The concept of growth mindset, but without the label, came up among a couple of my friends as we sat in the Union studying the other day. The conversation began as such:
S: "You know how there's that group of ChemE's who are at the top, and are always on top of things and do really well? Realistically, I don't think we're very far behind them."
D: "I'd agree with that. And for the amount of effort we put in compared to them, I think we get the better end of the deal."
S: "Honestly, I'm sure that if we put the same time investment as them, we would do just as well in all of our classes."
Me: "You think so? But some of them are so smart--like what about V?"
S: "It's not that she's that smart, I just think she's one of the most self-disciplined people I've ever met."
From there, I pointed out that this was interesting because it was a clear demonstration of having a growth mindset. Rather than feeling like they weren't smart enough to be successful in their classes, or weren't as smart as their peers, my friends feel confident in their abilities. They view learning, and academic success, as a time and effort investment, rather than something based on a fixed amount of intelligence. Sure, some concepts will take longer than others to master, and some might come more easily to different people, but at the end of the day, if you sit down and really immerse yourself in the material, you will get it.
The figure above is my visualization of what my friends were saying. It generally requires a decent amount of time investment before you begin seeing payoffs in mastering a concept. However, once you do, you accelerate quickly to a fairly high level of mastery. But if you want to fully master a concept, or get a perfect score, the curve flattens out again, and requires a significantly higher level of time investment. I think my friends see themselves as riding the steeper sloped part of the curve, and recognize that they usually aren't willing to put in the extra time investment at the top, but that they have the ability to if they wanted to.
This led into an interesting conversation later about what intelligence is, and what kind of spectrum, if any, it can be quantified on. Our general brainstorming of aspects of intelligence included: Ability to form connections/ synthesize information, ability to apply abstract concepts to concrete examples, and ability to generate new ideas.
Overall, this conversation made me realize how solidly my friends have growth mindsets, which I think is really cool, and it also made me realize that mine can drift away sometimes in doubts about my own intelligence and capabilities, and that I should recognize when that's happening, and give myself a bit more credit.
S: "You know how there's that group of ChemE's who are at the top, and are always on top of things and do really well? Realistically, I don't think we're very far behind them."
D: "I'd agree with that. And for the amount of effort we put in compared to them, I think we get the better end of the deal."
S: "Honestly, I'm sure that if we put the same time investment as them, we would do just as well in all of our classes."
Me: "You think so? But some of them are so smart--like what about V?"
S: "It's not that she's that smart, I just think she's one of the most self-disciplined people I've ever met."
From there, I pointed out that this was interesting because it was a clear demonstration of having a growth mindset. Rather than feeling like they weren't smart enough to be successful in their classes, or weren't as smart as their peers, my friends feel confident in their abilities. They view learning, and academic success, as a time and effort investment, rather than something based on a fixed amount of intelligence. Sure, some concepts will take longer than others to master, and some might come more easily to different people, but at the end of the day, if you sit down and really immerse yourself in the material, you will get it.
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| My visualization of how my friends view intelligence (Graph made in Excel) |
The figure above is my visualization of what my friends were saying. It generally requires a decent amount of time investment before you begin seeing payoffs in mastering a concept. However, once you do, you accelerate quickly to a fairly high level of mastery. But if you want to fully master a concept, or get a perfect score, the curve flattens out again, and requires a significantly higher level of time investment. I think my friends see themselves as riding the steeper sloped part of the curve, and recognize that they usually aren't willing to put in the extra time investment at the top, but that they have the ability to if they wanted to.
This led into an interesting conversation later about what intelligence is, and what kind of spectrum, if any, it can be quantified on. Our general brainstorming of aspects of intelligence included: Ability to form connections/ synthesize information, ability to apply abstract concepts to concrete examples, and ability to generate new ideas.
Overall, this conversation made me realize how solidly my friends have growth mindsets, which I think is really cool, and it also made me realize that mine can drift away sometimes in doubts about my own intelligence and capabilities, and that I should recognize when that's happening, and give myself a bit more credit.
Abby, I just noticed this post go by and I had to chime in to say THANK YOU. I felt so affirmed reading this because I see things just this way, as a matter of time and investment. I wish we spent more time talking about time and about time-choices in school, rather than obsessing about intelligence. And, sadly, time really is a fixed thing; it's the rule of 168, the hours we have in a week. But how and how much we grow in the time we have is very much up to us. I really like the idea of thinking about that curve of reward, and the emotions that go with that too of course. Very useful to ponder! Thanks again for sharing this here. :-)
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you liked it! I feel like it's a really productive perspective to have as well, and really keeps you aware of the time you have and how you're spending it. Thanks!
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