Growth Mindset

I had never heard of Carol Dweck 's growth mindset before, but after hearing about it I can see how it plays a major role in today education system. So much of education today is geared towards the final results and not on learning or enjoying the process. Personally, I fall somewhere in the middle of her scale, somewhere in between fixed and growth mindset. When a class challenges me, I am definitely growth. For me it is all about learning, not a grade. Rather it is about the sheer enjoyment of learning something new. I will go out of my way to acquire new and interesting information, because that information may a missing puzzle piece that will start to complete my picture. In reverse, if a class is easy I will do just barely enough to get an A , and that is it. I will not try. Everything seems gray and drab in comparison to a challenging course.

I agree with Dweck that the end result should not matter as much as contemporary education thinks it should. The process, how and why the knowledge was acquired should matter. Knowledge should be gathered for the should for the sake of leaning new things, not to satisfy some far off end-game requirement.

I would love to learn about how how growth mindset could be applied to daily life. I think it would be interesting to see how it could be applied to overcoming personal goals outside of school. Perhaps, in pursuing competency with technology or personal health goals, like healthy eating or exercise. I can definitely see growth mindset or a similar program helping me overcoming my shyness and getting me to go beyond my introvert safe comfort zone. Hopefully I will not need to use these strategies in class, if they are challenging enough on their own I can rely on my previous habits of going above and beyond out of enjoyment. However, growth mindset could certainty encourage me to challenge myself regardless of the difficulty of my classes.

Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson
issue 5/22/1992: Go Comics