Beware of "False Growth Mindset"In an interview with The Atlantic (2016), Dweck explained to reporter Christine Gross-Loh all the ways she sees growth mindset being misappropriated. She says often teachers and parents aren't willing to take the longer, more difficult path of helping students identify strategies and connect success to those strategies. Instead, her complicated psychological research has gotten boiled down to, "praise the effort, not the outcome." Dweck also explained what she means by a "false" growth mindset:
|
False growth mindset is saying you have growth mindset when you don't really have it or you don’t really understand [what it is]. It’s also false in the sense that nobody has a growth mindset in everything all the time. Everyone is a mixture of fixed and growth mindsets. You could have a predominant growth mindset in an area but there can still be things that trigger you into a fixed mindset trait. Something really challenging and outside your comfort zone can trigger it, or, if you encounter someone who is much better than you at something you pride yourself on, you can think “Oh, that person has ability, not me.” So I think we all, students and adults, have to look for our fixed-mindset triggers and understand when we are falling into that mindset.
I think a lot of what happened [with false growth mindset among educators] is that instead of taking this long and difficult journey, where you work on understanding your triggers, working with them, and over time being able to stay in a growth mindset more and more, many educators just said, “Oh yeah, I have a growth mindset” because either they know it’s the right mindset to have or they understood it in a way that made it seem easy (Gross-Loh, 2016).
I think a lot of what happened [with false growth mindset among educators] is that instead of taking this long and difficult journey, where you work on understanding your triggers, working with them, and over time being able to stay in a growth mindset more and more, many educators just said, “Oh yeah, I have a growth mindset” because either they know it’s the right mindset to have or they understood it in a way that made it seem easy (Gross-Loh, 2016).
Identifying a False Growth Mindset |
In her article "Recognizing and Overcoming False Growth Mindset", Carol Dweck provides examples of a false growth mindset including
In the research paper “Praise for intelligence can undermine children's motivation and performance” (1998), published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, authors Claudia Mueller and Carol Dweck studies how different types of praise affected students. A combination of six separate studies, students ranging in age from 9-12 completed a problem-solving game. Upon completion, they were told they had correctly answered 80% of the questions and received praise for their natural intelligence or for their effort. Reports were generated on how the students felt, thought and behaved in subsequent tasks. The main findings were as follows:
|
Growth Mindset Confusions |
In his article "Growth Mindset: Clearing up Some Common Confusions", author Eduardo Briceno summarizes five common growth mindset confusions:
He goes on to distinguish the difference between "stretch mistakes", "sloppy mistakes", aha-moment mistakes" and "high-stakes mistakes" -- used to combat oversimplifying all mistakes as being "good" and confusing learners in the article "A growth mindset about mistakes" (2018). (Briceno, 2018)
Stretch Mistakes: Happen when current abilities are being stretched and expanded. These mistakes are positive mistakes. When stretch mistakes occur, reflection is needed to identify what can be learned, then adjust our approach to practice until the new level of ability is mastered.
Aha-Moment Mistakes: Happen the intended action is achieved, but then realize that it was a mistake because of some knowledge that was lacking and is now becoming apparent. Examples include: lack of content knowledge, more nuance that initially realized, incorrect assumptions, systematic mistakes and mis-remembering. These mistakes come from being reflective. Sloppy Mistakes: Happen when completing something already known, but is done incorrectly because of loss of concentration. These mistakes signal an opportunity to enhance focus, processes, environment, and/or habits. High-Stakes Mistakes: Involve putting the best foot forward, trying to perform to the best of abilities. These mistakes involve trying something that is beyond what is already known and seeing how it works -- but also recognizing that it may impact performance either positively or negatively. Learning comes afterwards by reflecting and discussing how things went, what could be done differently, and how practice could be adjusted (Briceno, 2018). |
Educators need to complete growth mindset training in order to ensure they are not promoting a “false growth mindset.” In her article “How Praise Became a Consolation Prize,” Christine Gross-Loh (2016) interviewed Carol Dweck – the mind behind growth mindsets. She states “Growth mindset’s popularity was leading some educators to believe that it was simpler than it was, that it was only about putting forth effort or that a teacher could foster growth mindset merely by telling kids to try hard. A teacher might applaud a child for making an effort on a science test even if he’d failed it, for instance, believing that doing so would promote growth mindset in that student regardless of the outcome. But such empty praise can exacerbate some of the very problems that growth mindset is intended to counter” (Gross-Loh, 2016, para. 2). This surge in “false growth mindsets” prompted Dweck to update her book Mindset: The New Psychology of Success to address this issue.
If educators are not properly trained in appropriate and effective growth mindset strategies, they run the risk of instilling a “false growth mindset” in their students – which is counter-intuitive to their overall success. By completing growth mindset training and utilizing data collection tools to monitor and track progress, educators will be able to not only track the progress of their students, but can also self-reflect on their own mindset as well as determine if changes are needed in their instructional strategies.
If educators are not properly trained in appropriate and effective growth mindset strategies, they run the risk of instilling a “false growth mindset” in their students – which is counter-intuitive to their overall success. By completing growth mindset training and utilizing data collection tools to monitor and track progress, educators will be able to not only track the progress of their students, but can also self-reflect on their own mindset as well as determine if changes are needed in their instructional strategies.