"Carol Dweck theorizes that parent's well- intentioned praise contributes to the formation of unproductive fixed mindset thoughts. http://www.salon.com/2015/08/16/the_education_fad_thats_hurting_our_kids_what_you_need_to_know_about_growth_mindset_theory_and_the_harmful_lessons_it_imparts/ "Alfie Khon argues. "All we have to do is get kids to adopt the right attitude, to think optimistically about their ability to handle whatever they've been given to do". Even if, quite frankly, it's not worth doing. I definitely agree with Alfie Kohn you have to achieve. I also feel there is nothing wrong with praising your child for doing well I think it helps encourage them to keep working hard. How is that being unproductive. Dr. Carol Dweck coined the terms fixed mindset and growth mindset to describe the underlying beliefs people have about learning and intelligence. Growth mindset has more of an impact on me now than my young adult and teenages years. I’m learning to understand and appreciate on how criticism has help me to grow and become a better thinker. I believe that I was given a second chance to grow and learn from my actions.
Before I became an adult, when I was a teenager I was surrounded by a fixed mindset culture. I knew that I was intelligent I just didn't always show it in my work. I wanted to be cute was part of intelligence at the time. I also thought being the class clown was part of being smart. You had to know how to make people laugh everybody can’t do that, but I was intelligent too. I did at times have a growth mindset. At times I would be interested in a topic that one of my teachers were talking about and the more interested it became the more I wanted to learn about it. Now, granted I didn't like constructive criticism then because I always had the attitude I know everything or if I didn't I’ll just get it from somebody I know knows the work. When often times I didn’t do good in school I would either get paddled or put on punishment until I pulled my grades up. I didn’t understand the reason behind being put on punishment for not having F on your report cards. No one never really stop to think was I really understanding the curriculum that was being taught. I was on a fixed mindset at that time because I really didn’t understand what was being taught so I just didn’t learn it. “Dweck believes too many students are hobbled by the belief that intelligence is a fixed trait. She says kids with what she calls “fixed mindsets” stop trying when confronted with challenge because they’ve convinced themselves that they’re not good at math or writing or whatever the subject is”. “She argues that adults can instead, help foster a “growth mindset”- the belief that the brain is like a muscle that can grow stronger through hard work. I don’t think that it’s wrong to tell your they are smart. I look at that as being encouragement to keep pushing and work hard. What I don’t like is when your parents see that you're struggling with a subject and upset with you when your trying really hard, but you're just not grasping the concepts of what your learning. My parents had me tutor at Sylvan Learning Center when I was in highschool I guess they thought that would change my fixed mindset to a growth mindset, but it didn’t. Instead it work my nerves and caused me to have a attitude. It’s not that I didn’t want to learn I just made up in my mind what I wanted to learn. It hurted me in the long run because now I’m struggling more today as a college student and have to work extra harder to achieve. I’m at a part of my life now where as though fixed mindset can’t even be in my vocabulary. I ready for “growth mindset”. I’m eager to learn. I’m striving for greatness. My children are a reflection of me. So, when you see me at the age 37 with a backpack on my back walking through the halls of DCCC that’s a women with a growth mindset. I want to learn how to adapt more with the academic environment. I want growth mindset to be able to define me as a women, mother, as well as a college student. I never knew that learning was so important as much as I do now. I have a lot of friends that are on fixed mindset. Maybe, if they continue to see me grow they will change their mindset. I feel some people are so use to being let down and look at as a failures that they’ve gotten comfortable of the fact they can’t do no better than what their doing, so they stay at that fixed mindset. Again, you can change a fix to a growth if you work hard and stay focus.
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Author Shani PierceI will luse this blog on letting people in on a little about me and my children. Archives
May 2017
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