The growth mindset

(interviewer) Imagine ourselves 400 years ago. They had about a 15% literacy rate. And I suspect that if you were to talk to someone who could read back then and ask them, "What percentage of the population do you think is capable of reading?" They might have said, " Well, maybe 20%, 25%." Now you fast forward 400 years, we know that's a wildly pessimistic prediction or assumption. But it's actually 99.99% of the population is capable of reading. Well, what similar blinders do we have on today? So, I'm excited to have Carol Dweck here, one of my personal heroes and who strongly influenced a lot of the work at Kahn Academy. Carol, great to have you here. (Carol) Pleasure to be here Sal. (Sal) So, so, what I like to start off with this word: growth mindset. Which I believe you came up with. (Carol) Mmhm. (Sal) Um, when did you come up with that? What was the motivation and what is it? (Carol) A growth mindset is when students believe that their abilities can be developed. A fixed mindset is when they think, "I just have a certain amount and that's it." (Sal) This isn't just kind of feel good talk, this is actually based in science, that you actually, the brain actually does grow stronger, neural connections actually do form when you struggle. (Carol) In study after study we have shown that kids who have a growth mindset get higher grades. It's not a choice between the outcome and the mindset. It shows that, if kids engage deeply and effectively in a learning process, their grades and test scores are a natural byproduct. Kids who are praised for their intelligence, our research shows, don't want a challenge afterwards, they don't want to work hard on something, and if they had difficulty, that's it. We find that when we praise or parents praise the process the child engages in, their hard work, but not just hard work, their strategies, their ideas, their focus, their perseverance, then the student learns these are the ingredients of success. If it gets harder, I'll just do these things. We've already done work with you, uh, inserting growth mindset statements before a math problems, and we found together that kids did better. (Sal) So one thing that I hope is, the folks listening to these videos, go out there and tell their parents, tell their children, tell their peers, tell their teachers, tell their students about growth mindset. Tell them that their brain grows when they get a question wrong, when they struggle, when they look at their errors and they say, "Hey, that's an interesting!" That you shouldn't be ashamed of your mistake, that you should view that as something that is interesting; something to explore. When you do that, you will actually, physically, form neural connections. Your brain will actually grow.