Thoughts On Growth Mindset

I had never heard of Carol Dweck or the growth mindset before, but I think it's a really important concept for people to learn about, and I'm very excited to learn more about this concept this semester. I think that people, and parents, become very comfortable with their children just reaching an end goal rather than setting up continuos goals along the way. It's really important for kids to learn that their efforts and ways of solving a problem, even if it's not how someone would teach the general public to solve a problem, are worthy of praise. They don't need to only have one end point, but have multiple goals and be able to dream big and think about their futures. I personally believe this one of the biggest issues with common core testing. Teachers and students are just focusing on getting good test grades instead of really learning and teaching concepts that could benefit the children in the future. They're focused on a test, because the state has mandated scores determine how good of a student/teacher they are. 

I definitely think I'm guilty of having a fixed mindset and worrying more about the "now" rather than the "yet". There are so many times that I have just been so focused on the end of a class and getting the "A", and trying to find the easiest and quickest ways to finish assignments, not really challenging myself at all. It would definitely help me in my future career if I started implementing more of a growth mindset in school. This semester I want to be much better about not just focusing on getting good grades and really thinking about my approach to problem solving and setting both short-term and long-term goals for myself.

I've learned so much about my learning during my time here at OU. I've learned that I'm an extremely visual learner and do much better when someone shows me how to do something rather than just reading out of a book or being told what to do.  I've also found that I'm very easily distracted while learning. I have to pay extra attention and focus extremely well or I won't grasp concepts well at all.

 

(Stepping Out Of Your Comfort Zone)