Changing The Mindset
Mindset – changing the way you think to fulfil your potential
Author: Dr. Carol S. Dweck
Little Brown UK
We all want to see our students and our children grow into happy, balanced and successful adults but exactly what that means and how it is to be achieved are areas of uncertainty. Into this debate comes Carol Dweck’s research into ‘Mindsets’ and how individual differences in our approach to the world dictate our ultimate experiences of success or disappointment. Through Dweck’s research the reader is provided with an insight as to why some people seem to cope with the trials of life while others in the same situation fail to reach their full potential. Dweck tells us it is all about an individual’s ‘Mindset’ and in a refreshing shift away from complex theories, with multiple dimensions and layers, presents a model with two possibilities.
Mindset
An eye-opener. You can call the book Mindset of Carol s. Dweck the way to a successful life. She describes her extraordinary discoveries after decades of research into achievement and success. What did she discover? Not only our talents and skills ensure success. It also depends on our mindset, our thinking style. Dweck discovered that there are two mind-sets: the static mindset and the growth-oriented mindset.
After an introduction about the mind-sets, Carol Dweck writes about the influence of the mindset on the different areas: sport, leadership, love, parents and teachers. She concludes with pointers how to change your mindset.
According to Dweck an individual in a particular situation across all aspects of their lives can adopt a Growth Mindset or a Fixed Mindset with very different outcomes as a result. In a Growth Mindset the individual is open to the idea that their ability to succeed in any situation can change as a result of actions within their control.
Static mindset / fixed mindset
In the Fixed Mindset success occurs because an individual has talent or innate ability, failure is due to a lack of the same and as such negative results are taken as a personal attack that in many cases it warranted as the evidence points to a lack of ability. The alternative to taking failure personally in the Fixed Mindset is to find excuses and external factors that biased the result against the individuals still fixed ability.
Growth-oriented mindset / growth mindset
An individual with a Growth Mindset will believe that they can learn new skills, expand their abilities, improve their results, understand new perspectives and adapt to changing circumstances. The Growth Mindset is a very positive outlook and the key to success of the individuals described by Carol in her writing. The Fixed Mindset assumes that ability is fixed and unalterable, a result of factors outside of the individuals control.
source: http://thelearnersway.net/
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additional online resources:
You can find more input in the following 2 external articles.
https://www.lean.org/LeanPost/Posting.cfm?LeanPostId=696
https://alexvermeer.com/why-your-mindset-important
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