Growth Mindset: Initial Thoughts

Carol Dweck's "Growth Mindset" is something I have encountered in the past. In fact, I think I watched the same T.E.D. Talk in an entrepreneurship class I took a few semesters ago. I think Growth Mindset is a good idea that like all ideas has pros and cons. I definitely agree that having a fixed-mindset can lead to complacency and fear of difficulty. You see this all the time in college, people seek out classes that are easy and have little to no work so that they can receive their "A". But this does not create a good learning and problem-solving environment.

However, I do think that the whole "Growth Mindset" thing can cause problems if educators abuse the term and its components. My biggest fear I guess is that students that hang on to their fixed-mindsets will fall behind, or teachers that use Growth Mindset will dislike the students who do not change their mindsets. I think a good example of this is the people who get all caught up in personality tests like enneagram or Myers-Briggs. These can all be useful tools but they cannot be the only tools you rely on to learn and grow. If an educator gets too wrapped up in the mindset of their students, I could see how they may lose sight of the bigger picture which is to educate their students.

(Image by John Hain from Pixabay)

Also, I think another difficult aspect of the Growth Mindset is having this mindset for everything. I feel like it is easier to have this mindset about subjects and topics that interest you. So when it comes to topics that you are not passionate about, but are forced to learn due to school, state, and federal regulations, it can be difficult to have a growth mindset. But this might be my fixed-mindset talking...

In audit (my field), you can see components of the Growth Mindset. The biggest component that is seen is feedback/critique. As an intern/first year you know nothing, in order to learn you make mistakes. These mistakes are given back to you after being reviewed by your superiors (usually multiple) and then you fix those mistakes on your own with their feedback. Throughout that whole process you learn things you did not even expect to learn. However, one thing that is very important to accountants are deadlines, especially in a legal sense. I am not quite sure how the "not yet" aspect of Growth Mindset would attack deadlines that are necessary. But I look forward to learning more about this throughout the semester.