Professor Carol Dweck 'Teaching a growth mindset' at Young Minds 2013
-
0:00 - 0:06[MUSIC]
-
0:06 - 0:07Kids come like this.
-
0:07 - 0:12Infinitely curious, always experimenting,
-
0:12 - 0:18always learning, and
attacking the most difficult -
0:18 - 0:22tasks of a lifetime with tremendous gusto.
-
0:23 - 0:29And yet, just a few years later,
many of the same children look like this. -
0:29 - 0:33Or this.
-
0:33 - 0:37Or this.
-
0:37 - 0:41We have discovered that
children's mindsets -
0:41 - 0:45can lay at the heart of this problem.
-
0:45 - 0:50The wrong mindset can make
them afraid of challenge, -
0:50 - 0:53afraid of effort, afraid of setbacks.
-
0:55 - 0:57The important thing is this.
-
0:57 - 1:01We have discovered where
these mindsets come from, -
1:01 - 1:04how they work, and how to change them.
-
1:04 - 1:07So that's what I wanna
share with you today. -
1:08 - 1:12In my work, we find that some case for
the fixed mind set. -
1:12 - 1:18They think that their basic talents and
abilities are just these fixed traits, -
1:18 - 1:24they have a certain amount of
intelligent and talents and that's that. -
1:24 - 1:30As you'll see, this is the mindset
that saps children's motivation and -
1:30 - 1:36stunts their minds, but
other students have a growth mindset. -
1:36 - 1:41They believe their most basic talents and
abilities can be developed -
1:41 - 1:46through practice, learning,
good mentorship From others. -
1:47 - 1:51They don't think everyone's the same or
anyone can be Einstein, but -
1:51 - 1:56they understand that even
Einstein wasn't the man he became -
1:56 - 2:00before he put in years and
years of dedicated labor. -
2:01 - 2:06What I'm gonna talk about is, how do
mindsets work and how they can be changed? -
2:08 - 2:13We did a study of hundreds of
students making a very difficult -
2:13 - 2:20school transition to seventh grade,
which is about 13, 14 years old. -
2:20 - 2:23In my country,
this is when the work gets harder, -
2:23 - 2:29the grading gets more stringent and
lots of kids turn off to school. -
2:29 - 2:33At the beginning of seventh grade,
we measured students mindsets and -
2:33 - 2:37then we monitored their grades
over the next two years. -
2:37 - 2:38Look what happened.
-
2:39 - 2:41The students with the fixed and
-
2:41 - 2:47growth mindsets entered seventh grade
with identical past math achievement. -
2:47 - 2:51But by the end of their
first term of seventh grade, -
2:51 - 2:58their grades jumped apart and continued
to diverge over the next two years. -
2:58 - 2:59Why did that happen?
-
2:59 - 3:04First, we showed that
-
3:04 - 3:11the kids with a fixed mindset
only care about looking smart. -
3:11 - 3:14Look smart and never look dumb.
-
3:14 - 3:18Therefore they avoided
challenging learning task and -
3:18 - 3:22they didn't study deeply
in order to learn. -
3:22 - 3:27But those with the growth mindset,
there was no risk. -
3:27 - 3:29They weren't showing how smart they were.
-
3:29 - 3:38They just dove into challenging learning
tasks with gusto like the babies. -
3:38 - 3:41The second thing was that
-
3:41 - 3:45two mindsets created very
different beliefs about effort. -
3:45 - 3:48And this is critically important.
-
3:48 - 3:51In a fixed mindset, effort is a bad thing.
-
3:53 - 3:58Students believe if you really have
ability, you shouldn't need effort. -
3:58 - 4:03And if you have to apply effort,
it means you are not very smart. -
4:03 - 4:06They subscribe to Homer Simpson's motto.
-
4:06 - 4:08Trying is the first step towards failure.
-
4:11 - 4:17But in the growth mindset,
kids understand that hard work and -
4:17 - 4:22practice, that's what makes you smarter,
and they also understand -
4:22 - 4:27that even genius' have had to work
hard for their great discoveries. -
4:27 - 4:29So they enjoy effort.
