Growth mindsets Benefit Girls and Women in STEM
Stanford University psychologist Carol Dweck's growth-mindset research findings are important for girls and women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) because encountering obstacles and challenging problems is in the nature of scientific work. In addition, girls have to cope with the stereotype that they are not as capable as boys in math and science.
If a girl with a fixed mindset encounters a challenging task or experiences a setback in math, she is more likely to believe the stereotype that girls are not as good as boys in math. On the other hand, if a girl believes that doing math is a skill that can be improved with practice, she thinks, in the words of Dweck, "OK, maybe girls haven't done well historically, maybe we weren't encouraged, maybe we didn't believe in ourselves, but these are acquirable skills." In the face of difficulty, girls with a growth mindset are more likely than girls with a fixed mindset to maintain their confidence and not succumb to stereotypes.
Interestingly, in cultures that produce a large number of math and science graduates - especially women - including South and East Asian cultures, the basis of success is generally attributed less to inherent ability and more to effort.
The more girls and women believe that they can develop the skills they need to be successful in STEM fields (as opposed to being "gifted"), the more likely they are to actually be successful in STEM fields. Dr. Dweck's work demonstrates that girls benefit greatly from shifting their view of mathematics ability from "gift" to "learned skill."
Thinking back, when I was in grade school, I had a pretty fixed mindset about math. Fortunately, I'd always been told I was good at math, so my fixed mindset didn't hurt me at that point.
What about you? Did you think of your math skills as a gift when you were in grade school?
One recommendation from Carol Dweck's research that we included in Why So Few and that I try to use with my kids is to praise their effort rather than their outcomes. I try to praise them more for accomplishments that take more work and less for things that come easily to them. It took some practice, but it's now something that feels more natural. My hope is that praising their effort will cultivate a growth mindset in them so they won't have to worry about shifting to a growth mindset at some point in the future.
I never thought much about it until I hit 8th grade algebra. For the first time the concepts were hard and there was no help at home to get through it. Unaccustomed to having to ask for a teacher's help, I didn't until it was almost too late. It took 2 more years and Algebra II success to get my confidence back and even then I didn't hit my stride until differential equations really became clear to me.
Looking back I can see it was easy to fall into that fixed mindset. I don't think parents and teachers can be passive about addressing that issue and should hit it head-on in the classroom from an early age. I have to say it always made me feel better that Albert Einstein wasn't all that good at basic math and that Feynman preferred algebra to calculus! I just wish parents and teachers had shared specific examples earlier.
