Mindset by Carol Dweck: Afterthoughts

What is Talent—and How Important Is It? What Lies Behind Great Achievement? What Stops People From Pursuing Their Dreams? How To Boost Achievement (and Fulfillment) Through Mindset

Dr Carol Dweck introduces the idea of the two kinds of mindsets: the fixed mindset (one in which we believe our intelligence to be predetermined and failure is a personal weakness) and the growth mindset (in which we believe our intelligence grows as we learn new things and failure as a learning opportunity). She tells us how best to embrace the positives of the growth mindset and the pitfalls of being stuck in the fixed mindset. Along the way we hear of famous sportspeople, CEOs of companies, students, teachers, parents and coaches who are fall within these mindsets, and what these people achieved (or sacrificed) through how they viewed their own failures.

Many of the case studies used by Carol Dweck were surprising; “Yes, [Thomas] Edison was a genius. But he was not always one. His biographer, Paul Israel, sifting through all the available information, thinks he was more or less a regular boy of his time and place. … What eventually set him apart was his mindset and drive.” Finding that Dweck’s theory noted that success was born out of effort and not natural talent suddenly flipped my own view of the world on its head.

We’ve all be taught that trying hard will yield better results in the long run, but we’ve also been taught that talent is what makes us able to do things in the first place. Dweck explains that believing our own ‘natural ability’ is part of the fixed mindset – that we have a limit on what we can and can’t achieve. That if we fail, we become a failure. Nobody wants to be a failure, and so some of us will avoid challenging situations on purpose to avoid the chance of getting something wrong. Conversely, others will embrace the challenges as learning opportunities. These are the ones with the growth mindset – the want and need to improve and learn.

As an aspiring teacher and mother-of-three, I had a specific interest in the effects of the growth versus fixed mindsets on children. The evidence suggesting that children develop a much more immersive interest in education and learning when exposed to a growth mindset is monumental; one example she uses in her book is of a school which took on difficult students who had been removed from mainstream school and labelled as unteachable. In this new school, the teacher (who is in the growth mindset) embraced the challenges of each individual learner, took them on, and turned their education, and entire lives, around. Through use of positive reinforcement, differentiating their needs and understanding what motivated them on an individual basis, the teacher of the school changed the course of those childrens’ lives forever.

Dweck’s theory opened up my own mind to different ways of thinking; It made me question the kind of praise I’ve been giving to my children; the feedback I’d been giving to my peers; the ways in which I’d approached problems and faced failures. I found myself constantly reassessing the way I viewed the things I’d been taught in my more vulnerable years. I realised I'd been living in a fixed mindset, thinking that my achievements and failures defined me. In fact, I was so hung up with my lack of achievement that I started to feel like I would fail in everything; that I was a terrible person, an unfit mother incapable of setting a good example for my children.

With Dweck telling us how to stop being in the fixed mindset and how to turn our lives around for the better, ceasing opportunities to grow instead of shirking away from challenges, I was able to see my role as a parent for what it really is; that of a teacher. I want my children to be as happy as they possibly can, not to feel pressured to do what I want of them. They're free to make their own decisions, but I am a guide in the process of their life. Dweck has shown me that having a mind open to improvement, I can lead my children down the right path. 

The book itself is one that should be read by anybody looking to enter the world of education; including teachers, parents and even students – it’s especially useful for explaining to us that failing a test doesn’t make us a failure, it means we should try to understand what went wrong; it’s good at reminding us that proper reinforcement can change a child’s whole view of education; it tells us that labels are best left in the supermarket. Having a growth mindset is a way of changing your life, and the lives of those around you, and although it might take more effort on your part, it’s certainly worth it in the long haul.

Read more about Carol Dweck and her book Mindset by clicking here.