Life with a Growth Mindset

Prior to this course, I had never heard of Carol Dweck or the growth mindset. I learned about it after watching the Carol Deck TED talk and the other videos that Professor Gibbs showed us.

On the spectrum of the growth-fixed mindset in relation to my school work, I see myself being very open to learning new things. At the same time, there is definitely truth to Carol Dweck's statement about bad grades in her TED talk, because it definitely does leave one close-minded, myself included. 

In my time at OU, I have learned that I am a visual learner and remember things much better when I can picture something in my head; whether that's a highlighter color on a piece of paper, a picture with it, an example given, etc. As I learn new things, my biggest challenge that I've realized I face is being distracted and not fully comprehending something the first time I see or read it, so I end up having to go back and read it or look at it again in some instances.

My personal learning goal for the semester is to just gain insightful experience from all my classes and learn something that I didn't know beforehand; which I know I definitely will in this class especially! 

I think that Dweck's TED talk about the power of believing you can improve was very interesting. Growth mindset is definitely something that everyone would benefit from having, knowing that they have the ability to improve and develop through challenges. I think that everything Dweck talked about was very relevant, because everyone really is capable of having this mindset and I think that the way kids are raised probably does factor into what kind of mindset they have.

After listening to Dweck's stance on "Make Challenge the New Comfort Zone," I feel like I could really see both sides here. I do feel as though kids could benefit if they were brought up feeling like challenge is comforting, and I think it would 100% benefit them in the long run because they would always be growing. At the same time, I do think that kids completing things that were "easy" for them is still a cause for celebration, because I would assume that whatever it was wouldn't be easy for everyone and kids still need positive recognition when they're proud of themselves for completing something, whether it was easy or challenging.
 

An infographic on 29 ways to stay creative designed by Islam Abudaoud. Full size graphic here

I really enjoyed this infographic that I found on Dr. Gibbs' blog because I feel like it's something I can benefit from myself, being that I want to be in a creative field. I think it goes hand-in-hand with a growth mindset and will help me to keep my mind working and growing. 

The concept of a growth mindset will honestly be something I think about a lot now that I know what it is. Being more open minded, knowing I'm capable for growth and putting in more effort is something that I will be conscious of this school year.