Rosetta Irving
English: 100 Assignment #2: Academic Mindset Argument Before coming to college I didn’t like challenging myself. I avoided college just because I felt like it would be too much work to be successful at it while being a mother. It wasn’t until I adopted the growth mindset that I started to see things differently. Eduardo Briceno said, “in order to change our ability we have to change our mindset.” My mindset was fixed because I didn’t see myself earning the grades I needed to pass while being a mother of three. A growth mindset has helped me as a college student because I have learned how to believe in my abilities to learn complex ideas and embrace my mistakes. Teachers, Parents Often Misuse Growth Mindset Research, Carol Dweck Says (Carol Dweck) Dr. Carol Dweck stated "As the growth mindset has become more popular and taken hold, we are beginning to find that there are pitfalls. Many educators misunderstand or misapply the concepts.” She herself realized that what she had said had been misunderstood. She is not saying we should praise effort alone. The steps in which you take getting to the results are just as important, if not more. Dr. Dweck along with Dr. Lisa Blackwell did a study on several hundred 7th graders over the course of two years and found the children with the growth mindset did way better than the kids with the fixed mindset. The Perils of "Growth Mindset Education" (Alfie Kohn) Whereas Alfie Kohn is saying it’s the entire system that needs fixing. He doesn't think Dr. Dweck method is going to go very far with students. Kohn said, “As I’ve explained in books and articles, the most salient feature of a positive judgment is not that it’s positive but that it’s a judgment; it’s more about controlling than encouraging.” This is him doing exactly what she said. He misunderstood her point completely. She wants parents and teachers to praise strategies results not just effort. Kohn talked about positive judgment in one of his articles. I had a very accurate experience with exactly what he explained in his article. My oldest child is 10 and we have been trying to teach her to be a bit more responsible. I have been asking her to get stuff done as soon as she gets home from school. Things like taking her uniform off right away and putting it away. Getting something to eat and getting straight to her homework, and whatever chore that needs to be done afterward. Simple enough right? Not at all, every single day we had to remind her of something that wasn’t done. One day she came home from school and for whatever reason, she saw the light, for a lack of a better word. My daughter got home and got straight to what she was supposed to. She did so much in such a short amount of time that I just went into positive judgment mode. When my daughter would do something she wasn’t supposed to I would always make a huge deal about it. So I felt it was only right that I did the same in a positive way. Reading Kohn’s article in its entirety made me realized that I only did what I did because, “we’re tempted to take shortcuts, to manipulate kids with rewards instead of explaining and helping them to develop needed skills and good values.” Just like Kohn stated in his article she took the reward as something she could get by doing something nice. She didn’t feel all that motivated to do so the next day. She even told me in her own words. “mommy I don’t think I want to do this all the time”. After she got her prize she lost interest. If I had allowed her to see her own growth and be proud of herself I believe we would have had a better outcome. I personally believe in the growth mindset. I thought I wasn’t going to go back to school after three children. I was fixed on believing that I had chosen my path and education wasn’t on that path. As a child, I had big hopes and dreams of becoming some type of big deal. It all flashed before me when I started having children. Derek Sivers give a speech on why we need to fail. I strongly believe failure is what pushed me to go back to school. If I didn’t feel like I was failing, I wasn’t going to get up off that couch and get serious about school. I had to turn the TV off and go on the computer every day and look for a job. I felt like I was watching TV every day and those people on TV were all working. There I was broke and helping these folks make their money. At that moment I believe I developed the growth mindset. Having a growth mindset changed my entire life. My third child had just been born and I was home with him and we didn’t have a reliable babysitter so I couldn’t go back to work after my 12 weeks was over. My income was hanging on by its last leg. I was home and there was no other way of bringing in extra income, so my husband was pretty much working to pay bills. This was a huge eye opener for me not only did I feel horrible that I wasn’t working at the time, but also that I was working at a dead end job. I also felt bad that I couldn’t fully enjoy my time off with my new baby. Something had to change I had to set myself up for better and the only way I could do that was to get back in school. Michael Litt on Ted talk, talked about how you have to fail in order to succeed. Without a growth mindset, I wouldn’t have seen this as an opportunity to grow. I could have looked at the situation from a fixed mindset point of view. I could’ve said that it was my job that needed to be changed and not me. “A fool is someone that tries the same thing over and over expecting different result”. I wanted better for me and my family so I had to put in the necessary work. We all know Steve Jobs you know the co-finder of apple, yeah that Steve Jobs. “As a kid, he struggled in school. He dropped out of college after just six months. For money he sold coke bottles for five cents refund. He had a growth mindset and knew that he had to put in the effort to get the results.” Josh Waitzkin said “the moment we believe that success is determined by an ingrained level of ability we will be brittle in the face of adversity”. I believe what he’s trying to say here is that the moment you start to believe that your ability is tied to your success that’s when you will face failure. Having a growth mindset right now is so crucial to my success in college. I am a mother of three that all 10 and below. To say the least, my husband works night shift which is a good thing because there’s always someone home with our children. Just not the best when I need to get school work done because he goes to sleep when I get home. This semester was a little tuff for me because I was taking on a little more on my plate. We moved further from the college and my first class was at 8 am. I never made it to class on time and I paid for it in my work. My kids needed me at home and I had to work on the days I didn’t have school. I could’ve easily throw in the towels but I didn’t, I pushed through all of that noise and applied myself. I am a little disappointed in the way I ended the semester but I’m still here still pushing still trying to do my best. I was always the type of person to avoid doing something just for the fair of failing at it. Since I decided to start school I had to adopt a new attitude. In order to succeed, I must embrace failure. I love what Oprah said in her Stanford speech. “There’s no such thing as failure really, cause failure is just that thing trying to move you in another direction. So you get as much from your losses as you do your victories. Cause the losses are there to wake you up. The losses are there to say fool, that is why you go to school… Her speech really hit home for me. I just need to always remember, … “what is the next right move and not to get overwhelmed by it because you know your life is bigger than that one moment.” This speech really hit home for me and it’s pretty much what people with growth mindsets needs to adopt. Failure is just a bump in your journey. Irving, 7 Works Cited Khon, Alfie. “The Perils of Growth Mindset education: Why we’re trying to fix our kids when we should be fixing the system” SALON, 16 Aug, 2015. Web. 20 Jan, 2017. Khon, Alfie. “Five Reasons to Stop Saying Good Job! YOUNG CHILDREN, September, 2001. Web. 1 May, 2017. The Hechinger Report. “Teachers Often Misuse Growth Mindset Research Carol Dweck Says” U.S.News & World Report, 23 Nov, 2015. Web. 20 Jan, 2017. TEDx Talks.TEDxPhnomPenh – Derek Sivers- Why You Need to Fail. Online video clip. You Tube. You Tube, 5 Nov. 2011. Web. 20 Jan. 2017. TEDx Talks. The Power of belief – mindset and success | Eduardo Briceno | TEDxManhattanBeach. Online video clip. You Tube. You Tube, 18 Nov. 2012. Web. 20 Jan. 2017.
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