanted to figure that out.
“Later on I also realized that this interest was fed by a past experience of mine. My 6th grade teacher seatedus around the room in I.Q. order (M indset : The New Psychol ogy o f Success
( ht t p://www .amazon.com/gp/product/0345472322/ref=as_li _t l?
ie=UTF8& camp=1789& creat i ve=9325& creat i veASIN=0345472322& l i nkCode=as2& t ag=oneduborg-
20& link I d=M O3OAMM QVNG6AQJY) ), and although I did well in that metric it created this fear of falling from grace, of making the mistake of not being as perfect as I needed to be. I wanted to unlock that
psychology and maybe bottle it, find out the underlying reasons people are afraid of challenges or crumblingin the face of setbacks, and ultimately help kids.”
OneDublin.org: When you started your research did you have much to draw from?
(http://onedublin.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/stanford-university-psychology-department.jpg)
Dweck: “There were inkl ings of research. There was work on learned
helplessness in animals, where animals would stop trying to dothings that were within their power to do, because of their pastexperiences. There started to be work in attribution theory, showinghow people’s interpretations of their successes and failures couldreally influence their motivation. In my work I started to put thosethings together – I started to ask if children’s interpretation of theirmistakes or setbacks could create their responses.”
OneDublin.org: What is your definition of fixed and growth mindsets?
Dweck: “In a fixed mindset students believe their basic abilities, their intelligence, their talents, are just fixed traits. They have a certain amount and that’s that, and then their goal becomes to look smart all thetime and never look dumb.
“I n a growth mindset students understand that their talents and abilities can be developed through effort, good teaching and persistence. They don’t necessarily think everyone’s the same or anyone can be Einstein,but they believe everyone can get smarter if they work at it.”
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OneDublin.org: Is there a widely held belief in the fixed mindset and what is the source ofmindsets?
(http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345472322/ref=as_li_tl?
ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0345472322&linkCode=as2&tag=oneduborg-
20&linkId=MCMZKYIZDIKOGT77)
Dweck: “Both mindsets are widely held. Generally we find about 40% of people, students and adults,endorse the growth mindset, 40% the fixed and the remainder are in the middle – they can’t make up theirminds.
“I think both mindsets are rampant in our culture. We’ve always had the message that practice makes perfect, anyone can do anything if they put their minds to it, but we also have this worship of genius andtalent. When we look at tremendous performers, like Michael Jordan, when we look at superstars, when welook at geniuses, we assume they were born that way because we don’t see what went into their
accomplishments.“I teach a freshman seminar here at Stanford every year on mindsets. For one assignment I have the studentsdo research on their hero and find out whether the hero was so famous or successful because they werenaturally talented or whether they in fact they had to overcome a lot of adversity and work really hard. Notonce has it ever been the case that their hero coasted.”
OneDublin.org: With all that’s been written about the success of Apple, and the role Steve Jobsplayed in that success, how would you classify Steve Jobs?
Dweck: “I’ve thought about it a lot when I read Steve Job’s biography and I think Job’s had a real growth
mindset about himself. He was constantly experimenting, using the feedback and creating new things fromit. But I don’t think he necessarily had a growth mindset about other people. He wanted them to be perfectand they lived in fear of coming to him and getting his disapproval, instead of his approval. You can have adifferent mindset about yourself and other people.”
OneDublin.org: What are the downsides for parents using phrases like this with their children –‘You are so smart!’ and ‘You are so talented!’
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weck: “I think the self-esteem movement really trained our society’s intuitions about how to create happyand successful kids. The idea was you could hand kids self-esteem on a silver platter by praising them, bytelling them how smart and special they are, and this would set them for life and everything else good would
follow. But I had already been doing research on vulnerable and resilient kids for decades and I knew it wasthe vulnerable ones that were focused on being smart and I worried that praising intelligence and practiceslike that put a spotlight on intelligence and also told kids that’s what we value you for, that’s why weadmire you.
“W e’ve done a long series of studies now with all ages of kids and we’ve seen that praising intell igencebackfires. It puts them in a fixed mindset and not want challenges. They don’t want to risk looking stupidor risk making mistakes. Kids praised for intelligence curtail their learning in order to never make amistake, in order to preserve the label you gave to them.
“Students praised for the process they engaged in – their effort, their strategies, their focus, their perseverance – these kids take on hard tasks and stick with them, even if they make lots of mistakes. Theylearn more in the long run.”
OneDublin.org: Discuss one of the many studies you’ve performed on mindsets in more detail.
Dweck: “We brought students, 5th graders, one at a time into a room from their school and we gave themten problems from a non-verbal I.Q. test. After they completed the ten problems we gave each child one kindof praise. Some kids were praised for their intelligence: ‘That’s a really good score, you must be smart.’, somewere praised for the process – in this case effort: ‘Boy, that’s a really good score, you must have worked hard.’,and some kids were just told: ‘That’s a really good score.’ for purposes of comparison.
“W e then asked students, ‘So, what do you want to work on now?’ and we described either tasks in theircomfort zone (where they wouldn’t make mistakes) or challenging tasks (where they would make mistakesbut learn something important).
