Innate ability or passion and commitment?
Psychologist Carol Dweck and her colleagues at Stanford University conducted a study in 2005 in which one group of adolescents was taught that great math thinkers had a lot of innate ability and natural talent (a fixed-mindset message), while another group was taught that great math thinkers were profoundly interested in and committed to math and worked hard to make their contributions and breakthroughs (a growth-mindset message). On a subsequent challenging math test, the girls who had received the fixed-mindset message did significantly worse than their male counterparts; however, no gender difference was found among the students who had received the growth-mindset message, even when the stereotype about girls and math was mentioned before the test.
Dweck explains, "Students are getting this message that things come easily to people who are geniuses, and only if you're a genius do you make these great discoveries. But more and more research is showing that people who made great contributions struggled. And maybe they enjoyed the struggle, but they struggled. The more we can help kids enjoy that effort rather than feel that it's undermining, the better off they'll be."
Hi Christi and Sunni,
I love this information about Carol Greider! I had heard about her dyslexia before but it really is apt for this question Sunni raised. She had to believe it was possible if she worked hard, she did, and she won the Nobel Prize! Interestingly, I know several male scientists who have dyslexia and are afraid they'd be discouraged from going into science today. I hope they are wrong.
cheers,
Laura
Sunni,
Thanks for sharing your perspective. I have one example I can share with you that I think is a good example of what Dr. Dweck's research findings show. Last year, Dr. Carol Greider - 2009 Nobel prize winner for Physiology or Medicine for her discovery that telomeres are protected from progressive shortening by the enzyme telomerase - joined AAUW at the Capitol Hill briefing releasing Why So Few? She was asked if she'd always been exceptional in math and science, and she replied that she had not. As a child with dyslexia, she often thought of herself as behind her peers in school and learned from an early age to really focus on her work and work very hard. She said that these habits of focusing and working hard have served her well throughout her schooling and career and did not attribute her success to "genius" or any innate abilities she had.
I don't know. I need to look at this chapter in your book Christi to find more details. This statement is interesting, but without supporting details I'm not really convinced. WHAT discoveries have been made by hard workers as opposed to geniuses in their offhand way? I'd like to evaluate the quality of the two groups, to make sure it's not lesser lights making lesser discoveries. I do think there's such a thing as innate ability and insight in science. SKL
