<p>In other threads, tokenadult has provided links to the work of Carol Dweck, a professor of psychology for many years at Columbia and now at Stanford. I’ve been a big fan of Dweck’s work for a number of years and would like to help spread the word on her research because it’s both fascinating and useful. Backed by years of study, she asserts that intelligence (along with most human capabilities) is not fixed, and that those who focus on growth, learning and relishing challenges end up more successful in the life than those who see talent as fixed and immutable. Because the latter tend to focus on achievements (grades, scores, job promotions, etc.) as outward manifestations of innate ability, they are often afraid to risk failure that might contradict their perception of their own talent. Motivation, resilience in the face of failure, and a commitment to continually developing one’s abilities are the outcomes of a growth mindset. Fragile self-esteem, fear of challenge, and lack of persistence are often the results of a fixed mindset. And she has the evidence to prove it. Great stuff.</p>
<p>Dweck is doing her best to get the word out about her findings and so wrote the book, “Mindset,” to popularize her research for lay readers. However, because it was written to be understood by the average fourteen-year-old, it is full of “popular” anecdotes and may give the impression that her recommendations aren’t based on the decades of careful research that they are. My favorite book of hers is “Self Theories: Their Role in Motivation, Personality and Development.” Though more scholarly than “Mindset,” it is easy enough to follow and has a greater density of interesting results per page.</p>
<p>One idea I find fascinating is the possibility that because in elementary school girls receive more “being” praise—i.e. they are smart, pretty, “good”, etc.—while boys tend to receive more “behavior” messages (often critical–i.e. sit still, pay attention, make more effort) girls are more likely to get thrown when they reach more challenging intellectual tasks in junior high or high school. They may very well have less inner resources to deal with failure and to motivate themselves to tackle what they may find “hard” (math and science?) for the very first time. It’s not that boys find the work less difficult, but rather that they are less likely to shy away from tasks at which they are not immediately successful.</p>
<p>This article, an interview from 2005, is an excellent entry point into the findings from Dweck’s research:</p>
<p>[Education</a> World ® School Issues: Wire Side Chats: How Can Teachers Develop Students’ Motivation – and Success?](<a href=“http://www.education-world.com/a_issues/chat/chat010.shtml]Education”>http://www.education-world.com/a_issues/chat/chat010.shtml)</p>
<p>In the article, she summarizes the results of some of her research with fifth graders: (Note: when she speaks of praising for effort, this includes praising a student for his/her persistence, resilience, creative strategies, willingness to struggle, etc. as well as for sheer time spent.)</p>
<pre><code> “First, when students were praised for their intelligence, they became so invested in looking smart that they became afraid of challenge. Most of them preferred a sure-fire success over a challenging opportunity to learn something important. When students were praised for their effort, 90 percent of them wanted the [subsequent] challenging learning opportunity.
“Second, when students then experienced a second, [more] difficult set of problems, those who had been praised for their intelligence now told us they felt dumb. In other words, if the success meant they were smart, the failure meant to them that they were dumb. Any self-esteem that had been promoted by the praise was very, very fragile.
“In contrast, the students who had been praised for their effort saw the setback not as a condemnation of their intellect, but as simply a signal for more effort. They realized that a harder task means harder work.
“Third, the students who were praised for their intelligence told us that they no longer enjoyed the task, and no longer wished to take problems home to practice. A feeling of failure made them turn away from a chance to practice their skills and improve. In contrast, the ones who were praised for their effort enjoyed the task just as much as before and were just as eager to take problems home to practice. In fact, some of them liked the task even better when it got hard and were more determined to master it.
“Fourth, we gave the students a third set of problems, similar to the first set (the one on which they had succeeded). How did they do on these problems? The students who were praised for their intelligence now did significantly worse than they had initially, whereas the students who were praised for their effort did significantly better than they had done before. This means that two groups of students, who had started off with similar performance, were now very far apart.
“And finally, when given a chance to write to a student in another school about the task, 40 percent of the students who received intelligence praise lied about their score. They revised it upward. Very few effort-praised students did so. This suggests that when students are praised for their intelligence, they become so over-identified with their performance, so personally humiliated by setbacks, that they can’t tell the truth even to an anonymous peer they will never meet.
“In short, intelligence praise made students feel good in the moment, but it made them afraid of challenge and unable to cope with setbacks. Effort praise seemed to give students a more hardy sense of themselves as learners, a more healthy desire for challenge, and the skills to cope effectively with setbacks.”
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<p>Another quote from the article that I liked:</p>
<pre><code>“What has intrigued me most in my 30 years of research is the power of motivation. Motivation is often more important than your initial ability in determining whether you succeed in the long run. In fact [as I mentioned earlier], many creative geniuses were not born that way. They were often fairly ordinary people who became extraordinarily motivated.
“By motivation, I mean not only the desire to achieve but also the love of learning, the love of challenge, and the ability to thrive on obstacles. These are the greatest gifts we can give our students.”
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<p>Another good overview article on her work (posted a number of times before by tokenadult!) </p>
<p>[STANFORD</a> Magazine: March/April 2007 > Features > Mind-set Research](<a href=“Page Not Found”>Page Not Found)</p>
<p>For another article on her more recent research results:</p>
<p>“New Study Yields Instructive Results On How Mindset affects Learning”</p>
<p>[New</a> study yields instructive results on how mindset affects learning](<a href=“You’ve requested a page that no longer exists | Stanford News”>You’ve requested a page that no longer exists | Stanford News)</p>
<p>About the Brainology software she is developing for middle-schoolers (she has tested out a prototype in public schools in New York City):</p>
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