Growth Mindset

I've never heard of Carol Dweck or the idea of a growth mindset. However, the idea that focusing on the harder, more challenging aspects of your life is not one that is new to me. My mom, who is a middle-school teacher in OK, has definitely used this type of teaching with her class and with me. Her and my dad would focus on the effort that I put forth - if I wound up not doing so well on an assignment or a test, they would ask me, "Do you think you tried hard enough?". If I truly tried as hard as I could have, focusing on the harder aspects, they would be content with the score I got. Over time this developed further with the greater challenges that emerged with higher education. The effort that I put forward, the time that I put into a task, and how I did were all things that they considered when talking to me about certain subjects.

While here at OU, I realized the type of person that I am. I, like most people, am more content when things are "easy". There is such a focus on a "perfect 4.0" in the pre-med community, so there is pressure to do well in each of your classes. I felt that pressure heavily during my freshman year. Once I got more accustomed to the way college worked, I realized that I needed to try and focus on the more difficult areas of the classes that I was in. By focusing on the hard stuff, I was able to confidently go into classes, tests, and quizzes.

I agree with Dr. Dweck's viewpoint that it is a natural human right for children to learn this way (or other ways that highly benefit them in the long run). Education is too important for the progression of society and by leaving others behind, we limit ourselves on what is possible.


Meme from Laura Gibbs
Original image taken from Cheezburger

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