Power of the Growth Mindset

What is the growth mindset, and why is it so important?

Growth mindset is based on the belief that your basic qualities are things you can cultivate through your efforts, your strategies, and help from others. Although people may differ in every which way - in their initial talents and aptitudes, interests, or temperaments - everyone can change and grow thorough application and experience (Dweck, 2006).

The video below was created by Trevor Ragan, to help explain the differences between the fixed and growth mindset.

The short story is that those with a fixed mindset believe that people are born with a certain aptitude and skill set, and those with a growth mindset believe that skills are learned or developed. The differences in these mindsets can greatly influence a person's capacity for learning and achievement.

---

Dr. Dweck's Four Steps

The video to the right introduces Dr. Dweck's four steps on how to personally change from a fixed mindset to a growth mindset. She describes the steps as an internal monologue to go from a judging internal voice to a growth-oriented one.

---

From Internal Monologue to Teaching

Transferring the Four Steps from an internal model to using the method for teaching will require clear expectations and open communication lines between the teacher and students. The lesson of the growth mindset is simple. There are videos, graphics, workshops: all kinds of ways to portray the difference between fixed and growth mindsets. The difficult part is being able to implement a system that allows for failure, while being able to learn and succeed from that point. Below are a few steps to set up the growth mindset in the group setting.

Balancing time and resources seems to be one of the biggest hurdles to the growth mindset principles and the concept of "not yet." With the use of technology, individualized lessons and differentiation will help allow teachers and students to be more efficient while maximizing learning regardless of a person's aptitude.

The video in this section contains coaches from the USA Volleyball team and different colleges talking about how the growth mindset has been incorporated into their coaching and team setting. The coaches talk about the benefits and give examples of how it has worked for them.

---

The Digital Learning and Leading Program

Being that this is my 3rd version of this presentation, I have already felt the need to try to take failure and make it a moment for learning. Historically, I have learned best through trial and error. The traditional educational method does not allow much for failure from trials, so I am still trying to wrap my head around the concept. I am interested to see the happy medium between learning from failing and simply just failing. How can we balance teaching and learning from mistakes, while preventing learners from shutting down from feeling dejected?

The reason I am in the Digital Learning and Leading program is because it is a path that I think is important and will be useful personally and in my career. However, it seems that there are a lot of concepts and tools that I don’t know that I don’t know about yet… I come from a generation that did not have cell phones or internet growing up, but we are full-fledged members in the digital world now, and it is expanding exponentially. I am excited to see where this path takes me, and how I can use the lessons learned in this program to my career in college athletics and higher education.

---

Work Cited

Dweck, C. (2006). “How Can you Change from a Fixed Mindset to a Growth Mindset. Mindset. mindsetonline.com/changeyourmindset/firststeps/index.html.

Dweck, C. (2006). Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. New York, NY: Penguin Random House.

Dweck, C. (2015). Carol Dweck Revisits the 'Growth Mindset'. Education Week.

www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2015/09/23/carol-dweck-revisits-the-growth-mindset.html

Ragan, T. (2015). Fostering and Maintaining a Growth Mindset Within Your Team or

Organization. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXlnkzkbeE8

Ragan, T. (2016). Growth Mindset Introduction: What It Is, How It Works, and Why It Matters.

YouTube. www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=3&v=75GFzikmRY0.