Developing a Growth Mind-set

I found a lot of useful insight in a recent article in Scientific American Mind by Carol S. Dweck. The article is titled The Secret to Raising Smart Kids, but it contains many useful comments on success and failure in general. For example, in one study it was shown that after repeated failures, most animals concluded that a situation is hopeless and beyond their control. From then on, the animals tended to remain passive even when they could affect events. They were in a state called learned helplessness. How often do we find ourselves in such a state with regards to a situation?

Now consider the attitudes in children towards successes and failures in school, in particular with their beliefs about why they fail. Children with a fixed mind-set believed intelligence was innate and fixed. Making mistakes or even the need to exert an effort was seen as a weakness, an indication that they lacked ability, which often lead to a downward spiral of further failures and learned helplessness.

Children with a growth mind-set believed that intelligence was malleable and can be improved though work and education. They viewed mistakes as something to be overcome and an opportunity to improve, as if the brain was a muscle that gets stronger with use. One inspiring student was observed to respond to a problem by pulling up a chair, rubbing his hands together, and saying “I love a challenge!” Students with such attitudes performed better academically in the long run that gifted children with the fixed mind-set.

How do you transmit a growth mind-set to children (or develop it in yourself)? They key way was to praise them for their effort, not their intelligence. Instead of saying “Wow, that’s a really good score – you must be smart”, use an alternative praise of the form “Wow, that’s a really good score – you must have worked very hard.” We can encourage similar attitudes in ourselves in a variety of fields by consciously deciding to view failures as challenging learning opportunities, and to be more proud of our efforts than our natural intelligence or skills when we do succeed. We should try to view ourselves as agents of our own brain development.