-
4:29 - 4:31It makes them feel like they're learning,
-
4:31 - 4:34rather than making them
feel like they're dumb. -
4:35 - 4:39And the third thing we
found was that the mindsets -
4:39 - 4:44created completely different
attitudes towards setbacks. -
4:44 - 4:50In a fixed mindset,
setbacks have a really negative meaning. -
4:50 - 4:52They mean you're not smart.
-
4:52 - 4:57If you were smart, you wouldn't be
making mistakes or having failures. -
4:57 - 5:04So their tendency is to get defensive,
to hide mistakes, to conceal deficiencies. -
5:04 - 5:07But in a growth mindset,
there's this realization -
5:09 - 5:11that set backs are an actual
part of learning. -
5:13 - 5:17And that you need to confront your
mistakes and deficiencies and -
5:17 - 5:17learn from them.
-
5:17 - 5:24I have to say with the way I got into
this field was that I was testing -
5:24 - 5:29some kids and they were reached
some problem they couldn't solve. -
5:29 - 5:32And one of them said, I love a challenge.
-
5:32 - 5:36Or another said,
I was hoping this would be informative. -
5:37 - 5:38And so
-
5:38 - 5:43here were these ten year olds having
these exuberant reactions to setbacks. -
5:44 - 5:47Ultimately I understood
they had a growth mindset. -
5:50 - 5:55We asked our seventh graders
what they would do after a poor -
5:55 - 6:00score on the first exam in a new course.
-
6:00 - 6:02Here's what they said.
-
6:02 - 6:04Those who endorsed a fixed mindset said,
-
6:04 - 6:08I'd spend less time on
this subject from now on. -
6:08 - 6:10I would try to cheat on the next test.
-
6:13 - 6:14Well, think about it.
-
6:16 - 6:20This set back meant that
weren't smart at it and -
6:20 - 6:23effort isn't something they enjoy or
value. -
6:23 - 6:25What are their options?
-
6:25 - 6:29But in a growth mindset, they'd said I'd
work harder in this class from now on. -
6:29 - 6:31I'd spend more time studying for the test.
-
6:33 - 6:38Let me show you how this works
in the brain, in this study -
6:38 - 6:43the researchers monitored from
-
6:43 - 6:48the brain as students worked on a task and
made errors. -
6:48 - 6:53You see this red hot brain on the right,
those are growth mindset students -
6:54 - 6:58detecting the errors,
processing them and correcting them. -
6:59 - 7:04On the left, you have that
fixed mindset brain looking so -
7:04 - 7:10cool, fleeing, running from
the errors as quickly as possible. -
7:10 - 7:16The good news is that when students
were taught a growth mindset, -
7:16 - 7:17they looked like that.
-
7:20 - 7:25So a fixed mindset doesn't give
students a way to handle difficulty. -
7:25 - 7:30They give up, run away, become defensive.
-
7:30 - 7:36When you see students acting bored or
acting out or blaming the teacher, -
7:36 - 7:42it is often trying to hide the fixed
mindset of fear, of not looking smart. -
7:44 - 7:47How are these mindsets transmitted?
-
7:47 - 7:52The most interesting way that we've
studied is how they are transmitted -
7:52 - 7:57through the praise parents,
teachers, adults give to kids. -
7:58 - 8:03We undertook this research at
the height of the self-esteem movement. -
8:03 - 8:08When the gurus were telling everyone,
just praise kids lavishly, -
8:08 - 8:11globally, praise their talent,
praise their abilities. -
8:12 - 8:17In 15 or more years of research,
we have shown -
8:17 - 8:22that praising children's ability
backfires, it harms them. -
8:23 - 8:29It does not create growth in young minds.
-
8:29 - 8:31Here's how we found this out.
