Growing Brains
What do you need to grow your brain? Food, sleep, sunshine, and something far more powerful, MINDSET! This week we’ve been exploring a Growth Mindset vs a Fixed Mindset and learners knew right away which sayings were growing their brain and which ones weren’t. If the concept of growth vs. fixed mindset is new to you, essentially, this concept has proven that word choice has a powerful influence on learning, motivation, and achievement. Words have POWER!
At Acton, we are incredibly mindful on how adults praise learners. Carol Dweck, psychologist, researcher, and author of Mindset: The Psychology of Success explains the difference between fixed and growth mindsets and shares that praising someone for their brain and talent can be a barrier to motivation and learning. “In a fixed mindset, people believe that basic qualities, like their intelligence or talent, are simply fixed traits. They spend their time documenting their intelligence or talent instead of developing them. They also believe that talent alone creates success—without effort. They’re wrong…In a growth mindset, people believe their most basic abilities can be developed through dedication and hard work—brains and talent are just the starting point. This view creates a love of learning and a resilience that is essential for great accomplishment.”
As a professional musician I have closely experienced the effect language of a fixed mindset can have on a musician’s motivation. Far too often some of the most talented musicians quit because they often were praised and never learned to push themselves. In the long game, the most successful musicians who won the big symphony jobs were not the most talented, they worked the hardest.
What do you want for your child? Do you want to help them learn and grow to their greatest potential? Here’s some growth mindset praise do’s and don’ts to get you started.
Do: You must have worked really hard! What was the hardest part?
Don’t: You are so smart.
Do: You put a lot of effort in your drawing, you really improved!
Don’t: You are a natural artist.
Growing a growth mindset is hard and if you fall back into the occasional “that’s amazing” allow yourself some grace and time to grow. Say to yourself “This may take some time and effort but I will get there if I try”.