Growth Mindset

I have never heard of Carol Dweck before. I think that she is correct about everything she said. I have caught myself giving up at times when I struggled to solve a problem that seemed too complex for my comfort zone. I have also enjoyed the times when assignments seemed easy to me instead of wishing that I was being challenged to better myself. I know I am not alone in this mindset.

In today’s society, jobs seem to be as competitive as ever, and one of the main things that employers look at in employee candidates is their grade point average. This makes it very easy for students to get caught up in setting their goals on good grades rather than learning as much as possible. This isn’t exclusive to college kids searching for jobs. High school students do it in order to get into the college they want too.

In my time at OU I have learned that I am most effective at learning what I am constantly pushed to work hard and solve problems slightly out of my comfort zone. Like Dr. Dweck said, we don’t benefit from doing things that are easy to us, but I also don’t think we learn as much when we are pushed too far. Like most things in life it seems like there is a happy medium when it comes to staying outside of our comfort zone.

I would enjoy learning more about the growth mindset throughout this semester. I, personally, feel comfortable solving calculation problems, but really need to improve on writing and giving presentations. I hope that this class will help to improve my writing and I am looking to improve on giving presentation in my capstone class.

Picture of man thinking/questioning/Growth mindset 

Man Thinking at Wikimedia