While I see a value in praising effort, what are students learning when they get excellent results from very little effort or poor results from tremendous effort?
This is where it kind of falls apart on the ground as far as applying all this to school. Still, I find the basics of Dweck useful for working with gifted kids. It has its limits.
The irrefutable fact is, however, that without a given threshold value of 'g' certain things are not going to be fully understood.
As far as innate potential, I suppose I'm a bit more agnostic than some here. I don't think I believe in a fixed, immovable g set in stone at birth or age 3 or whatever. I think time and experience have a way of having their way with us, for good and ill. I think there is a range of capacity for each of us. It certainly is HARDER or EASIER for people to do or understand some things than others. But often I think we decide people are incapable of things when they've had bad teachers or have been unmotivated.
