Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion What would you ask Carol Dweck?

Carol Dweck will be making a "Mindset" presentation in my community. I am planning to attend. I don't know if she will entertain questions, but I thought I would prepare a couple just in case. The problem is, I am having a hard time wording them without revealing my views. I want to hear an objective answer that will help me understand the attraction, not a defensive answer that will leave me frustrated.

I will reread the book beforehand to try and open my mind a bit. While I don't disagree with everything she says, I am certainly at odds with some things. Our head honcho is an avowed "Dweckian". I want to understand why.

Have you heard Dr. Dweck speak? Does she engage the audience? Suggestions what to listen for? And finally, what would you ask her?

I was just reading a great blog on this topic -- will see if I can find it for you.

My question is: how much does the learning environment itself (i.e. challenges being provided at the right, vs. age-based, level) have to do with growth mindset? The articles seem to focus on wording (i.e. praise of various attributes - working hard, smart, etc.) while ignoring the tasks themselves.

Found it -- Gail Post blog.
http://giftedchallenges.blogspot.com/2015/05/the-grit-talent-dichotomy-creating_19.html

A recent long thread about Dweck was Against the growth mindset.

I would ask Carol Dweck to autograph my copy of her book, mindset.

Beyond that, I might ask about research and application:
1) Research.
Mindset (copyright 2006) was based on research. I might ask if there is new research spawned by her book, and what the central questions are. On the other hand, I might ask if research has been completed since mindset was published which might re-emphasize certain points in mindset... call other earlier research into question... refine any points... etc.
2) Application.
In the ongoing nature/nurture discussion, mindset relates to nurture. Are there specific schools which have implemented a policy of encouraging growth mindset, and what do the results show? Similarly, is there reader mail which indicates that families have dedicated themselves to a growth mindset, and achieved positive results (anecdotal evidence)?

Other posters upthread have shared some recent threads with lively discussion of mindset. Another such thread is Gifted girls.

Regarding Carol Dweck speaking, there are several youtube videos, including Teaching a Growth Mindset.

Stories on pp63-67 may help explain this? Possibly these stories indicate that adopting a growth mindset may help close any achievement gap and/or excellence gap, in a positive way (without capping the growth of the top performers). Also pp196-202. ETA: Another post discusses that a possible gap in mindset may result in capping growth of students at the top.

I think I would want to ask her this -

A basic tenet of mindset development seems to be that praise should be reserved for truly effort-based accomplishments. But, there is a body of science that shows that executive function and impulse control are skills that develop asynchronously - and later - in gifted children as compared to neurotypical children. Within these asynchronously developed skills lies the ability to accept failure and continue on - e.g., losing a game while still enjoying playing and wanting to play again. How do you tailor mindset development strategies to match a child's zone of proximal development with respect to executive function? That is - how do you know when a child is truly making an effort on tasks that require executive function and impulse control? By analogy - how do you make sure your grit and resilience expectations ("You rushed through this work, and could have done much better.") aren't equivalent to expecting a child to run, before she has the capacity to walk?

May I ask your source for this?

In the video Teaching a Growth Mindset, one study is described as complimenting each child, according to the group s/he was assigned to:
1) Fixed mindset group: Compliment on score. You must be smart.
(Internalized message: Being smart is valued; Don't risk making mistakes. Natural talent is valued; Avoid "effort".)
2) Growth mindset group: Compliment on score, and on effort.
(Internalized message: Effort is valued; Can make mistakes and learn from them.)
3) Neutral control group: Compliment on score.

This did not seem to be based on the difficulty of the work relative to the child, or the amount of effort involved on the part of the child, rather it was about influencing a child's mindset in preparation for the next upcoming task(s) in the research study.

This raises a question in my mind, and this may be a question to ask of Dr. Dweck: whether the students in the studies were working in their ZPD, as praising effort is genuine in this context. By contrast, in real life often students are grouped by age and may be in classes where they are not exposed to new material.

ETA: Possibly I've found the answer to the question I asked at the top of this post, seeking a source for your statement regarding reserving praise for truly effort-based accomplishments:

Originally Posted by mindset book, page 179

So what should we say when children complete a task - say, math problems - quickly and perfectly? Should we deny them the praise they have earned? Yes. When this happens, I say, "Whoops. I guess that was too easy. I apologize for wasting your time. Let's do something you can really learn from!"

IMO this may be a great way to open doors to help a child get access to appropriate curriculum and pacing, while also ensuring that a child doing advanced work is receiving grades which reflect the advanced work they are doing. (See old posts on differentiated task demands and redo policies which may in some cases penalize advanced students.)

Has it been shown that students who have a "growth mindset" do so because their parents and teachers try to instill that mindset in them? I think the mindset may be a result of past success or failure. Someone who works hard at Algebra II but eventually "gets it" is more likely to have a growth mindset afterwards than someone who works hard and flunks the subject. I had more of a growth mindset before college than after it, because in high school I did not encounter material that was just too hard for me. The lower the IQ, the earlier in life one has this experience.

I might combine Dots' and Indigo's questions about learning environment and ask what a growth mindset learning environment looks like without using the Brainology (or similar) program, which seems to include a lot of posters and stories about effort trumping innate ability. That is, are class/teacher assignments, teaching methodology, schedules, assessment, etc. structured to elicit growth mindsets? Are there studies related to implementation of any growth mindset techniques?

Because the post may reveal an unfamiliarity with mindset, please, PLEASE, puh-leeeez watch the 23 minute video... Teaching a Growth Mindset. It is time well spent.

There is a lot of information presented. If it helps, take notes of key phrases which resonate with you, and the mm:ss in the video where they are presented.

If reading the book mindset, some may be interested in listening along with the audiobook on youtube.

This slideshare presentation, a synthesis of mindset, may also be a helpful introduction to Dweck's book, mindset: the new psychology of success.

This Stanford alumni article, The Effort Effect may also be of interest, and help formulate questions.