“The majority of kids who were praised for their intelligence wanted the easy task in their comfort zonewhereas the overwhelming majority of kids praised for the process wanted the hard task they could learn
from.
“Later we gave everyone really hard problems and we saw that the kids praised for intelligence lost theirconfidence because if success meant they were smart, struggle meant they weren’t, and they lost theirenjoyment of the task. Even when we went back to the easier task their performance suffered, and later onthey lied about their score.
“The kids who had been praised for the process stayed confident, saw the problems were harder and worked at
it, and remained engaged. When we went back to the easier problems their score on the I.Q. test was higherthan it had been before. They didn’t lie when asked about how they’d done on the hard problems – they toldthe truth, there was nothing undermining or humiliating about struggling with something new ordifficult.
“W e did the study six times because the results were so powerful: we wanted to make sure the results werereal.”
OneDublin.org: Have you done any studies on the proclivity to cheat as it related to the mindsets?
Dweck: “Yes we have. We’ve shown with a large sample of middle school students that after a poor score on a
test the students with a fixed mindset say yes, they would seriously consider cheating. A TV show in Korearecreated our praise studies and they showed that children and adults who were told they were brilliant for atask cheated substantially more than those praised for their process, for their effort.”
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OneDublin.org: Have there been longitudinal studies that have tracked performance over time bymindset?
Dweck: “We’ve tracked students over two years, students making a transition to junior high (7th grade),and we saw their math grades pull apart. The only difference between the two groups was their mindset.”
OneDublin.org: What steps do you recommend parents and teachers take in response to yourresearch on mindsets?
Dweck: “I think the way we praise, the way we talk to kids, all of these messages are conveying a valuesystem. So when we say to someone ‘Oh, you’re so smart’, it says that’s what we value. When we say to a kid‘Oh, you did that so quickly, you’re really good at it’, we’re telling them doing something quickly and easilymeans you’re good at it, and if you have to work hard you aren’t good at it. Or if we say ‘Wow, I’m reallyimpressed’, and they haven’t really worked hard, then we’re saying that’s what impresses me – that if youmake a mistake, if you struggle, it doesn’t impress me.
“W e have to really send the right messages, that taking on a challenging task is what I admire. Sticking tosomething and trying many strategies, that’s what I admire. That struggling means you’re committed to
something and are willing to work hard. Parents around the dinner table and teachers in the classroomshould ask, ‘Who had a fabulous struggle today?'”
OneDublin.org: You’ve seen a lot of students in your time at Columbia and now at Stanford –what advice do you have for the Class of 2012 as they leave high school and transition to college?
Dweck: “Two things. One is to remember that the brain grows new connections when you learn and that you are going to have to grow a lot of new connections in college. College is not like high school and it reallyrequires that you hunker down, dig in and get all the help that you need to figure out this new game. Andthe other thing, which is related, is figure out how to use all of the resources in the environment to help youchoose the right courses, to help you navigate the system, to make it as good an experience for yourself as you
can.
“A lot of people come from high schools where they’ve been spoon-fed or they’ve gotten a lot of attention,where they know the ropes, and they feel kind of lost in college. It’s not just about feeling that you have thebrain power to tackle the academic material, it really is about finding your way around, and making theenvironment work for you.”
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(http://onedublin.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/stanford-university-jordan-hall.jpg)Stanford University – Jordan Hall
rom→ Education Innovation29 Comments leave one→1. Phyllis PERMALINK
June 19, 2012 7:49 amThank you OneDublin.org for publishing the great interview with Dr. Dweck! I had the honor andprivilege of studying under Dr. Dweck when I was a psychology major at the University of Illinois. Ilearned so much from her, but the most important thing I learned was her theories on mindset and thatreally did help me raise my daughters over the past 22 years, one of which just graduated summa cumlaude from UCLA this past weekend-not because she was brilliant (although I do sometimes keep thatthought in the back of my mind), but because she worked her tushy off these past four years! Thank
you Dr. Dweck for helping me raise two wonderful hard working girls and thank you OneDublin.orgfor giving your readers the chance to learn from Dr.Dweck what I learned 33 years ago!
REPLY2. Escher PERMALINK
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July 6, 2012 2:08 amVery interesting and enlightening article. I wonder if D. Dweck has followed up to see if the mindset issomething fixed or changeable? (ie. if one mindset takes hold at 5th grade, can it then be changed by,say 7th grade?) I have this nagging fear that the mindset is unchangeable beyond certain age, and alsosome people are more challenged at attaining growth mindset (think about trying to get ADD or ADHDchildren to STAY focused on the task at hand).
REPLY
3. María Teresa Garza PERMALINKSeptember 15, 2012 6:13 pm
I am really delighted by Dr. Dweck ideas. I think they are basic to help children achieve in school andlive happier lives. I wonder if there has been any studies trying to correlate the concepts of mindset typeand self regulation processes?
REPLY4. jadewesterman PERMALINK
August 25, 2014 11:26 am
Reblogged this on Learning How to Learn and commented:
James Morehead’s interview with Carol Dweck, given as a worthwhile additional popular article forWeek 1 Reading of the Learning How to Learn MOOC course on Coursera. Referenced within my post,‘Coaching a Growth Mindset’
REPLY
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