Growth Mindsets

We have been exploring what mindsets are and what the differences are between what is called a fixed mindset and a growth mindset,

Some of this was in relation to the YouCubed week of inspirational math, and some of it was in relation to how we approach new activities and problems that we face in life.

A fixed mindset is less open to new learning, and often believes that it is incapable of dealing with a problem, or learning a new way of doing things.  This can be important to student learning because if you believe that you can't do something before you even look at the problem or try, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy because you will never make a decent attempt at actually understanding what the problem is, or exploring various approaches to the problem, resulting in never succeeding or improving upon your skills.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, is the growth mindset. A growth mindset is more open to new ideas, new ways of solving problems, and having an attitude of trying new and different strategies. This is important to student learning, because if students actually believe that they are capable of training their brain in new ways, and being able to learn new skills and strategies through hard work and effort, they are more likely to try new and different strategies as well as invest the effort needed in order to be successful.