February Newsletter

Issue 17: February 2011

THE POWER OF A STUDENT’S BELIEF ABOUT INTELLIGENCE

“Whether you think you can or can’t, you’re right…”
–Henry Ford

Students who believe that intelligence is fixed tend to stop trying when they are faced with difficulty (Blackwell, Trzeniewksi, and Dweck, 2007). I remember clearly having that “stop trying” kind of response during Spanish I as a freshman in college. I have a fixed mindset about my ability to learn a new language. However someone with a growth mindset will usually confront challenges and keep working at them because they believe they have the ability to learn how to master the challenge. (Dweck, 2006, p. 11)

Carol S. Dweck has studied motivation for thirty years. In a recent study, she was baffled by an unusual type of response when students were confronted with progressively more difficult puzzles.

… one ten-year-old boy pulled up his chair, rubbed his hands together, smacked his lips and cried out, ‘I love a challenge!’ Another, sweating away on these puzzles, looked up with a pleased expression and said with authority, ‘You know, I was hoping this would be informative!” (Dweck, p. 3)

These children understood the very foundation of a growth mindset because they believed “human qualities, such as intellectual skills, could be cultivated through effort. And that’s what they were doing—getting smarter. Not only weren’t they discouraged by failure, they didn’t even think they were failing. They thought they were learning.” (Dweck, p. 4)

When children are infants and toddlers, they never decide that learning to walk is not worth the effort. They don’t worry about making mistakes. So, what is responsible for the change once children reach pre-school age and beyond? Dweck theorizes that children develop a fixed mindset in which they “become able to evaluate themselves and become afraid of challenges… Individuals with a fixed mindset believe their qualities are carved in stone and tend to choose an activity that will demonstrate their success.” (Dweck, p. 16) For individuals with a growth mindset, just the opposite is true. They have a clear understanding that success means you have to challenge yourself.

I remember taking a lifeguard class when I was 15 so that I could get a summer job. I ran up against a major roadblock. In order to pass the lifeguard test, I had to hold a brick out of the water while treading water for one minute, and I couldn’t do it. I can still remember an overwhelming feeling of determination to accomplish that feat. My only option was to put forth a tremendous amount of effort and practice a lot. By the end of the week, I did it! How is it that I had a growth mindset when challenged with this situation but was miserably stuck in my fixed mindset in Spanish I? Carol Dweck suggests that we can have a mixture of both mindsets but that most people lean toward one or the other.

Carol Dweck suggests that children who develop a fixed mindset experience a sense of being measured and believing that the measure is fixed. I remember vividly being just shy of passing the “talented and gifted” exam in elementary school. I still always worked hard at school but never pushed myself to take the AP classes because I was safer with success to not be with the “smarter” kids as I saw them. Now I feel fortunate to be able to share that experience with my students in order to encourage them to choose a growth mindset and chart their own academic pathways.

Issues related to intelligence testing have been debated for many years. Some believe that an IQ test measures a child’s fairly fixed intelligence. However, “Binet … designed this test to identify children who were not profiting from the Paris public schools, so that new educational programs could be designed to get them back on track.” (Dweck, p. 5) In response to arguments that intelligence is a fixed quantity, Binet wrote, “We must protest and react against this brutal pessimism.” (Kamin, 1974, p. 5) It seems likely that Binet would have agreed with Dweck’s notion of a growth mindset and everyone’s born ability to learn and grow smarter.

Binet’s and Dweck’s findings are supported by Robert Sternberg, who asserts that the major reason that people achieve expertise “is not some fixed prior ability, but purposeful engagement.” (Dweck, p. 5) In our next newsletter, look for suggestions about how to encourage students to develop a growth mindset.

Debbie Schuster
Curriculum Consultant
Teacher to Teacher Publications
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1. Blackwell, L. S., Trzeniewksi, K. H., and Dweck, C. S. (2007) Implicit Theories of Intelligence Predict Achievement Across an Adolescent Transition: A Longitudinal Study and an
   Intervention. Child Development, Vol. 78, No. 1, pp. 246-263.
2. Dweck, Carol S., (2006) Mindset: The New Psychology of Success , Ballantine Books, NY, NY
3. Kamin, Leon J., (1974) The Science and Politics of IQ, Princeton University, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers, Potomac, Maryland
4. Cianciolo, Anna T. & Sternberg, Robert J., (2004) Intelligence: a Brief History, Blackwell Publishing, Malden, MA
5. Sternberg, Robert J. “Intelligence, Competence, and Expertise”, In Andrew J. Elliot and Carol S. Dweck (eds), 2005. Handbook of Competence and Motivation, New York, Guilford Press

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Watch for our next newsletter in which we will discuss the power of students understanding that our intelligence is malleable, based on our effort and actions. (Carol S. Dweck’s Mindset: The New Psychology of Success.)

