Growth Mindset: Learning to Love Learning

I've heard the term growth mindset before, probably through psychology classes, but never really understood the benefits of having a growth mindset in contrast to a fixed mindset. I found the research on how praise effects the development of mindsets to be very interesting. I have found myself praised in school for making good grades and performing better on tests than classmates. I realized that as I have gotten older, I have had more difficulty putting in effort to school and have often failed to challenge myself. I think a larger problem associated with the fixed mindset is that in traditional education, you could potentially have a fixed mindset and still be praised for performance rather than learning. In a fixed mindset, even success can be boring and education looses its ability to stimulate. I think having a growth mindset helps education feels more like an opportunity than a chore. I think I have fluctuated between having a growth and fixed mindset over the years. I hope keeping this in mind will help me to apply myself fully to the learning opportunities available to me this semester.

(Redefining success - Image from Growth Mindset and Feedback Cats Blog)