fixed at birth with little they could do to improve it. Furthermore they believed that ability came from talent rather than from the incremental development of skills through learning. Subsequently they gave up in the face of difficulty because they believed that one could either learn with little effort or not at all. The second group of students believed that their intelligence and ability was not fixed and could be improved. These students believed that success was the result of learning that requires strategy, time and effort.
When this group of students faced
difficulty they recognised the need to try a different approach or strategy rather than give up.
Dweck reflects in her book, Mindsets: How you can fulfill your potential, that she had developed a fixed mindset possibly as a result of her own schooling experience where IQ was positioned as fixed and unchangeable. Dweck’s realization acts as an alert to all educators, as we too need to be aware of the mindset that we bring into our classrooms and the unintentional impact this could be having on student learning.
Dweck’s findings are further supported by the more recent revelation from neuroscience that the brain is a plastic, living organ that can actually change its own structure and function, even into old age.
This is arguably the most important breakthrough inneuroscience since scientists first sketched out the brain’s basic anatomy. This revolutionary discovery called neuroplasticity, overthrows the centuries-old notion that the brain is fixed and unchanging.
The brain is not, as was thought, like a machine, or “hardwired” like a computer. Neuroplasticity expands our understanding of the nature of learning.
Dweck’s research further reveals that when we teach students that their brain is like a muscle and can be grown through intention and effort, learning improves.
intelligence and ability are fixed, that one is quite literally born with a set amount of intelligence or ability that cannot be changed. Numerous books have since been published showing just how amazing the brain is when it comes to change and growth. Norman Doidge, MD, (2008) The Brain that Changes Itself, provides a riveting collection of case histories detailing the astonishing progress of people whose conditions had long been dismissed as hopeless.
....both teacher and student beliefs impact learning outcomes and how we think about abilities, our potentiality, and ourselves as learners.
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