Supporting mindsets 1

Editor's Notes

• #3: This slide introduces the first component of the motivational framework: goals. Goals are the things that individuals aim for and these determine people’s thoughts, feelings and behaviour.
• #4: This slidedetails one of the components supporting the fixed mindset: performance goals. People endorsing a fixed mindset believe that intelligence and ability can be measured. This means that other people can measure their ability and potential. Because of this, people endorsing a fixed mindset are more likely to create performance goals which they believe reflect their intelligence and ability to others. For them, learning is not an end in itself, but rather a means to looking good. This means that success is difficult to enjoy because the person has to keep proving themselves. If they meet failure they see it as a reflection of their lack of intellect or ability, rather than a learning opportunity.
• #5: You have now introduced the audience to the different goals people set and the relationship these goals have to each mindsets. Now it is time to introduce the idea that when people meet with successes and challenges they respond in different ways. This slide shows one reaction to setback. (The famous tennis player John McEnroe – legendary for his attitudes on court.)
• #7: This slide highlights the response that people adopting a fixed mindset show when faced with failure, challenges and setbacks. Carol Dweck calls this a ‘helpless’ response. You can run through each point one at a time. For example, people with a fixed mindset do not pay attention to learning information because they are too consumed with how they feel and what the failure means about them. Because they tend to blame themselves for the failure they get depressed and their self-esteem decreases because it is contingent on their success or failure.This slide gives more details about the helpless response to challenges. People displaying the helpless response, erroneously, believe that they cannot overcome this situation. The reason for this response is that they explain the cause of the failure as resulting from their lack of intellect. Because people with a fixed mindset believe that failure means that they lack intellect/ability, they give up in the face of challenge. Brain imaging studies have shown that when people fail a test, and are given the right answer to correct their mistake, those with a fixed mindset do not pay attention to this information. These individuals have an internal focus on how they feel, rather than an external focus on what they can learn. Other studies have shown that people with a fixed mindset who face failure get depressed after setbacks and, despite a string of successes, will denigrate their own intellect by saying things like ‘ I am not intelligent anyway’. In this same study people endorsing a fixed mindset (who had succeeded on eight questions and failed on four subsequently hard tasks), overrepresented the failure and underrepresented the success i.e. they reported that they had failed on six of the hard questions and passed on four of the earlier questions. They also did worse on future easy questions i.e. when given questions of equal difficulty as the first set of eight, they got fewer answers right.
• #8: This slide details the response displayed by a person adopting a growth mindset, ‘mastery’ response. Again, there are points to run through on this slide. For example, people endorsing a growth mindset increase effort and sustain motivation, enjoyment and self-esteem, when they are faced with adversity. People who display a mastery response believe that intelligence and natural ability can be improved, so they will work harder in the face of setbacks and enjoy the challenge. Brain imaging studies show that when people adopting a growth mindset fail, they pay attention to the new learning information. This is because their attention is focused outward and not internally on how they feel. What this study showed was that when faced with failure, and given feedback about how to correct their mistakes, those with a growth mindset took in the learning information: they did better, than those with a growth mindset, on a second test. People displaying a mastery response will try new ways of doing things – if one way doesn’t work they will try another way. Carol Dweck found that students who endorsed a growth mindset are more likely to say self-motivating statements to themselves when they meet challenges i.e. ‘the harder it gets the harder I try’. Young people adopting a growth mindset, when involved in tests, which they passed, and some tests which they didn’t, did not blame their intelligence for the failure. They factored in other things like ‘the question was too hard’. They were also more likely to give an accurate representation of their successes and failures.
• #10: This slide details the different beliefs about effort held by people with fixed mindsets vs. growth mindset. Those who endorse a fixed mindset think that effort is a reflection of low ability. This is because if people are ‘born smart’ they shouldn’t have to work at it. People endorsing a growth mindset believe that hard work and effort will get them there. This is because they believe that ability can be grown and this requires effort. This slide shows that people endorsing different mindsets hold a different view about the effectiveness of effort
• #11: This slide details the different beliefs about effort held by people with fixed mindsets vs. growth mindset. Those who endorse a fixed mindset think that effort is a reflection of low ability. This is because if people are ‘born smart’ they shouldn’t have to work at it. People endorsing a growth mindset believe that hard work and effort will get them there. This is because they believe that ability can be grown and this requires effort. This slide shows that people endorsing different mindsets hold a different view about the effectiveness of effort
• #12: This slide details the different beliefs about effort held by people with fixed mindsets vs. growth mindset. Those who endorse a fixed mindset think that effort is a reflection of low ability. This is because if people are ‘born smart’ they shouldn’t have to work at it. People endorsing a growth mindset believe that hard work and effort will get them there. This is because they believe that ability can be grown and this requires effort. This slide shows that people endorsing different mindsets hold a different view about the effectiveness of effort
• #14: People endorsing a growth mindset develop new ways to do things. This is because when the goal is to learn and master a subject people with a growth mindset become more creative. Studies have shown that people will try many ways of doing things and will only disengage when the problem really is too hard.