-
8:32 - 8:36In some studies, we brought ten year
olds into a room in their school. -
8:36 - 8:43And we gave them initially ten
problems from this non-verbal IQ test. -
8:43 - 8:50Then after the ten problems,
we gave each child one form of praise. -
8:50 - 8:53Some children were praised for
their intelligence. -
8:54 - 8:59Wow, that's a really good score,
you must be smart at this. -
8:59 - 9:03Some were praised for the process
they engaged in, like their effort. -
9:03 - 9:07Or their strategies that
could be in other studies or -
9:07 - 9:09their focus or their persistence.
-
9:09 - 9:14Wow, that's a really good score,
you must have tried really hard. -
9:14 - 9:18And a third group was told, wow,
that's a really good score. -
9:18 - 9:22But we won't talk much about them,
they were right in the middle. -
9:22 - 9:23What happened?
-
9:25 - 9:31First, we found that praising intelligence
-
9:31 - 9:35did indeed put students
into a fixed mindset. -
9:35 - 9:41It said, I can look inside of you and
measure how smart you are. -
9:43 - 9:48Whereas praising the process put
them into more of a growth mindset. -
9:48 - 9:53But to me, the most astonishing
thing was that praising -
9:53 - 9:57intelligence turned kids off to learning.
-
9:58 - 10:01When we gave them a choice
after the praise, hey, -
10:01 - 10:03what do you wanna work on now?
-
10:03 - 10:07Something hard, you might make mistakes,
but you'll learn something new. -
10:07 - 10:13Or something you're good at,
so you're sure to do well. -
10:13 - 10:15Most of the kids praised for
-
10:15 - 10:21intelligence chose the easy task
where they were sure to do well. -
10:21 - 10:26I like to say they didn't wanna risk
their newly minted gifted label. -
10:26 - 10:28But those praised for
-
10:28 - 10:34the process overwhelmingly chose
the hard task they could learn from. -
10:36 - 10:41Later, we gave everybody a hard
set of problems to work on. -
10:43 - 10:47And those who were praised for
their intelligence, -
10:47 - 10:53after these hard problems,
when we went back to the easy ones, -
10:53 - 10:56showed deeply undermined performance.
-
10:56 - 11:00They did not recover from
the difficult problems. -
11:00 - 11:06Telling them that they were smart
made their IQ lower on that test -
11:06 - 11:08when they encounter difficulty.
-
11:08 - 11:12But the kids praised for
the process really flourished. -
11:15 - 11:20We just two months ago published a study,
-
11:20 - 11:26where we looked at mothers'
praise to their babies. -
11:26 - 11:30The babies were one to three years of age.
-
11:30 - 11:35And we showed that the mothers' praise
to these babies predicted the child's -
11:35 - 11:40mindset and desire for
challenge five years later. -
11:40 - 11:42So it starts young.
-
11:42 - 11:46It can always be changed,
but it starts young. -
11:46 - 11:51And now when I hear a mother
telling her baby in the airport -
11:51 - 11:53that he's a genius, I stop her.
-
11:53 - 11:58>> [LAUGH]
>> Other research also -
11:58 - 12:03showing parents' praise to their
older kids too is predicting -
12:03 - 12:08that child's mindset and
desire for challenge over time. -
12:11 - 12:14I've fallen in love with a new word, yet.
-
12:14 - 12:20And I think that's another way
we can convey mindsets to kids. -
12:20 - 12:26I learned of a high school in Chicago,
where when students didn't pass a unit, -
12:26 - 12:32instead of getting a failing grade,
they got the grade, not yet. -
12:34 - 12:36And I thought, isn't that beautiful?
-
12:36 - 12:39If you get a failing grade,
you're nowhere. -
12:39 - 12:42You're dumb, you're at the starting gate.
-
12:42 - 12:46But not yet means, hey,
you're on that learning curve, -
12:46 - 12:50maybe you're not at the finish line,
but you're on that curve. -
12:50 - 12:55So, if a student says,
I'm not good at, same as, yet. -
12:57 - 12:59I can't do it, yet.
-
12:59 - 13:01Get back on that learning curve.
-
13:01 - 13:04I tried, but it didn't work yet.
