in my work we find that some students
have a fixed mindset about their
intellectual abilities and talents they
think intelligence is just a fixed trait
you have a certain amount and that's
that this is the mindset that makes kids
afraid to try because they're afraid to
look dumb but other students have a
growth mindset they believe that
intelligence can be developed through
their effort dedication learning and
mentorship from others they don't think
everyone's the same or that anyone can
be Einstein but they understand that
even Einstein wasn't the guy he became
before he put in years and years of
dedicated labor I'm going to organize
this by telling you about a study we do
with hundreds of students making the
transition to seventh grade they're
about 13 years old it's an extremely
difficult transition the work gets
substantially harder the grading gets
more stringent the environment becomes
less personal and that's a crucial time
it's a time when many students turn off
to school so as they entered we measure
their mindsets that is we saw whether
they believed intelligence was fixed or
could be developed we monitored their
grades and math over the next two years
we also measured a lot about their
attitudes toward learning they had
entered seventh grade with just about
identical achievement test scores but by
the end of the first term their grades
jumped apart and continued to diverge
over the next two years the only thing
that differed were their mindsets now
let's see why and how the
happened the first thing we found was
that they had completely different goals
in school the number one goal for kids
in a fixed mindset is look smart at all
times and at all costs so their whole
lives are oriented toward of weighting
tasks that might show a deficiency but
in a growth mindset
they where they believe intelligence can
be developed their cardinal rule is
learn at all times and at all costs
that brings us to the second mindset
rule in a fixed mindset effort is a bad
thing they believe if you have ability
you shouldn't need effort and if you
need a lot of effort it's a sign that
you don't have ability I believe that
belief that if you have ability you
shouldn't need effort is one of the
worst beliefs that anyone can have I
think it's why so many of our promising
students don't fulfill their potential
they go along coasting along not trying
that hard the other kids have to try one
day they have to try to and they can't
do it
whereas students in a growth mindset say
effort is what activates their ability
and rule number three in a fixed mindset
a setback or deficiency measures you and
reveals your limitations so what we find
is that those students and the fixed
minds that try to hide their mistakes or
run from their mistake conceal their
deficiencies but those in a growth
mindset they mistake setbacks natural
part of learning it's what happens when
you take on challenges so if fixed
mindset gives no way for students to
handle difficulty they may get
discourage give up lis or become
defensive acting board often this idea
this statement it's boring it's a cover
for a fixed mindset
it means I'm afraid to try or acting out
blame the teacher
on material how are these mindsets
transmitted it we've studied this in a
number of ways but maybe the most
interesting way is through praise for 15
years we have studied how adults praise
effects students we undertook this work
at the height of the self-esteem
movement when the Guru's are telling us
all it appraise our children's ability
tell them how brilliant and talented
they are
but for 15 years we have found praising
children's intelligence harms them it
puts them into a fixed mindset and turns
them off to challenging learning let me
tell you about a series of studies we
did with 10 and 11 year olds we brought
them to a room in their school we gave
them 10 problems from this non verbal IQ
test initially they did pretty well
because they were matched to their age
level and each child received one form
of praise a third of them got
intelligence praise wow that's a really
good score you must be smart at this or
process praise that's about the process
they engaged in could be their strategy
their effort their focus their
persistence wow that's a really good
score you must have tried really hard
and the control group wow that's a
really good score I won't talk much
about them because they tended to be in
the middle now if you listen carefully
to the messages that are embodied in
each statement the first one says I
value intelligence the second says I
value process let's see what happened
first yes indeed
praising intelligence put kids into a
fixed mindset compared to praising the
process but the most astonishing thing
to us was that praising intelligence
turned kids off to learning because
after we praise them we said what do you
want to do now
things fine with us you want a hard task
you can learn from but you might make
mistakes or do you want a task that's
like something you're already good at
the majority of kids who were praised
for their intelligence rejected the
chance to learn in favor of something
they were sure to do well on but those
praised for the process overwhelmingly
wanted the hard task they could learn
from they didn't feel they were in
jeopardy if they struggled for a while
later we gave everyone a difficult set
of problems and here we found that those
who were praised for intelligence lost
their confidence didn't enjoy the
problems anymore
and even when we went back to the easier
problems their performance suffered
those who were praised for the process
remained confident they saw these
problems were harder many of them said
the hard ones were their favorites and
when we went back to the easier ones
their performance flourished because
they remained engaged and they remained
learning a few months ago we published a
study showing that mother's praise to
their babies one two three years of age
predicted that child's mindset and
desire for challenge five years later so
now I feel justified when I intervene
with mothers at airports who are telling
their babies that they're geniuses I
have the data so remember praise process
but it's even more than that it's
conveyed to children a new value system
not about quick easy smart things but
like this sit around the dinner table
and say who had a fabulous struggle
today and each person shares the
struggle or if a child does something
quickly and easily instead of rushing to
tell them how good they are at it we
should say oh I'm sorry I wasted your
time let's do something hard let's do
something you can learn
braum recently I have fallen in love
with a new word yet I heard of a high
school in Chicago where when they didn't
master a unit instead of a failing grade
they got the grade not yet and I thought
isn't that great because not yet means
hey you're on that learning curve you're
somewhere and so if a child says I'm not
good at maths yet it's like get back on
that learning curve I can't do it yet I
tried but it didn't work yet the more
research shows us that human abilities
are capable of growth the more it
becomes a basic human right for students
to experience that growth to live in
environments in which all students can
fulfill their potential
you