As you approach a challenge, that voice might say to you "Are you sure you can do it? Maybe you don't have the talent." "What if you fail-you'll be a failure" "People will laugh at you for thinking you had talent." "If you don't try, you can protect yourself and keep your dignity."
Brainology is an online interactive program in which middle school students learn about how the brain works, how to strengthen their own brains, and how to better approach their own learning. In the process they develop a growth mindset whereby they think of their intelligence as something they can develop through study and learning rather than as something fixed, as explained by our co-founder Dr. Carol Dweck.
Contrary to popular belief, high achievement isn't merely a product of talent and ability. In fact, our internal beliefs about our own abilities, skills, and potential actually fuel behavioral patterns and predict success. Leading Stanford psychologist Carol Dweck argues that the pivotal quality separating successful people from their unsuccessful counterparts is whether they think their intelligence can be developed versus believing it is fixed.
The way students think about learning has major implications on how and what they actually learn. We've all met students we knew were promising, only to have their performance not match up with what we know they are capable.
The question asked last week was: What are actions teachers can take to help their students develop a growth mindset? As Professor Carol Dweck -- one of authors of today's guest response and the developer of the term and concept -- has written elsewhere: Individuals with a fixed mindset believe that their intelligence is simply an inborn trait--they have a certain amount, and that's that.