Education is not the filling of a pail,
but the lighting of a fire.
– W.B. Yeats

Neuroplasticity is the science of how the structure and function of the brain change in response to input. For most of the 20th century, the consensus was that almost all parts of a person’s brain developed in childhood and didn’t change in structure after that, except to deteriorate in old age. In the January 10th, 2011 Newsweek, Sharon Begley cites findings of many scientists that demonstrate how attention, focused work, mood and exercise affect the structure and function of the brain throughout life.

The type of praise that has been proven to be effective in motivating students reflects current brain research. If we praise students for their efforts, they are likely to work harder and enjoy taking on greater challenges. Praising hard work supports the belief that ability can be developed through effort. Daniel Coyle (2009) asserts that praising effort works because it reflects biological reality of changing brain structure and function.

In contrast, praising students for their intelligence has just the opposite effect. It supports a “fixed entity” theory of intelligence. Students who believe that intelligence is fixed tend to stop trying when they are faced with difficulty. (Blackwell, Trzeniewksi & Dweck, 2007)

Affirming the struggle, the ground-level effort, by acknowledging, “I can tell that you worked really hard”, etc., ignites people. However, global praise such as, “you are the best” does not. (Coyle, D., 2009; Dweck, Carol S., 2006; Muller, C. M. & Dweck, C. S., 1998)

Coyle studied the kind of effort that produces world-class excellence. It involves “deep practice” following this process:

1. Pick the target skill/goal
2. Reach for it
3. Evaluate the gap between the target and the reach
4. Return to Step 1

Coyle acknowledges that the kind of deep practice required to reach significant goals requires energy—even passion—and sustained commitment. He calls that passion, “ignition”. It works through flashes of image and emotion that tap into the mind’s vast reserves of energy. Initially it happens in the moments that lead us to say, “That is who I want to be” or “I want to belong to that high achieving group.”

We’re the most social creatures on the planet. Everything depends on collective effort and cooperation. When we get a cue that we ought to connect our identity with a group, it’s like a hair trigger, like turning on a light switch. The ability to achieve is already there, but the energy put into that ability goes through the roof.

Coyle describes numerous examples of ignition in the “talent hotbeds” that he visited. Some of the historical “talent hotbeds” include Florence from 1440 to 1490, the Transcendentalists in and around Boston in the early 19th century, and the Brontë sisters. Current examples of “talent hotbeds” include the Z-Boys of Venice, California who became skate board champions, Little League World Series players from the Caribbean island of Curacao, Meadowmount Music School in New York, and the numerous Brazilian futsal teams that developed future soccer stars (Pelé and many others).

After ignition, it is important to keep the motivational fire lit. That is what talent hotbeds do so well. Teachers/masters/coaches work together with dedicated students/journeymen/apprentices in synergistic ways that continue to ignite the fire that whispers, “Hey, that could be you.”

Coyle identifies four virtues that master teachers practice that help to ignite and sustain the kind of deep practice needed to bring out the best in their students. Coyle describes them as most like farmers, down-to-earth disciplined, deliberate cultivators. The four “virtues” are:

1. The capacity to take a student deeper, to see what the student is capable of and go there (deep, task-specific knowledge is necessary)
2. Perceptiveness: treating each student individually, based on what they need
3. Operating as a GPS for students, giving specific instructions (turn left, turn right, go straight, you have arrived)
4. Theatrical honesty: finding in the effort of students a place to make a real connection

The subtitle of Coyle’s book, The Talent Code emphasizes his message. “Greatness Isn’t Born. It’s Grown. Here’s How.” It is an easy read that we recommend.
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Kathleen Barta
Director, Teacher to Teacher Publications
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Begley, Sharon (2011) Can You Build a Better Brain? in Newsweek, January 10 & 17, 2011
Blackwell, L. S., Trzeniewksi, K. H., and Dweck, C. S. (2007) Implicit Theories of Intelligence Predict Achievement Across an Adolescent Transition: A Longitudinal Study and an Intervention. Child Development, Vol. 78, No. 1, pp. 246-263.
Coyle, Daniel (2009) The Talent Code. Random House, Inc., NY, NY
Dweck, Carol (2006) Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. Ballantine Books. NY, NY
Mueller, C. M. and Dweck,C. S., (1998) Praise for Intelligence Can Undermine Children’s Motivation and Performance. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Vol. 75, No. 1, pp. 33-52.

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Watch for our next newsletter in which we will discuss the power of students understanding that our intelligence is malleable, based on our effort and actions. (Carol S. Dweck’s Mindset: The New Psychology of Success.)

Teacher to Teacher has sent out the September 2010 newsletter. Here’s an excerpt:

Coyle asserts that deep practice is required for maximum learning and maximum myelinazation. Practice needs to be targeted and challenging enough that people make mistakes, re-focus on the target and try again and again, always re-focusing on the target. “Struggle is not an option; it’s a biological requirement.” The wrapping of myelin requires a lot of energy, focused practice, struggle and time.

After you read it, leave a comment here with your thoughts or questions!