"Growth" vs. "Fixed" Minds

In watching the podcast done by Stanford University on "Growth" vs. "Fixed" minds children, I learned some really useful information about the types of students you may encounter in the classroom. Having a "fixed" mind basically means that a student is constantly questioning themselves, they worry about what their answers or statements will sound like. They worry that they may be wrong when they state something in class. Having this kind of mindset kind of gets you stuck in one posistion. If you are afraid to learn or make mistakes then you will never move forward. Students may make it through school with this kind of mindset but they will never advance.

Having a "growth" mind is completely different. These are the students that are constantly learning, constantly questioning and trying to find out new information. They aren't afrad to state an answer in the fear that it might be wrong. These students grow into individuals that will never stop learning, you could call them life-long learners. In the podcast the speaker talks of a workshop that was completed over an 8-week period. There were two groups: just a study-skills group, and another group with study-skills also but with an element of "growth" learning. Those students were taught what it was to have a "growth" mindset and those students were the ones to advance in their grades. The students with only the study-skills did not improve when it came to their grades. She also put out the idea that the brain was like a muscle, it gets stronger the more you learn. She said that was what those students were taught and it helped them understand that it important to never quit learning.

I think this affects me as a teacher because I want to be prepared to teach my students how to have a "growth" mind. I want to encourage my students to never want to stop learning and to never be afraid to put themselves out there and speak up. Students shouldn't hold back for the fear that they might be wrong. I think this is what all teachers should strive for. They should strive to have a classroom of individuals who enjoy the process of learning, who don't mind making mistakes if it means that they will get something useful out of it. Any teacher who is okay with being stagnant and allowing their students to be stagnant should not be in the profession of teaching because they are not teaching their students anything useful or productive. With this idea of "fixed" and "growth" mindsets I believe it prepares me as a teacher to be able to enter the classroom and be prepared to teach and help my students have a "growth" mind.