Growth Mindset
Growing up I would hear people talk about how intelligent someone was and how they must have a big brain to be that smart. Scientifically you’re born with a brain and it’s roughly the same size as everyone else. The brain itself doesn’t necessarily grow in size but grows with more knowledge than you started with. I was very surprised at what I found when I began to research this topic of growing your brain. Have you ever wondered if it was possible to grow your brain?
As I began researching the topic “Can you grow your brain” I was astonished to find out that there are two types of mindsets that people typically have. You can either have a growth mindset or a fixed mindset. A person with a growth mindset believes that putting in hard work and effort can improve any skill over time. A person with a fixed mindset believes that intelligence and talent is something you’re just born with and cannot be changed. Before I began exploring this topic I had never heard of a fixed mindset or growth mindset. So what mindset did I discover I have?
My search began with the Mindset Assessment, from the “Mindset Works” website, a quiz that my instructor assigned to everyone in my class. You are asked a list of questions in order to find out if you have a growth or fixed mindset. Upon doing this quiz I found out that I have a growth mindset. I know that with practice and hard work it is possible to become more intelligent at anything. I was a little surprised by this because at times I feel as if I have more of a fixed mindset than I do growth mindset. Attaining this information about myself makes me want to push myself even harder to learn more and continue on the path of a growth mindset.
My search continued with the article “Even Geniuses Work Hard” by Carol Dweck. An article that talks about growth and fixed mindsets in a school environment. Carol Dweck illustrates that there are two different types of students and mindsets. There is a fixed mindset and growth mindset. “Individuals with a fixed mindset believe that their intelligence is simply an inborn trait —they have a certain amount, and that's that. In contrast, individuals with a growth mindset believe that they can develop their intelligence over time (Blackwell, Trzesniewski, & Dweck, 2007; Dweck, 1999, 2007).” With these two mindsets in mind students have different behaviors associated with each one. Dweck explains that she believes giving people meaningful learning tasks will in return help them achieve a growth mindset. “I believe that meaningful work can also teach students to love challenges, to enjoy effort, to be resilient, and to value their own improvement” (Dweck). She says that when you give them meaningful tasks then they feel more successful. Dweck also says that the way you grade a student’s work could help motivate the student to develop a growth mindset. Dweck also acknowledges that using the word ‘yet’ can motivate students.
After reading Dweck’s article I agree that giving students the right growth mindset environment and meaningful learning tasks are essential for growing their mindsets. I think giving student tasks that push them to have more of a growth mindset is a positive learning. Dweck states that while giving students these meaningful tasks, it allows students to see their progress and how to continue to improve. Using these tasks and showing the students the progress, they have made makes them excited to learn more. At this point you are helping the students want to continue the path to have a growth mindset. I truly believe that Dweck’s strategies are effective in helping students achieve a growth mindset if they don’t already have one.
My next article was “You Can Grow Your Brain” an article written by Lisa Blackwell. Lisa Blackwell illustrates that it is possible to actually grow your brain and make it stronger. She says with practice and learning over time your brain will become stronger. “When you learn new things, these tiny connections in the brain actually multiply and get stronger. The more you challenge your mind to learn, the more your brain cells grow” says Blackwell. Blackwell explains that studies have shown that the brain is actually more like a muscle and the more you use it the stronger it will become. Blackwells says “But new research shows that the brain is more like a muscle— it changes and gets stronger when you use it. Scientists have been able to show just how the brain grows and gets stronger when you learn”. She speaks of a study in which people who did not know how to juggle spent time practicing and they then became great at juggling. As they practiced and learned more parts of their brain actually grew in the place where juggling skills are controlled.
Blackwell’s article gave me insight and persuaded me that it actually is possible to grow your brain. With persistence and practice anyone can become “smart” or better at something that they were good at before. If you have the drive to push yourself and learn new things, then your brain can grow as much as you want it to. I surprisingly enjoyed this article more than I thought I would in the beginning. The idea that someone could just grow their brain was something that didn’t seem physically possible. Until I read Lisa Blackwells article.
My search continued as I stumbled upon an article by Olga Khazan titled “’Find Your Passion’ is Awful Advice”. Olga Khazan’s article talks about a Professor Carol Dweck who asked students “How many of you are waiting to find your passion.” In which most students raised their hands. Paul O’Keefe, an assistant professor of psychology at Yale—NUS College asks “That means that if you do something that feels like work, it means you don’t love it.” He gave me the example of a student who jumps from lab to lab, trying to find one whose research topic feels like her passion. “It’s this idea that if I’m not completely overwhelmed by emotion when I walk into a lab, then it won’t be my passion or my interest.” This article illustrates that if you have a passion for something then that’s the job or career you should do. She explains that if your children see you dropping hobbies and giving up that they might also tend to drop things fast.
I found Khazan’s article to be interesting and even more relatable than I originally thought it would be. I chose this article specifically because I feel like at one point in everyone’s lives, we are told the phrase “Find something you love to do, and you’ll never have to work a day in your life”. I definitely know I have, and I have spent my whole life trying to figure out just what my passion is. You think you find your passion many times in life just to realize that it’s not meant for you like you thought. So, I stand with O’Keefe and Dweck when they argue that “Find Your Passion” is indeed awful advice.
Finally, I end my search with a video by Astro Teller titled “The Unexpected Benefit of Celebrating Failure.” Astro Teller explains that it is ok to fail and that the company he works for actually encourages it. Failure doesn’t mean it’s the end of something, it just means you need to reconfigure your plan. Teller says “Discovering a major flaw in a project doesn’t always mean that it ends the project. Sometimes it actually gets us onto a more productive path.” Recognizing your failures only means that you can move onto things that are productive and will be achievable.
I wasn’t sure how this video was going to go and what it was going to intel, but I was intrigued by the title. I thought it was quite an interesting title because I couldn’t think of a time that I had celebrated any failures. After watching the video and understanding exactly what Teller was trying to get across to viewers, I love the idea he portrayed. It gives me motivation to continue in my endeavors even if I fail first. I learned it is ok to fail and that just means you’re on to bigger and better things.
All in All, this search has been an experience like no other. I learned so many news things and it opened my eyes to new ideas. All of the authors above did an amazing job conveying the point that they were trying to get across. They gave lots of descriptions and examples to back up their theories. In Conclusion. I am now a firm believer that you can grow your brain and grow your mindset as long as you are motivated to do so. My research has taught me to push myself and to never give up even if I do fail. So. do you believe that you could grow your brain too?
Works Cited
Blackwell, Lisa. “You Can Grow Your Brain.” Health and Science. Blackboard, uploaded by Instructor Jennifer Atkins-Gordeeva, Spring 2023, https://bb-pulaskitech.blackboard.com/. Accessed 17 Apr. 2023.
Dweck, Carol. “Even Geniuses Work Hard,” UA-PTC Composition Mix, edited by Erica Wnek, Norton, 2020, pp. 474-480. Accessed 17 Apr. 2023
Khazan, Olga. “'Find Your Passion' Is Awful Advice.” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 12 Jul. 2018, https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/07/find-your-passion-is-terrible-advice/564932/. Accessed 17 Apr. 2023.
“Take the Mindset Assessment to Learn More About Your Mindset,” Mindset Works, 2015, https://blog.mindsetworks.com/what-s-my-mindset. Accessed 17 Apr. 2023.
Teller, Astro. “The Unexpected Benefit of Celebrating Failure,” YouTube, 9 May 2016, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2t13Rq4oc7A. Accessed 17 Apr. 2023.