Educational Psychologist
-Mrs.Devi Venugopal
Indonesia
Dear Readers, it’s been a long journey through the uncertain times; it’s hard not to notice even the most resilient students and adults I know are getting tired of the pandemic and the on and off lockdown. There is a consistent rise in the mental pandemic along the side of the Covid. How to keep us motivated? How to continue our best in online schooling? How to make new friends in school, if this is how life will be for few more months?
Do I have solutions for all
the above questions?
A Big NO! But I will share an essential tool with all the young minds and adults to pull yourself out of the negative voices pounding in your minds. It is not something new; it is the mindset coined by Carol S Dweck, a world-famous researcher in developmental psychology. In the world. According to Benjamin Barber, a Political Theorist, there are only two kinds of people in the world, learners and non-learners. The difference between the two is the mindset. Learners have the growth mindset, and the latter have the fixed mindset.
We will understand what mindset is.
Mindset is a set of strong beliefs, and it is changeable with time, and we do have a choice.
The trait of mindsets varies in the beliefs about success, failures, and effort. Fixed mindset people believe that you are born intelligent or genius; failures and setbacks are for losers, not talented people. The more action you take, it clearly shows that you’re not smart. It questions your ability and shows that you’re a loser.
On the other hand, growth mindset, people believe that success is challenging yourself to learn something new; setbacks are opportunities to know your weak areas and work on them. Effort is the exercise to enhance your ability and skills.
Every one of us is a born learner; what makes us a non- learner? When we were babies, we didn’t stop trying to walk because it was hard or we were constantly falling. We never stopped stretching ourselves. The transformation from a learner to non-learner happens when there is a constant message from society that you have to be perfect; you should not fail or make mistakes. How as caretakers, educators, and parents to role model for the future generation? When we feel competent when we are flawless or when we are learning? We need to pay attention to the praises we send across to children.
Are we praising their excellent work, or are we praising their efforts towards the work? Becoming is better than being; a fixed mindset doesn’t give the luxury of becoming, as they always must be born ready. Mindsets change the meaning of failure; failure has been transformed from action to identity. Instead of thinking I failed, we think I’m a failure. Even in the growth mindset, failures are painful experiences, but those are opportunities to learn your weak zones. A study from the Lab of Columbia, where the brain waves showed the difference between the fixed and growth mindset. In the fixed mindset, students focused on only their correct answers, whereas in the growth mindset, students focus on the wrong answers to learn from them.
Mindsets and depression go hand in hand; when the growth mindset was taught to students, it changed how they respond to depression. The growth mindset students successfully implemented the coping strategies, even while depressed, and kept their lives intact amidst the low life states. On the other fixed mindset students, thought that High effort is big risk, as it reveals that you don’t have the talent and are not perfect. The growth mindset students believe that low effort is high risk, and they are more resilient.
The common questions around mindset are
Are mindsets permanent parts of your make up or can you change them?
Can I be half-half?
The answers are
Yes, you can change them by bringing in awareness and finding out the triggers. You can walk around to shift the attitude.
Yes, you can be a mixture of fixed and growth mindset; the fixed mindset stands in the way of development, and the growth mindset is a starting point for change, but people need to decide for themselves.
Test scores and past achievement shows where the student is, but they don’t tell you where a student could end up. Fixed mindset limits achievement. It fills people’s minds with interfering thoughts; it makes an effort disagreeable. Important achievements require a clear focus, all-out effort, and a bottomless trunk full of strategies, plus allies in learning. Just because some people can do something with little or no training, it doesn’t mean that others can’t do it (and sometimes do it even better) with training. Until the following article, you all can focus on the triggers that bring the fixed mindset to the forefront. It is an essential exercise in the process of shifting from a fixed to a growth mindset.
