Carol Dweck’s recent book and research is positively one of the most important pieces I’ve read in the last five years. “Mindset: The New Psychology of Success” is a fascinating text and one that I recommend for anyone who has young children. I’ve always been an advocate for understand early what type of learner your child is. In medicine, they call it “presenting itself.” You have to be a perceptive parent—especially when your child isn’t verbal, but for the most part I think you know your child and how they learn. With my twins it’s like a Petri dish experiment all the time. Blaise thrives on praise—no matter how hard or easy the task, she wasn’t to feel like she’s successful. Logan for the most part rolls up his sleeves and takes on a good challenge. His issue is more around how long he can focus to accomplish it.
Mindset is “an established set of attitudes held by someone,” says the Oxford American Dictionary. It turns out, however, that a set of attitudes needn’t be so set, according to Dweck, professor of psychology at Stanford. Dweck proposes that everyone has either a fixed mindset or a growth mindset. A fixed mindset is one in which you view your talents and abilities as… well, fixed. In other words, you are who you are, your intelligence and talents are fixed, and your fate is to go through life avoiding challenge and failure. A growth mindset, on the other hand, is one in which you see yourself as fluid, a work in progress. Your fate is one of growth and opportunity. Which mindset does your child possess? As a child grows and begins taking on harder and harder tasks in school, it’s important to understand what type they are so that as a parent we can council and support them appropriately.
I do believe the book is a very good read but if all you have time for is this summary article, it offers a tremendous amount of insight.
Posted on January 6th, 2008 by Sam
Filed under: Uncategorized
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.