Thoughts on a "Growth Mindset"

"Growth Mindset", measuring a growing mind. Source: Post by David Hochheiser, Edutopia

Believing you can improve...
I have encountered the concept of growth mindset before, but I didn't know who proposed it, and I had not heard about it in her own words. When I first became a tutor at OU, I was taught about Carol Dweck's growth mindset as not just a tool for students to use in challenging academic settings, but also the way in which we were supposed to approach tutoring. Focusing on helping students progress, instead of simply succeed has led to really effective tutoring strategies, including Socratic questioning (instead of simply giving an answer, you lead the person to the answer with a series of questions). Honestly, as a student, I don't always like when people use Socratic questioning on me, especially when I feel like not even the parts of the problem make sense. But these kinds of strategies force you to find your own way towards a solution, and later on, you can use that same process to answer challenging questions by yourself. And it encourages a growth mindset because people then learn to improve on their own. They start to believe they can accomplish hard tasks if they put in a little more effort than before. Again improving becomes a process, step by step, and not simply a goal.

Although I think it is definitely a step towards better academic settings, I don't agree with all aspects of growth mindset. Alfie Kohn summarised many of my issues with the growth mindset theory, but I did think his critique seemed a little harsh. I have seen 'growth mindset' students succeed better- and often happier- than those who don't think they'll ever get better, especially if it doesn't come easy right away. I don't think that the problem with how children learn lies with them or simply their disposition. The problem should also be on the education system to better reach children's interests. As Mr Kohn points out, if we focus on progress alone, how do we know children are actually invested in the material they learn? I think a better learning environment would focus more on cultivating curiosity, and helping children find topics that they actually enjoy and want to learn about. 

Is it enough to just believe that you can improve or do we need something more? I believe more in the power of curiosity and sparking it for topics in school, so that the return is something far greater than learning for a grade in the 'now'. Instead, I think it becomes an investment in learning for the future. 

Curiosity and the Cat. Source: Flickr 


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