How Our Beliefs about Intelligence Make a Difference
So often when something comes quickly to a student, we say, "Oh, you're really good at this." The message there is, "I think you're smart when you do something that doesn't require any effort or you haven't challenged yourself." Someone said to me recently, "In your culture, struggle is a bad word," and I thought, that's right. We talk about it as an unfortunate thing, but when you think about a career in science or math ... of course you struggle. That's the name of the game! If you're going to discover something new or invent something new, it's a struggle. So I encourage educators to celebrate that, to say, "Who had a fantastic struggle? Tell me about your struggle!"
- Carol Dweck
Carol Dweck is a social and developmental psychologist at Stanford University who has studied the foundations of motivation for over 40 years. This week's posts are about Dr. Dweck's research findings, the first of the eight findings described in depth in AAUW's Why So Few? Women in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics.
Dr. Dweck's research provides evidence that a "growth mindset" (viewing intelligence as a changeable, malleable attribute that can be developed through effort) as opposed to a "fixed mindset" (viewing intelligence as an inborn, uncontrollable trait) is likely to lead to greater persistence in the face of adversity and ultimately success in any realm.
According to Dr. Dweck's research findings, individuals with a fixed mindset are susceptible to a loss of confidence when they encounter challenges, because they believe that if they are truly "smart," things will come easily to them. If they have to work hard at something, they tend to question their abilities and lose confidence, and they are likely to give up because they believe they are not good at the task and that because their intelligence is fixed, they will never be good at it.
Individuals with a growth mindset, on the other hand, show a far greater belief in the power of effort, and in the face of difficulty, their confidence actually grows because they believe they are learning and getting smarter as a result of challenging themselves.
A growth mindset is particularly helpful for girls and women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.
I am thinking about how much it matters that you think something is possible. Last weekend on TV there was a review of the run-up to the first four-minute mile ever run. Everyone knew it wasn't possible. Once someone finally broke that record, many suddenly found they could run under four minutes too.
So "thinking makes it so" for women too: they can do it if it's plausible to them that people who are interested can develop their abilities in science. It all makes exquisite sense to me. MKS
I am thinking about all the studies that show if you compliment a woman she responds that it was hard work or luck, while a man responds with "Thanks!" In his heart of hearts he believes he deserves it. She deprecates, the post-award mirror of the discount words (maybe, perhaps, etc) we've discussed so often. And she thinks it is just good manners. I think we should practice saying, "Thanks" while we brush our teeth every morning.
Cheers,
Laura
This discussion has set moving a very interesting train of thought for me. When I tell people I'm a Mathematician, I often follow up any response by denigrating my Mathematics skills, commenting "Oh, Math is easy for me."
Upon reflection, I see that kind of thinking has, inside my head, divided the world into things that I can do and things I can't. I tend to not struggle to work as much at the things that are hard, which leads to defeat before I start.
Time to start working on a growth mindset!
I definitely exhibit the characteristic female issue of saying "it was hard work in the end" and playing down my own abilities, and I do believe that training is key to developing skills in science. I balance that with the belief that this is easier for some people than others, however, and that reflects a combination of innate ability and their experiences that make them who they are by the time they reach college.
There are some people who will never reach a PhD level of performance, and I don't think that can be remediated after they leave their undergrad, but it can be handled during their undergrad years. I have had gifted students and not so gifted students at the jr high-grad levels and the difference between them was a combination of intelligence, interest and of course persistence in the face of adversity.
Certainly factors that played a role in developing that persistence are the obvious ones: parents who were in science (observations of their struggles), sports (learning failure is OK and to keep coming back), and role models/inspirational teachers who helped develop their sense of self (not necessarily science teachers: art, music and creative writing topped the list).
So I'm "in-between".
