Growth Mindset
Before watching the TedTalk, I had never heard of Carol Dweck. I really like her voice though, it's very soothing!
I believe I'm more on the growth mindset rather than the fixed mindset. I'm more optimistic and I like challenges, however, I do become hard on myself on certain things when I fail at something or don't perform as well as I thought I would. When I was younger, I wanted to be a singer. I took voice lessons for a couple years, but I ended up realizing that I just wasn't cut out for it. I felt down for a bit, but eventually I accepted that I'm okay with my voice, even though I would never be the next Beyonce.
While being at OU, I've learn that I tend to either procrastinate until the day before an assignment, or get right to it and finish an assignment. I don't know how to stick to getting right to it! I do like to follow schedules though, and found that they help me quite a bit to stay on track. The biggest challenge is accepting that I may not receive a good grade, but that's okay because I'm better at some courses than others.
One thing that I thought about while watching the TedTalks video is that the people around us really influence how we think. My parents have always been supportive and told me to ask questions if I'm confused or need help, but I've learn that some professors can be very condescending if a student asks a question. I'll never forget that a TA once told me after I asked a question, "you don't know this? you should know this. It's basic." I felt like an idiot. It wasn't just me that they were condescending of, either. I dropped the class because I couldn't catch on and felt too embarrassed to ask any more questions. I'm not retaking the class this semester with a different teacher. I fully believe that if that TA would have helped instead of being degrading, I would have stuck with the class and passed. Imagine a younger kid growing up around teachers like that! It would be understandable why they may be in a more fixed mindset.
(Taken from the Growth Mindset Memes page, which was generated on cheezburger. Growth Mindset Memes)
Ah dude. I have really been enjoying learning more about Growth Mindset. It can be really hard to get out of those old habits of being mean to yourself when you fail. My mother was totally different from your parents. She would get really upset when I failed and take it really personally like I was being lazy or rebellious.
ReplyDeleteI realized in her stead, as an adult I really beat myself up when I don’t perform like I expect myself to. Something cool I discovered trying to implement these lessons was that once I started practicing, I began looking forward to challenges I once dreaded. It’s actually helping me in my job! Crazy.