(From Growth Mindset memes, made with cheezeburger)
Friday, August 26, 2016
My thoughts on the Growth Mindset
I had never heard of the growth mindset or Carol Dweck before but I really liked the idea of a growth mindset. I've had many classes that were purely graded on correctness, but I've always felt like I didn't really learn much in those classes. I learned how to give the correct answer - what I would call memorization-based classes. You don't learn the whole process - the why, the how, the little details - you just learn what it is and how to do it. I've had many other classes though in chemical engineering where I was graded on my attempt and the quality of that attempt. I might still be completely wrong, but when I'm wrong, I'm not completely discouraged because I can see where I can improve. When most of my exams are two hours long and only have two questions on the exam, it'd be very discouraging if we were graded purely on correctness when a simple error can screw up a multi-page calculation. The idea of always being able to improve really resonates with me over the standard discouragement I feel when I screw up on an assignment in some classes. On the first day of one of my classes this semester, the professor said "When you get something right, you don't learn anything. You move on. But when you get something, wrong, that's when you have the opportunity to really learn something and grow from your mistakes."
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I agree with your opinions. I never felt that I had learned anything from the classes that taught on correctness as well. I felt that they made it even harder for me to be able to learn in that class since I felt so discouraged all of the time. On a side note, I loved your meme! It's adorable!
ReplyDeleteI love what your professor said about how you only learn when you get something wrong. That resonates so clearly for me. That's why I think its important to not discourage students from being wrong. I loved that about classes that grade the learning process not the pure test results. I'm not saying someone should get a perfect grade when they get wrong answers but no one should feel like their GPA describes how they are as a student or the capacity to learn.
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