Hi everyone and welcome to our class. As we go through this wonderful educational
experience together, it helps to understand my approach to learning and achieving success--especially in
a class that emphasizes skill-building. The approach I take is grounded in two perspectives: Carol Dweck's 2007
book Mindset: The New Psychology Of Success--which, when I read it exemplified and expounded on the
approach I had already adopted in my classes--and my life for that matter. It's definitely worth a read--and the
levels of competence that have been attributed to Abraham Maslow. Now let's start with Dr. Dweck's
book where she identifies two mindsets: the Fixed and Growth mindset. Briefly, the Fixed mindset is based
on the belief that who you are is carved in stone. Your intelligence, creativity, personality, and so on, are fixed
trait--you either have them or you don't. And, if you don't, you can't--or don't want to--develop them. A Growth
mindset, on the other hand, is based upon the belief that you can--with effort--cultivate who you are.
Dweck states that everyone can change and grow through application and experience.
People with a fixed mindset feel they must constantly prove themselves and
tend to avoid criticism as they view it as attacking them personally.
So oftentimes they avoid trying anything new--after all, they don't want to be
proven wrong, even to themselves. People with a growth mindset, however, value
learning and effort. Those who truly believe they can improve in something
are more motivated to learn and practice. Rather than viewing criticism as an
attack, they view it as valuable and something they can learn and improve
from. Now, that's not to say that criticism doesn't sting or take time to
process, but as Mark Twain is credited as saying "Good decisions come from
experience, experience comes from making bad decisions." This mindset gives you the
justification for persevering, even if it is difficult and you seem to be at a plateau.
While Dr. Dweck's book ,which I am definitely oversimplifying, discusses
these mindsets as if they are black-and-white, our mindsets often vary
from area to area. For example, I'm always ready to learn new things and often willing
to look stupid in the process, but I tend to view my inability to do the splits as fixed. I'm just not that flexible--
and that is definitely not a photo of me. So, while I don't believe that a growth mindset can overcome anything,
my willingness to try and learn from experience has served me well over the
years--and I believe it can serve you well to. Another well-known quote, this
time attributed to Henry Ford, is "If you think you can do a thing or you think
you can't do a thing you're right." The second approach credited to Abraham Maslow goes by a variety of names
such as levels of self-awareness, or four levels for learning any new skill.
Regardless of the name,
it demonstrates that we go through stages to move from incompetence to competence. In this model, you start off
incompetent but you are unaware that you are incompetent, so the first stages unconscious incompetence.
You may never have been exposed to a skill or knowledge or, if you have, you may not think it is
important enough to pay attention to. Once you become aware that you are incompetent, you move to the next
stage, conscious incompetence. Now you recognize your own competence but you're
still incompetent. Now, what moves you from unconscious incompetence to
conscious incompetence? There at least three ways. The first is what I'll call the "outcome": you do
something and realize that it didn't come out the way you wanted it to. Think about the first time you cooked
something and the result was well not exactly what you thought it would be.
Another method is feedback or criticism: someone tells you--nicely or otherwise--
and that may sting a bit or you may shrug it off is not correct. Still another method is
observing someone else doing what you're doing or someone else doing something different. "Ah, now I see,"
you think. Depending upon how important it is to you to acquire this new knowledge or skill, you may stop
right there. There are lots of skills that I know that I'm incompetent at: speaking Spanish,
for example, and am still incompetent at. To get from incompetence to competence,
you first move from conscious incompetence, to conscious competence.
Now you understand or know how to do something, but you have to concentrate
while you are doing it; it's not second nature. What moves you from conscious incompetence, to conscious
competence? Well, many immediately say practice and, while that is true, it's not exactly right.
Something has to happen first' you have to be motivated to practice or improve.
Now you may be motivated by need-- if I were to move to a Spanish-speaking
country, I would be more inclined to work on my Spanish--or you may be motivated by
a perceived benefit--if I knew Spanish, I could amaze my friends and be a good
role model for my children--and maybe get a bump in salary. Or you may be motivated
by interest or an internal desire: I just want to get better at speaking Spanish
because I find it interesting. Or I want to learn and perhaps you are motivated
by dissatisfaction I'm not happy that I'm not speaking Spanish.
Well, for the most part, though, to become competent, you have to want to be competent,. After
you've practiced enough that your skills become second nature, you move to
unconscious competence. Now, you are competent and you don't have to think
about what you're doing while you are doing it. In fact, you can do it while
you're thinking about or doing something else. This visual model implies that you
spend the same amount of time in each step, but that's not true. And, it also
implies that, once you complete one stage, you automatically progress to the next
stage, but there can often be setbacks and plateaus--as any athlete will tell you.
And, of course,
these same mindsets--the growth mindset, and the understanding that we go through stages on our way to
improvement and mastery can applied well beyond just achieving competence.
We can apply these mindsets to this class and, indeed, life by considering the following: acknowledge, or
recognize, that you may not currently be competent and that's okay. And you may be competent in some areas
and not others. You are not expected to be perfect and that is very likely an unrealistic expectation to have; it
sets you up for failure so you may be reluctant to try something new. Persevere; don't be discouraged
recognize that competency and mastery may take time and be willing to put in that time. You may have to take
small steps to get to where you want to go and, like many dieters, you may backslide sometimes.
Find something to motivate yourself to improve, which will give you a reason to
practice. Take risks and seek out information and feedback.
Speaking of feedback: Welcome and encourage feedback and help from others
as well as yourself. Examine what you were doing with a critical eye towards
improvement--not with a critical eye looking to beat yourself up over the not-
so-competent aspects of what you are doing.
Define your successes in terms of improvement not overall mastery,. Take
pride in improving in at least one area even if it's a small skill.
Now that you're in the right mindset, let's do this and do it well!