Growth Mindset

After watching the video of Carol Dweck talking about growth-fixed mindset I realised it was my own mindset. From her video I believe this way of thinking and applying this technique to younger students will benefit them, as schools and colleges around the world strongly focus on memory in order to do well in education. From a young age you are taught to memorise the alphabet or memorise spelling words. As you grow older and progress to higher schools (e.g Secondary school) you are almost forced to learn about things. We are told to sit and learn, word-for-word almost, and by doing so they test our intelligence. If we were 'graded' on how well we solve problems or the process behind them there may not be so many students thinking they are 'not smart enough'.

We each learn our own ways and have our own ways of thinking, solving and processing problems. So why make students learn one way and one way only.

I would often put myself down in school. I would see other students doing far better than myself. My mindset was - "I don't understand now so I never will." For years and years I hated Maths, up until this very day I still have a deep hatred for it. I was never taught - "I don't understand it ... yet" but if I was I believe I would have tried much harder to succeed.

Moving onto college my mindset changed. I was eager to learn new things. I was introduced to "Website Development" which was a module I struggled with greatly. However, I did not give up.  Even though I did not always understand CSS or HTML I kept going and trying to learn how to add certain codes etc. In the end I got an even better grade than expected! I have started to learn to challenge myself, push myself and not give up when I find things difficult.

Growth Mindset Quote. (Source: Pinterest)