The Dynamic Impact of Growth Mindset on Education and Success

Mindsets and Success: Effort, Strategies, and Grit

There are two mindsets of thinking about intelligence: growth mindset and fixed mindset. Those with a growth mindset, developed by Carol Dweck, believe that knowledge can be developed or fluid by one’s effort. According to scientific evidence, neurons strengthen their connections when people solve complex situations. Those with fixed mindsets think that intelligence is stable. In Alfie Kohn’s article, “The Perils of Growth Mindset Education,” the matter of students’ underperformance is a requirement, not a mindset. It’s a matter of curricula rather than mindsets. Discovered by scientists, there are a lot of discussions and brain functions that are not complete, so it’s hard to say that only one specific theory is right.

Carol Dweck didn’t demand to praise effort itself but to praise student strategies and processes and tie those into the outcomes. She recommended phrases like “You tried different strategies, and you figured out how to solve the problem.” However, Carol Dweck’s words are more accurate since research is based on scientific teaching. Another psychologist, Angela Lee Duckworth, from the University of Pennsylvania. In her Ted Talk, she said that the matter of success is not intelligence but it is about “grit,” which is striving to do something with perseverance. An example is when she taught math to 7th graders, and the outperformers were students who had more motivation to be better at math.

Achievements, Challenges, and Cultural Pressures

It goes to show that mindsets matter in our school performances. In my case, I didn’t have awesome talents in English, and every English teacher I had knew it wasn’t my favorite. However, in order to graduate, I had no choice but to learn and pass English. My results were better than I had thought; I took a C-point grade average up to an A-point grade average. I am still proud of myself when I look back at those moments. Now, I believe in myself and try to have “grit.” Angela Duckworth said, “Life is not a sprint but a marathon” in a TED Talk. Every small moment that people live is composed of the future. It forces people to become motivational and excited when they think about their futures changing because of their hard work. It is necessary to hold a mindset that lives out one’s present beliefs of oneself.

Angela Duckworth says, “We need to take our best ideas, our strongest intuitions, and we need to test them.” “We need to measure whether we’ve been successful, and we have to be willing to fail, to be wrong, to start over again with lessons learned.” Many people agree with the reasonable words of Angela Duckworth and Carol Dweck. However, adjustment of Carol Dweck and Alfie Kohn is needed. The Korean Society is famous for high academic achievement and goals compared to many other students in other countries. Dweck and Duckworth insisted that teachers in Korea are very motivational and they encourage their students a lot. Although many people think just because the achievement is high, all the problems will be solved when it is not. Korean students have more depression and higher suicidal rates than students from other countries.

According to statistics, Korean students have a 29 percent suicide rate, which is the top of many other countries. Still, people have to know that Korean students have to be distressed by the social structure that stresses studying a lot. Therefore, people who have high knowledge have always been respected and successful. Even in modern society, jobs like high officials that require a lot of studies are mostly honored compared to police and soldiers. There are a lot of students committing suicide even though they were successful in school; Korean society and parents stress their children to study more and not helping them find their children’s dreams. A person with a fixed mindset believes that they are born with talent, while a person with a growth mindset believes that ability can be further developed.

References:

1. Dweck, C. S. (2006). Mindset: The new psychology of success. Random House.
2. Kohn, A. (2015). The perils of “Growth Mindset” education: Why we’re trying to fix our kids when we should be fixing the system. Salon.
3. Duckworth, A. L. (2013). Grit: The power of passion and perseverance. TED Talk.