In the book Mindset by Carol S. Dweck, the author describes two types of mindsets, fixed and growth. People with a fixed mindset believe you need “to prove yourself over and over.” People with a growth mindset believe “your basic qualities are things you can cultivate through your efforts.” (Dweck, 2008)
On page 36 of Mindset, Dweck describes a scenario where “College students, after doing poorly on a test, were given a chance to look at tests of other students. Those in the growth mindset looked at the test of people who had done far better than they had…But students in the fixed mindset chose to look at the tests of people who had done really poorly.” (Dweck, 2008) The students with a growth mindset wanted their minds to grow with knowledge. They gave their best effort, and they wanted to learn from their mistakes. The fixed mindset students had an arrogant attitude toward the test. They took the test, and only wanted to look at tests of other people who did worse than they did. They did not want to learn from their mistakes. In their mind, the thought “at least I did better than somebody else” was going through their head.
I think all students should try to learn from their mistakes. That is part of being a successful student. No one is perfect; even geniuses make mistakes. The growth mindset students wanted to improve on the next test, but the fixed mindset students wanted to put themselves on a pedestal. The question I wonder now is if the person with the lowest test score had a fixed mindset, whose test did they look at?
I completely agree. For me, learning from my mistakes is the best way I learn. In order to be successful, you have to look for ways to improve yourself, and thats what the growth mindset does. That's a good point; I hadn't thought about the person with the lowest score.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure if people with the fixed mindset feel arrogant about tests and want to put themselves on a pedestal. I agree that they do not go about handling disappointment the right way and that the methods of those with the growth mindset are better. However, the people with the fixed mindset may feel the way that you are describing without realizing it. I wouldn't say they're arrogant. Maybe just because the word arrogant has such negative connotations to me. I would say that they feel like they should do well on the test without any effort, but I do not think that they are intentionally arrogant.
ReplyDeleteTo Ryan: With the word arrognant, I wanted to say kinda or sorta in front of it, but to me neither kinda or sorta is grammatically sound to be put in a formal essay. I didn't really mean arrognant as in haughty, I just meant they didn't want look at anyone else's test who did better. To them, they did the best, and the people who truely did better, didn't count. I couldn't find a better word for arrognant. Leaving it with just an attitude in that sentence might have made more sense. I do agree though. If the students were arrognant, it was unintentional.
ReplyDeleteI would say I have a fixed mindset and I really would like to say that I would want to look at the tests of those who did better than me on a given exam, but the truth is i dont know if i can. I want to be able to learn from my mistakes like you said and have a growth mindset but I'm just not sure how to go about it ya know? Because at the same time, I dont think that my success as a student is even partially defined by my mindset...
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