By Dr. Maria Pouncey
“Growth Mindset” is the concept coined by Dr. Carol Dweck, a psychologist at Stanford University. She proposes to meet our challenges and with perseverance change our personality to improve. “Growth Mindset” represents the ability to grow our mentality instead of being set in our thoughts and actions. Have you ever thought why children with disabilities, such as dyslexia (reading difficulties, to see words or phrases in reverse), overcome obstacles to improve the world? One example was Thomas Edison, the inventor of the light bulb. It would have been easy for him to give up. On the contrary, it took several attempts to improve the bulb along with the help of many colleagues who supported him. After each defeat, he continued, again and again, until it worked. Another example, but at the other extreme, is of some outstanding athletes, who when faced with the first defeat, they gave up and/or blamed others for their failure. What is the difference? Character, is the difference and is what drives a person to work hard and extend beyond their capabilities.
The Florida Department of Education has promoted the movement of “Growth Mindset” as part of professional learning for educators. Educators are learning about the differences between a fixed and growth mindset and how to support our students thru strategies that encourage students to think how they can overcome losses and not blame others. It is best that we not let ourselves be overcome by a fixed mindset, believing that our abilities or talents we have is all that can be. On the contrary, as long as we focus on improving our lives with hard work and character, we can affect success in ourselves as well as our students. Outstanding athletes like Michael Jordan, or geniuses like Thomas Edison were successful because of their hard work! We too can do the same by changing from a fixed to a growth mindset. As Cesar Chavez said, “Yes we can”!
Source: Dweck, C. S. (2006). Mindset: The new psychology of success. New York: Random House.
