Growth Mindset

A Chinese clich says that failure is the mother of success, which refers to the fact that

mistakes often lead people to achievements. However, by teaching this concept to the younger

generation, elders may be ignoring the fact that childrens mindsets play a significant role in

allowing such situations to happen. Mindset is a belief or an attitude concerning how people deal

with problems, challenges, setbacks, and failures; different mindsets can cause significantly

different outcomes. Professor Carol Dweck, who has been studying and researching mindset

based on the field of psychology, examines two different kinds of mindset that human beings can

adopt. Nowadays, as society and companies pay more attention to individuals growth mindsets,

more and more people are willing to put effort into developing such attitudes. The growth

mindset (as opposed to fixed mindset) can be executed by comparing learning goals to

performance goals. Educators are significant figures in the development of these mindsets.

Additionally, the existence of false growth mindsets among educators may affect students in

undesirable ways.

Dweck refers to fixed mindset as the belief that ones abilities were carved in stone and

predetermined at birth; however, growth mindset is described as the opposite belief that ones

skills and qualities could be cultivated through effort and perseverance (qtd. Gross-Loh, 1).

Therefore, people who have growth mindset are more likely to face challenges and less likely to

become consistently or irrevocably stuck in negative circumstances.

Growth mindset can be illustrated in learning processes; different peoples actions when

they are learning new concepts can reveal their opposing mindsets. People who obtain growth

mindset may display different learning objectives compared to people who have relatively fixed

mindsets; this is the difference between learning goal and performance goal. Although
people often like to show off their unique abilities and received compliments based on their

skills, focusing on increasing ones abilities over time is more significant. Dweck explains that

If you want to demonstrate something over and over, it feels like something static that lives

inside of youwhereas if you want to increase your ability, it feels dynamic and malleable

(qtd. Krakovsky, 2). Some people may have their strength in a particular area in which other

people have weakness or just lack skills. In some ways, the idea that one is better than the other

is reasonable; however, people who overemphasizes their stronger abilities may find themselves

unable to view problems in alternate waysthey may be stuck at the same level of ability and

barely improve over time. When people expect themselves or are expected to perform perfectly

and flawlessly, every setback and failure will be exaggerated. Such people tend to experience

difficulties moving forward from failures and overcoming setbacks. On the other hand, a

learning goal plays the role of an accelerator, which helps a person learn from mistakes and treat

failures as mere steps along the path to success. By overcoming more and more obstacles, people

can strengthen their problem-solving abilities; even though they may encounter challenges and

failures along the way, people who embody the growth mindset will hold onto their belief that

abilities can be cultivated through effort and will keep working toward their goals. However, the

most important part of goal achievement is what a person can learn from the process. People

with growth mindset care more about learning new concepts and how they can apply their new

knowledge and strategies.

During my personal experience with the learning process, I went through the

performance-goal phase of having a fixed mindset. During that period, I was very proud of my

outstanding study ability in mathematics; by relying on every mathematics exam as a way to

show my strength, every little mistake became a major hit to my pride. As a result, my self-
confidence became very fragile when encountering failure. For instance, I clearly remember once

making a mistake by misreading a number on the whiteboard; even though my answer was

correct based on the number that I used, I still could not get credit for my answer. When I

received my result back and saw that I did not get 100% on the exam, I suddenly lost control of

my emotions and cried aloud in class; I could not accept the truth that this score would lower my

total grade. During the same period, my math level stagnated and did not seem to improve over

the semester. This was due to my personal assumption that my math is good enough. The

performance goals that developed from my fixed mindset directed me to an unlimited ignorant

zone that almost devoured me completely; however, educatorsor, to be specific, my teachers

were the lights in the dark that pointed out a better path for me to follow.

When a person misunderstands growth mindset or interprets it inaccurately, that person

may develop a false growth mindset that will cause serious consequencesespecially when an

educator holds such a mistaken belief. While children or even teenagers are more likely to

display fixed mindsets, educators are the crucial leaders of this young age group and are highly

influential in helping students develop the growth mindset; in a formal interview, Dweck

explains that as educators, it is our responsibility to create a context in which a growth mindset

can flourish (qtd. Gross-Loh, 4). Children commonly rely on and trust educators, which gives

educators an appropriate opportunity to foster the growth mindset in their students. More

importantly, the educators themselves need to adopt a real growth mindset and use this belief to

properly influence their students. If the educators only partially understand growth mindset and

practice their inaccurate beliefs on the students, then students will be placed in even worse

situations. For instance, an educator may only comprehend the ideology of growth mindset but

lack the knowledge of how to execute it. Being able to correctly teach the growth mindset does
not always mean that an educator needs to have certain degree or special abilities. The method

used to educate others is much more significantthis is the difference between leading others to

develop a growth mindset and just telling others that its fine, youre good.

These ideas once again relate to my personal educational experience. After my

misbehavior during class, my high school math teacher pulled me aside for a conversation. She

nicely tried to convince me that little mistakes could always help us improve, even when we

might think that we had the advantage in certain areas. At first, I could not accept her words;

deeply in my mind, I always knew that I had special abilities and skills in mathematics. I was

stuck on the thought that agreeing with my teachers advice would prove my lack of abilities in

the subject. My math teacher observed my avoidance of facing the mistakes; instead of leaving

me alone, she suggested that the whole class create our own mistake notebooks. In the

notebooks, we would write down our mistakes and weaknesses in math and use that information

to review before tests. Since this became an official assignment, I forced myself to follow her

instructions and actually write down the mistakes I made in homework and tests. Before the

final, I used my notebook as a tool to review, and all the mistakes I made before never appeared

again on my exam. When I was barely facing challenges in mathematics, those mistakes were

huge setbacks for mesetbacks that dragged me down and prevented me from improving my

skills. By changing from thinking that I was the master in mathematics to acknowledging that I

was a learner in the subject with a long way to go, my mindset gradually evolved toward

developing growth mindset. My math teacher inspired me in mathematics both academically and

emotionally. She neither pushed me on being a perfect student nor ignored me during my hard

times; instead, she used a brilliant method to lead me and let me discover for myself the

importance of turning mistakes into progress.

 Most people do not initially have growth mindset; however, that does not prevent anyone

from developing a growth mindset in daily life. This mindset is useful and crucial in both

education and career. Transferring motivation from performance to learning is a big step and

change in any persons life. While cultivating growth mindset may seem difficult and time-

consuming, educators play a significant role in streamlining the process. In the future, more and

more people will notice the importance of growth mindset, and the popularity of such an attitude

will probably increase. However, educators should remember never to rush the cultivation of

growth mindset. All progress requires a certain amount of time and effort. Keep calm. Follow the

right path. Then, one day, success awaits.