Dwecks Mindset Flashcards
What is a mindset
Mindset: A set of beliefs someone has that guides how
they respond to or interpret a situation
Features of a growth mindset
Enjoys challenges and sees failures as an opportunity to learn
• Believes practice and effort can improve their abilities
• Keeps on trying
• Feel good when they are working hard
Features of a fixed mindset
Does not like challenges and sees failures as the limit of their talents
• Believes their abilities are fixed and unchangeable
• Gives up easily
• Feels good when they are doing well
State 2 strength of Dwecks growth mindset theory
One strength is research showing growth mindset leads
to better grades
48 low-achieving 12-13 year olds attended study skills training. ½ where trained in growth mindset (intelligence is a muscle). ½ attended a session on memory. The growth mindset group improved in grades and motivation, the others did not.
This shows mindset can be taught & can improve performance
One further strength is useful application in real settings (schools, business, sports, relationships)
Michael Jordon has faced many failures but gained success by learning from them with a growth mindset In relationships, many believe in ‘true love’ that is ‘meant to be’. When they face challenges, they give up easily as it ‘isn’t meant to be’ believing that true love shouldn’t take effort
These show how seeing failure as a lack of effort rather than a lack
of talent can motivate future effort and success
One weakness of dwecks growth mindset theory
One weakness is that any sort of praise may be damaging
Both fixed and growth mindsets require praise (for achievement - person praise or for effort - process praise). Praising a growth mindset for their effort is motivating but ultimately they are working for someone else not their own satisfaction and self- motivation
This means that even praising effort may not be the best way to motivate
What is praise
to express approval of someone else and/or what they have done
Praise = self-esteem = motivation
What is self efficacy
: a person’s understanding of their own capabilities. High self-efficacy influences motivation
What two types of praise did dweck believe in
Person praise
Process praise
What is person praise
Praise that focuses on the student – and thereby their innate intelligence. For example:
“Well done, Flossie! You are really clever and will be a great scientist”.
What is process praise
Process praise: Praise that focuses on the effort and process they use in completing a task or the progress they have made. Praising effort gives a person something they can control. For example: “
Well done Flossie, you used exactly the right method to solve that equation. You have made loads of progress in maths”
What is self efficacy
Self-efficacy is an idea about how competent you are.
• Past experience leads you to have certain expectations about future events (past successes = expectations = high self-efficacy)
• It can also be influenced by the people around you giving you praise or opportunities to succeed (breaking a task down or setting an easier task)
• You are more likely to choose things that you are good at to do, than things you are bad at.
• High self-efficacy for learning leads to more resilience because you believe you can do it
How to improve self efficacy
Give students experience of success on appropriate level tasks.
•Pick the easier questions to do first in an assessment to give yourself the confidence to answer the difficult ones.
•Start at the beginning when learning a new skill.
•Show people video’s of their performance but edit it so only the best bits are included.
State one weakness of dwecks praise theory
One weakness is that praise may reduce instead of increase motivation
Lepper (1973) found that children who had been rewarded for completing a task were less likely to do it again later than if they hadn’t been rewarded the first time. The children were no longer motivated by their own sense of achievement, they would only do it for the reward
This means that extrinsic (external) rewards may damage intrinsic (internal) motivation
State 2 strengths of dwecks praise
One strength is research showing low self-efficacy leads to poor performance
Steele & Aronson found African-American college students did worse on an IQ test if they were asked their ethnicity before – being reminded of their ethnicity lowered their self-efficacy because of the stereotype that African Americans do not do well on IQ tests. There was no effect if they didn’t know it was an IQ test and there are similar results for women taking maths tests
This is strong evidence for the effect of self-efficacy on performance
One further strength is useful application in real settings such as
schools
In a study by Dweck a group of students were told their poor
performance was due to laziness and low effort. Another group
were constantly praised eg ‘your work is very good, you might want
to add a bit more evaluation through’. The second group showed low task persistence and were more likely to give up on a difficult test when they didn’t do well whereas the first group tackled their poor performance by increasing their efforts
This shows how the kind of feedback given can be important
