A.R.A.

Chris Walters, Coordinator for Student Success at Abington, believes a change of a mindset could change the whole game in achieving good grades. Walters shows this through his PSU 1 courses and slide shows revolving around how to be a successful college student.

Some believe bright children are born, but experts disagree. Liz Mineo a writer for the Harvard Gazette, researched how intelligent children are made with trial and error. In this article, the goal is to present how a growth mindset can help improve the well-being of a student and as an adult.

What is Growth Mindset?

According to professionals, a growth mindset is a way of thinking more positively, which can affect one’s work ethic, mood, and adaptation to challenges and everyday life tasks.

In an article reviewed by Rachel Goldman, she mentions how a growth mindset is a way to live better and feel better by being your best self. This can heavily impact grades and help students who struggle with their courses.

The opposite of a growth mindset, having a fixed mindset limits abilities in a career and makes taking risks harder because of having a lack of motivation, says career coach Ashly Stahl. Fixed mindsets can start start young as the parents/parent raise the child.

Sanjana Gupta’s research on how Growth and Fixed mindsets are a way of thinking about ourselves and how having a growth mindset is more beneficial for development is a good base for understanding the fixed mindset. Examining thought processes can help turn up a fixed mindset in unexpected places. Some things to look for include:

• Believing intelligence and talent are static.
• Avoiding challenges to avoid failure.
• Ignoring feedback from others.
• Feeling threatened by the success of others.
• Hiding flaws so as not to be judged by others.
• Believing putting in the effort is worthless.
• Viewing feedback as personal criticism.
• Giving up easily.

Unfortunately, those with fixed mindsets feel they can’t change, but they can!

Psychologist Tchiki Davis mentions how putting in the effort is worth the while and is possible for everybody. Here are some examples of what a growth mindset typically looks like; taking these stances can help develop a growth mindset:

• Embracing lifelong learning.
• Believing intelligence can be improved.
• Putting in more effort to learn.
• Believing effort leads to mastery.
• Believing failures are just temporary setbacks.
• Viewing feedback as a source of information.
• Willingly embrace challenges.
• Viewing others’ success as a source of inspiration.
• Viewing feedback as an opportunity to learn

The take away here is that a growth mindset can benefit individuals in their academic and social lives. It counteracts the negative impact of having a fixed mindset, which can limit one’s abilities and lead to dissatisfaction. Fixed mindsets can develop from a young age, but no matter how old you are, a growth mindset insists we can always improve.