Carol Dweck, psychology professor at Stanford University, experienced a classroom situation as a child that was to profoundly influence the direction of her career.
In the sixth grade, Dweck's teacher decided to seat all members of her class according to their IQ scores. Those with the lowest IQs were not permitted to carry the flag in assembly or even wash the blackboard. Dweck remembers,
"She let it be known that IQ for her was the ultimate measure of your intelligence and your character..."
This experience sparked Dweck's life time fascination with intelligence. Dweck's engaging book, 'Mindset: The New Psychology of Success', examines the theory that we all possess either a fixed mindset or a growth mindset both of which, Dweck argues, have a profound affect on our motivation to learn.
A fixed mindset is a belief that our abilities and talents are fixed at a set point and cannot be changed. A growth mindset describes the belief that our abilities can be developed and that we are capable of improving all areas of our lives by developing our strength in each area.
Neurologist, Dr. Harry Chugani, uses the following analogy about learning and synaptic connections in the brain,
"Roads with the most traffic get widened. The ones that are rarely used fall into disrepair."
Dweck conducted research over two years with New York City junior high school maths students. Dweck noted a downward trend for students with a fixed mindset and an increase in results for those with a growth mindset.
An eight week intervention was then implemented for some students who were taught how they could learn to improve results by understanding that the more they used their brain the greater it's capacity to learn would be. A control group was taught study skills but not Dweck's theory about strengthening the brain. The students who learned about Dweck's theory showed a significant inprovement in grades & study habits after only two months.
Dweck attributed this significant improvement to a difference in motivation, the children who had learned growth mindset theory understood that they could have an impact on their mind. Dweck describes these students as being energised by the thought that their efforts could make a difference to their abilities.
Researchers later asked teachers to pick students who had shown positive change. Although the teachers were unaware that there had been two groups, all the children they picked were from the growth mindset group.
For Dweck, the belief we hold about our own abilities and how this affects motivation is key to understanding how to make a significant difference in all areas of life.
Dweck is currently working with world class car racing coach Ross Bentley, studying 40 racing car drivers to see how applying a growth mindset correlates with improved speed times. This latest area of study for Dweck's theory illustrates that the growth mindset can be applied to a diverse range of situations, which area of your life could be improved by applying a growth mindset?
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