Not Yet Mindset
- "Process Praise creates kids who are resilient, and are brilliant." -Carol Dweck
Process Praise. This is a loosely foreign concept to me, but one that I immediately appreciate. I had never heard of Carol Dweck and her Growth Mindset until I watched a few videos in which she speaks about the Growth Mindset, but I jotted down a few quotes that struck a chord with me:
- "Basic Human Right for all children to live in places that create that growth, to live in places filled with yet."
- Make Challenge the New Comfort Zone
- Teachers need to give good feedback, give challenging problems.
Is Intelligence Fixed or Can It Be Developed?
- Effort is a Bad thing? If you have Ability, you shouldn't need effort. It's one of the worst beliefs that ANYONE can have.
- Effort is Actually what Activates your ability
- How praise affects students:
- "Praise harms children by putting them into a fixed mindset and turns them off to challenging learning."
- Intelligence Praise VS Process Praise -- Process praise creates kids who are more confident and more willing to take on challenges! They are praised for the struggle and the process rather than for how easily or quickly they completed the task.
- Mother's who praise their babies between 1-3 years of age predicted their mindset 5 years later.
- Convey to Children a New Value System: "Who had a fabulous Struggle today?"
- If a child does something quickly and easily, say "OH, I am sorry I wasted you're time. Let's do something challenging, let's do something that you can learn from."
I particularly took note of the process praise that mothers give during the first 1-3 years of a child's life.... I have a ten month old who is standing and cruising, though hasn't yet attempted to walk. I will definitely be employing the process praise as he grows and continues to learn, as it is my husband and I's deepest desire to create a family that loves to learn.
YET and NOT YET
Let's ensure that we are encouraging our kids, encouraging each other and encouraging our self to take the mental frame set of accomplishment not as Easy or Hard, but as "Haven't Learnt Yet" or "I have yet to master this task, this ability."
And finally, I've included a little reminder about fostering creativity -- most difficult to me is reminding myself to rest and have enough energy to explore and tinker!
As I reflect back on my own early childhood learning, and even into my young formative adult years, I realize that I often struggled with a fixed growth mindset: I loved to thrive and achieve more than those around me, but if I suspected that I might fail, I would run away. It's as I have gotten older, failed, and allowed myself to fail that I have come to embrace the challenge, the failure, and even more importantly, the attempt. I am excited to explore more of the Growth Mindest challenges this fall as a continuing reminder in grace for myself and the importance of the process.
