A Catholic day and boarding school for boys in grades 7-12 Forming Men of Character since 1854

Rock Workshop – Wednesday, February 11th, 2015

Objective: This week’s workshop will introduce students to the idea of “mindset”, specifically “growth mindset”. Students will also be given very basic steps to take to focus their own mindset to be more growth oriented. Mindset is a simple idea discovered by world-renowned Stanford University psychologist Carol Dweck through decades of research on achievement and success—a simple idea that can make a huge difference.

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.

Teaching a growth mindset creates motivation and productivity in the worlds of business, education, and sports. It enhances relationships.

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. They’re wrong.

Format: A Power Point presentation has been created for this work shop. It can be found on the website.

The first few slides will give the students a chance to discuss qualities of successful people and distinguish

between talent and skill. The next slide will guide you through an introduction to the idea of mindset and

conclude with some steps that students can take to redirect their mindset.

We have also put links to two videos on the website. The first one is intended to give you some very basic

information about the concept of growth mindset; it is an interview from Khan Academy with Carol Dweck.

The second video is a compilation of interviews with Will Smith in which he hits on the concepts of success

through effort and talent vs skill; it can be used during the workshop if time permits. Be sure to get through

the power point before showing the Will Smith video.

You will need to review the slides in advance of the workshop in order to get a good understanding of the

content.

The concept of growth mindset fits very nicely with the topic of “grit” that we discussed last week.