-
13:04 - 13:09It tells them, we have faith in
their ability to learn over time, -
13:09 - 13:11and we expect them to.
-
13:14 - 13:19When we saw that a growth mindset had so
many benefits, we asked, -
13:19 - 13:22could we teach it to kids?
-
13:22 - 13:28So in our original study,
we took seventh graders, again, -
13:28 - 13:33that difficult transition, many of whom
were already showing declining grades, -
13:33 - 13:39especially in math, and
we broke them into two groups. -
13:39 - 13:46One group, the control group, got eight
sessions of fantastic study skills. -
13:48 - 13:54Skills that teachers told them, told us,
would really help them that year. -
13:54 - 13:56But the other group,
the growth mindset group, -
13:56 - 14:02got eight sessions of study skills,
plus growth mindset. -
14:04 - 14:07The growth mindset sessions
kicked off with this article, -
14:07 - 14:09You Can Grow Your Intelligence.
-
14:09 - 14:13New research shows the brain
can be developed like a muscle. -
14:14 - 14:16And what they learned was this.
-
14:16 - 14:22There were these neurons in their brain,
and every time they pushed -
14:22 - 14:27out of their comfort zone to
learn something new and hard, -
14:27 - 14:33these neurons form new connections,
and over time, they could get smarter. -
14:34 - 14:38Kids love this message.
-
14:38 - 14:40We'll never forget the boy
who looked up at as and -
14:40 - 14:44said, you mean I don't have to be dumb?
-
14:46 - 14:47And look what happened.
-
14:47 - 14:53The students who just got the study skills
continued to show declining grades, -
14:53 - 14:59but the students who learned the growth
mindset have the, whoop, here we go. -
15:01 - 15:05Have the motivation to put those skills
into practice to grow their brain. -
15:05 - 15:08And they showed a big
rebound in their grades. -
15:10 - 15:16Is it ever too late,
we wanted to know are there ever students -
15:16 - 15:21who are too far gone to
benefit from a growth mindset? -
15:21 - 15:27So we recently completed this study,
13 high schools in the US. -
15:27 - 15:32And we focused on the lowest
achieving students. -
15:32 - 15:36Half of them learned,
half of them were in the control group. -
15:36 - 15:42They just learned about the brain and
how they could enhance their memory. -
15:42 - 15:48But the other half received online
lessons on the growth mindset. -
15:48 - 15:54And, again, it's how the brain grows
through learning when they work on new and -
15:54 - 15:55difficult things.
-
15:56 - 16:01The first thing we found was
that just three months later, -
16:01 - 16:08Those who had learned the growth
mindset lesson already had higher -
16:08 - 16:14grade point averages and
the second thing we found -
16:14 - 16:20was that those who did not have
the growth mindset training were -
16:21 - 16:27failing more and more courses, but
those who did get the growth mindset -
16:27 - 16:32messages were failing fewer and
fewer courses over time. -
16:33 - 16:38We're doing a lot of new work
now showing that the growth -
16:38 - 16:43mindset learning the growth mindset,
keeps the student in school. -
16:44 - 16:51Fewer drop outs helps them make
that transition to university -
16:52 - 16:59and we're also doing a whole new line
of work with bullying and aggression, -
16:59 - 17:05and showing that teaching a growth
mind set about personal qualities -
17:05 - 17:12lowers students tendency
to react with aggression. -
17:12 - 17:13So we're very,
-
17:13 - 17:19very excited about these new places
that we're taking the growth mind set. -
17:20 - 17:23So, is the growth mindset for everyone?
-
17:23 - 17:26Does everyone wanna get smarter?
-
17:26 - 17:31Well, I know when I was a kid,
we would have done anything for -
17:31 - 17:32a few more IQ points.
-
17:32 - 17:36In fact, my sixth grade teacher seated us
-
17:36 - 17:40around the room in IQ order and
you could not. -
17:40 - 17:44It was already the highest
IQ class in the school. -
17:44 - 17:49But if you weren't the highest
IQ person in that class, -
17:49 - 17:53you were not allowed to
erase the blackboard or -
17:53 - 17:59carry a note to the principal or
carry the flag In the school assembly. -
17:59 - 18:02So if someone said, hey,
do you want more IQ points? -
18:02 - 18:05Yes, tell me how.
