Week 8 Growth Mindset

I’m not really sure how my growth mindset has changed thus far this semester. It seems likely that I’ve regressed in a couple ways. This is a much lighter semester for me than the past two, so I’ve been using my time poorly (isn’t it frustrating how that happens?). Accordingly, even though perhaps I’ve had time to, I haven’t been going above and beyond. However, I think there are ways that this class can help with that. For example, through this class I can make the choice (and I hope that I will) to read a bunch of classics that I’ve been interested in for years but haven’t gotten around to. Because this class is so flexible, it provides me with the option to go above and beyond, and learn more that I’m interested in, if I want to.

I think another way this class may be useful is in learning to take feedback (and especially negative feedback) humbly, and with a heart that is willing to listen and change. I generally enjoy positive feedback and want things to be right the first time (as is natural), so it’s good to practice revision, or having different people express different tips on how they think I could improve.

One thing that this class makes easy is to not focus overly much on grades. Generally, I hope that in my major classes or other ones I’m interested in I care a lot more about learning than my grade. It’s easy to do that for this class too, because we’re given so many options about how and what we will learn, so that the grade just isn’t really a stressful thing.

Basically, I want to have a mindset of learning for learning's sake.

(Photo by Thomas Ulrich, found on flickr)

Growth Mindset

I had never before heard of Carol Dweck or the growth mindset before, but the concept sounds familiar.  I was strongly reminded of a book I read sometime in early high school.   It's called Do Hard Things by Alex and Brett Harris, which, as you might guess, is about the value in doing hard things and rising above low expectations.  The cool thing is that it was written for teenagers, by teenagers.
Where I am on the spectrum of the growth mindset is a hard question.  I feel like I'm at some awkward place in the middle.  School has always come fairly naturally to me, so I'm sure I fall into traps of expecting things to be easy then giving up when it's not.  On the other hand, I'm usually willing to put in the work and push myself until I get something (which is perhaps one of the reasons school has been decently easy).  My parents have always encouraged me in my schoolwork without at all making me feel like that's where my worth is, so that's good.  Also, my dad is an educator of the breed that doesn't care at all about his students grades, but only whether or not they learn.  I'm sure that has positively affected me.
My biggest challenge in learning new things may be the times I feel stuck, and get help from people who aren't also stuck.  I'm the sort of person who learns by figuring stuff out for myself, so if, for example, I'm on a group project or doing homework with someone who understands things I don't I may never end up learning the material because I'd rather them do it than struggle through it myself.

(This is from Laura's blog, and from Cheezburger originally.)