Mindsets for Success

Are people born
smart and talented?

Einstein

Michael Jordan

Walt Disney

Mindsets
Carol Dweck, Ph.D., Stanford

Mindsets

• Belief about ability; affects decisions related to learning
• Fixed ---------- Growth

Talent is a starting point.

Talent is a starting point.

Innate ability contributes about 25% of achievement.

What skills make up the other 75%?

Psychosocial Skills

• Perseverance
• Self-confidence
• Emotional regulation
• Resiliency
• Comfort with intellectual tension
• Ability to handle critique, feedback
• Coping skills for failure, disappointment

Growth Mindset

Fixed Mindset:
Look smart at all costs.

Growth Mindset:
Learn.

Fixed Mindset:
It should come naturally. If it doesn't, I'm not good at it.

Growth Mindset:
Hard work and effort help me improve.

Fixed Mindset:
Hide mistakes & conceal deficiencies.

Growth Mindset:
Confront deficiencies.
Capitalize on mistakes.

Mindsets exist along a continuum and can be dynamic.

Cognitive Neuroscience 101

86 Billion+ Neurons

Brains are more like muscles than skeletons.

Brains grow as neurons get denser and new ones are added.

Neuroplasticity

Learning changes the physical map of the brain.

Every time we recall a memory or have a new thought, we are creating new neural connections.

Brains only develop when challenged by increasingly difficult tasks.

A goal of education must be pushing the brain past the point of comfort.

Sustained effort is required:

• to build new connections between neurons
• to integrate new neurons into old neural pathways

We have
Fantastic, Elastic Brains!

Words Matter

SMART

SMART is something we guard.

Effective Praise

• Effort Praise
• Strategy Praise
• Persistence Praise

What to praise?

• Persistence in the face of challenge
• Application of strategies
• Improvement
• Taking on difficult/complex tasks
• Specific effort

Keep the focus on what the person DID, not who the person IS.

Comfort Zone

Easy is boring and a waste of time.
Hard is interesting and worth doing.

If it's too easy, there's no growth.

Panic Zone

Learning Zone

"Sweet Spot"

Growth Mindset became a "buzz"
in K-12 education.

It seems like a simple concept...

But it is deceptively complex.

What do we believe about ability?

How does that impact the messages we send to students?

Do you know which teachers loved their work?

Do you know which teachers loved YOU?

Of course you do.

Look left, look right...

Untitled Slide

Do students see models of struggle? Perseverance?

Can we be mentors of growth?

In 2014, 1 in 3 undergraduates changed majors at least once.

Students in STEM fields were 6% more likely to change majors.

52% of students who start as math majors choose another field.

"All of a sudden, I'm not good at it anymore."

Mistakes & Failures?

Struggle

"Duck Syndrome"
at Stanford

Productive Failure?

Could non-mastery yield a grade of
"not yet?"

An exam does not measure intelligence.
It measures success "right now."

to take risks?

Power of YET

"The ability to change is one of the
least-appreciated professional characteristics of a teacher."
-Terry Heick