When we have a fixed mindset, we see our failures as permanent. When we have a growth mindset, we see them as learning opportunities.
Hello readers! Before today I had never heard of Carol Dweck, but I had definitely heard of the growth mindset. I am not entirely sure of how I was taught about the growth mindset without being taught about Carol, but it is what it is. I believe my first exposure to this topic was in my senior Advanced Placement English class in high school, where my teacher wanted all her students to understand the fact that what we were going to be doing was challenging, but we would not be penalized for our failures but praised for our efforts. That class ended up being one of my favorites ever, and looking back it is easy to realize why that is. I never felt embarrassed when I said the "wrong thing" or made a less than stellar grade on a quiz because I knew it was just a learning opportunity, and my teacher made that very clear. Even though I knew about the growth mindset in my later years of school, I was wholly unaware of it as a child. I was definitely one of the children who was praised for my natural intelligence. School was easy and fun because I already knew how to do a lot of things and I learned new ones quickly. I was at the top of my class for a long time without even having to try. When I got to high school and my classes became more challenging, I had a really hard time learning how to study in an efficient manner simply because I had never really had to study at all before. It was a sharp learning curve and I was able to overcome it, but only because I had a really great support system. Many of my peers who were just as "naturally gifted" as I fell through the cracks and became "average" students.
At OU, I think I have definitely adopted the growth mindset. It is a bit hard to give yourself the grace you need in the growth mindset when there is a traditional grading system in place, but many of my professors have been incredible at enforcing the growth mindset as well. This could simply be because they are all social work professors, see my previous introduction post for more information, but I think most of all they are kind and compassionate people. I am truly excited to see how I can continue to adopt the growth mindset these last two semesters and into graduate school. In this class specifically, I think I am excited to see how the non-traditional grading methods can be used to further this new goal of mine. I've never used a grading system like this, but so far it seems to be working well. I think I am nervous that as the semester wears on and the workload grows, I will be more inclined to not do my assignments to the best of my ability, simply because of the sheer number of them. I do think that the grading system will help with that, as I tend to be motivated by checking something off a list, but it is always a concern. That being said, I am still very excited about what the future holds regarding this class and the rest.
In general, I think the growth mindset is a really incredible thing. There are indeed critiques of this way of learning, and I hear those and understand them, but I still think this is a great method overall. I believe that when we take failures and turn them into learning opportunities, we can become more well-rounded learners, and people who create a better environment for everyone.
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