-
18:05 - 18:09But in a really fascinating new study,
-
18:09 - 18:14Stephanie Fryberg took the growth mindset
-
18:14 - 18:19concept into Native American culture and
-
18:19 - 18:27she went back to her Native American
reservation where she grew up and -
18:27 - 18:32she brought the growth mind set with her.
-
18:32 - 18:36At first, it didn't take.
-
18:36 - 18:41The kids weren't that
excited about getting some -
18:41 - 18:45more neuro connections in their brain.
-
18:45 - 18:48But when she made it culturally relevant,
-
18:48 - 18:53relevant to the tribal values,
it could fire. -
18:53 - 18:57When she said, you can grow your brain.
-
18:57 - 19:02And when you grow your brain,
you can really help your family and -
19:02 - 19:06community thrive, it caught fire.
-
19:07 - 19:12She also instructed parents and
teachers in how to promote -
19:12 - 19:17a growth mindset and
how to teach kids that every day, -
19:17 - 19:24six hours of school were devoted
to growing their brains. -
19:24 - 19:32And if a child didn't pay attention or
cut up or misbehaved, -
19:32 - 19:38they stayed in from recess and
teachers said, because we care about you, -
19:39 - 19:44we want you to have six hours
a day to grow your brain. -
19:45 - 19:52This was an elementary school on
a Native American reservation. -
19:52 - 19:5590% minority and
-
19:55 - 20:01the school had been in
the bottom 5% of the state. -
20:02 - 20:04Where are they now?
-
20:05 - 20:10After a year to a year and
a half of this immersive growth mindset, -
20:10 - 20:16the kindergarteners and
first graders now lead their district and -
20:16 - 20:21it's an affluence surrounding
district in oral reading fluency. -
20:21 - 20:2595% of the kindergarteners and
-
20:25 - 20:3280% of the first graders are proficient or
above in reading. -
20:32 - 20:35Third grade literacy.
-
20:35 - 20:4268% of third grade students met or
were within ten points of the standard. -
20:42 - 20:50The previous fall, most of them had been
more than 100 points below standard. -
20:50 - 20:55Third to fifth grade, 60% of all students
-
20:55 - 21:00were showing more than
a year of growth in math and -
21:00 - 21:05literacy and
at least half of those students were -
21:05 - 21:10showing 1.5 to 2 years
of growth each year. -
21:10 - 21:15Most important,
children now believe that their -
21:15 - 21:19potential as native
students was unlimited. -
21:22 - 21:27What I want you to take
away from here today -
21:27 - 21:32is this idea that within a fixed mindset,
-
21:32 - 21:38effort and difficulty make you feel dumb,
-
21:38 - 21:41make kids feel dumb.
-
21:41 - 21:45But within a growth mindset,
effort and difficulty, -
21:45 - 21:53that's what gives you neural connections,
new connections and make you smarter. -
21:53 - 21:56Do you feel that difference?
-
21:56 - 22:02So in summary, a growth mindset allows
students to embrace learning and -
22:02 - 22:06growth, to understand the role
of effort in creating -
22:06 - 22:10intelligence instead of making
them feel if they were smart. -
22:10 - 22:13They wouldn't need effort and
-
22:13 - 22:18it allows them to be resilient
in the face of setbacks. -
22:18 - 22:20And best of all, it can be taught.
-
22:22 - 22:25I'd like to end with this proposal.
-
22:27 - 22:32The more research shows
us that human abilities -
22:34 - 22:41can be grown, the more it become a basic
-
22:41 - 22:46human right for children to exist
-
22:46 - 22:52in environments that help
them to grow those abilities, -
22:52 - 22:58to live in environments that help
them fulfill their potential. -
22:58 - 23:00Thank you.
-
23:00 - 23:06[APPLAUSE]
Show all