Revisiting Growth Mindset

Hello again!

So I have heard of growth mindset. While it's never had a significant impact on me before, it seems to have got me questioning a little bit about myself this time around.

Just like everyone else, my intelligence was primarily measured by the grades I got in school. I was a smart kid, so I got A's. But, based on this way of thinking, the kid who got C's and D's isn't a smart kid. Is this always the case? Is my intelligence accurately represented by one letter or one number? I'd like to think no.

I love the idea of growth mindset. The problem I see with it is determining if the student really ever learns or not. You can praise their process forever, but until they finally pass the test, or pass the class, or graduate or whatever, you won't truly know if they are learning. Progress could be one measure, but is progress enough? If a student starts at a 50 on an exam, and next time he gets a 60, is he rewarded? 60 still isn't passing in the college of engineering. While he is getting better, you can only get better so many times before you can't afford to retake a class anymore.

I think of growth mindset is to be adopted anywhere, it has to be early like in middle school and high school. College is not the best setting because we're paying for our classes. You can't just get better and better until you eventually pass. You'll go broke first.

The reason why growth mindset would be hard to adopt in college

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I think adopting this into my own learning would be super beneficial and I'm really going to try and do this.

Until next time!