Changing Mindsets:Teaching How to

Cultivate Intelligence

Through an Online Book Study

Kathy Marks, M.Ed.Gifted Program Teacher

Gwinnett County

What is a Mindset?

From Merriam-Webster’s online: a mental attitude or inclination a fixed state of mind

For English language learners: a particular way of thinking a person's attitude or set of opinions

about something

What is Your Mindset?

In Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, Carol Dweck writes that her “research has shown that the view you adopt for yourself profoundly affects the way you lead your life.”

Which mindset are you? www.mindsetonline.com

Test Your Mindset (from book p.12)

Read each and decide whether you mostly agree or disagree:

1) Your intelligence is something very basic about you that you can’t change very much.

2) You can learn new things, but you can’t really change how intelligent you are.

3) No matter how much intelligence you have, you can always change it quite a bit.

4) You can always substantially change how intelligent you are.

What About Personal Qualities and Mindset? (from book p.13)

Read each and decide whether you mostly agree or disagree:

1) You are a certain kind of person, and there is not much that can be done to really change that.

2)No matter what kind of person you are, you can always change substantially.

3) You can do things differently but the important parts of who you are can’t really be changed.

4) You can always change basic things about the kind of person you are.

Fixed vs Growth

Categorize the qualities of a fixed mindset and a growth mindset using the paper strips provided.

Fixed Growth

Fixed Growth

The Fixed Mindset

In a fixed mindset, people believe their basic qualities, like their intelligence or talent, are simply fixed traits. They spend their time documenting their intelligence or talent instead of developing them. They also believe that talent alone creates success—without effort.

The Growth Mindset

In a growth mindset, people believe that their most basic abilities can be developed through dedication and hard work—brains and talent are just the starting point. This view creates a love of learning and a resilience that is essential for great accomplishment. Virtually all great people have had these qualities.

Dweck’s Studies

Puzzles with children Junior high students College students Praise

72.072.573.073.574.074.575.075.576.076.577.0

EnteringAcademic

Year

Fall Year 1

Spring Year 1

Fall Year 2

SpringYear2

FixedGrowth

growth mindset

fixed mindset

Junior High Math Achievement

Sports Examples

Natural Talent

Billy Beane (baseball) John McEnroe (golf) Pedro Martinez

(baseball) Sergio Garcia (golf) Patrick Ewing

(basketball) Keyshawn Johnson

(football)

Effort

Michael Jordan (basketball)

Muhammad Ali (boxing) Babe Ruth (baseball) Wilma Rudolph

(running) Jackie Joyner-Kersee

(heptathalon) Marshall Faulk (football) Mia Hamm (soccer)

Business Examples

Talent Scouts

Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling (Enron)

Lee Iacocca (Chrysler) A&P Alber Dunlap (Scott

Paper, Sunbeam) Jerry Levin and Steve

Case (AOL Time Warner)

Constant Improvers

Alan Wurtzel (Circuit City)

Kroger Jack Welch

(General Electric) Lou Gerstner (IBM) Anne Mulcahy

(Xerox)

Relationship Examples

Fixed

Feels judged and labeled

by rejection Strong bitterness and

need for revenge Ideal is instant, perfect,

and perpetual

compatibility – it was

meant to be Continually have to

prove self

Growth

Focuses on

understanding,

forgiveness, and moving

on

Wants to learn from

experience

You, your partner, and

your relationship can all

be developed

Parents, Teachers, and Coaches:Messages About Success

Listen to the messages you send about success: “Praising children’s intelligence harms their motivation and it harms their performance.”

As soon as they encounter a difficulty they will think they are not smart, which will cause confidence and motivation to

decrease. Instead, praise for growth-oriented processes:

hard work, effort, persistence, practice, study, use of good strategies, etc

Parents, Teachers, and Coaches:Messages About Failure

Protecting children from failure to boost their self-esteem can be harmful in the long run.

Children need honest and constructive feedback. If they are “protected” from this, they will not learn well.

Constructive criticism helps a child fix something, build a better product, or

do a better job. Fixed mindset children feel constantly

judged.

Changing Mindsets

Beliefs are the key to happiness and misery.

Our minds are constantly monitoring and interpreting Fixed: internal monologue focused on judgment Growth: internal monologue focused on learning and

constructive action

Just learning about the mindsets can help shift thinking: workshops, discussions, activities

Student workshops had a significant, measurable impact after 8 sessions

Brainology™: interactive computer modules guided by teachers

Change Your Mindset

Change can be easy…but hard just as often

Dweck’s 4 Steps Learn to hear your fixed mindset “voice.” Recognize you have a choice. Talk back to it with a growth mindset

voice. Take the growth mindset action.

So To Spread the Word We…

Created a summer online book study for 30 staff members (a first for our school) using Desire2Learn software through the county

During the study we read, learned, and discussed mindsets and how they affect us and our students

Exploration of D2L course

Then we implemented mindset ideas in classrooms…

We Also…

Gave a brief presentation to the rest of the staff as a teaser to do the book study in the spring

Reflected on our impact 

Next Steps

We wanted to do a Spring online book study, but there were too many other staff development options going on!

We will set up a summer study and replicate with a new set of minds (after making improvements, of course!)

References and Resources

Mindset: The New Psychology of Success

Carol S. Dweck, Ph.D.

www.mindsetonline.com

Desire2Learn program software for online course development http://desire2learn.com/

Questions?