Growth Mindset

Growth Mindset

(FAIL, source: Motivation)

I have never heard of Carol Dweck or the growth mindset before. It was very inspiring and I definitely have a fixed mindset in school and am very discouraged from any grade other than an A. Actually, I feel inclined to put in more effort in assignments that I know are not based on merit because sometimes with hard assignments in classes with professors that I know are tough graders, I have a mental block because I'm scared to fail. When I was a swimmer in high school, it was easier to have more of a growth mindset because success is based more on progress, like getting faster times. Even during races, it was more about personal progress since times are what qualifies someone for state championships rather than position number. 

I've noticed that I don't learn as much in classes when I worry about grades because I am more focused on learning the right thing as opposed to trying to learn as much as I can. I think the growth mindset is really helpful in learning because I have observed in American culture that standardized testing ranks students on a scale and compares them, which is harmful in learning, so I would be interested in learning more about the growth mindset. 

My learning goal for this semester is to retain the information that I learn because I realized that I can barely recall things that I learned from classes that I took freshman and sophomore year of college. I'm taking my religious studies capstone this semester about pilgrimage, which I don't know much about, so I'm a little worried about that class because I feel like I'm going to have to learn a lot whereas some other people in the class have more experience on the specific topic. This is one of the classes that I feel like I'm going in with a fixed mindset of learning what I'm supposed to learn and worried about my grade more than what I'm going to learn. I'm also in a religion and the constitution, which I feel like I'm going into with more of a growth mindset because it is directly relevant to my future career plans so I want to learn as much as possible from the class. I really enjoy the creativity of this class because we have guidelines but are pretty much free to take our writing in whatever direction we want so I don't feel pressured to meet some standard and can actually let myself be creative.