Mindset: The Psychology of

Learning and Achievement

 Mindset: The
Psychology of Success
 Agenda
 Two mindsets
 Motivational framework supporting
mindsets
 Praise
 The brain
 Lasting change
 Summary
Two mindsets
Are people born
smart?
Prime Minister
Winston Churchill
REPEATED a grade
during elementary
school

He was placed in the

LOWEST division of
the LOWEST class
 Composer

Beethoven’s teacher
called him a
HOPELESS
composer

He wrote 5 of his
greatest
SYMPHONIES while
DEAF
Writer

Leo Tolstoy dropped

out of college

He was described
as both “UNABLE
and unwilling to
LEARN"
 Role models

….Einstein's teacher said that he was

‘academically subnormal’

….Michael Jordan's coach said that he

wasn’t more talented than other people…

…..Walt Disney was told that he lacked

‘creative imagination’
‘People are made, not
born’
The ‘growth mindset’
Two mindsets
 Mindset

 Related to your belief about ability

 Creates a whole mental world for you
to live in
 Fixed mindset – ability cannot change
 Growth mindset – ability can change
(grow)
 Set of 6 studies of children
Praised for effort Praised for ability

goals 90% of the group 66% of the group

created learning created
goals performance
goals
enjoyment continued decreased
persistence continued decreased
performance improved declined
lied about scores one individual 40%
 Motivational
Framework
supporting mindsets
Goals
Responses
Effort
Strategies
 Goals:
are the things we aim for
 Goals: performance
 Those with a FIXED MINDSET tend to create
PERFORMANCE goals.

 They believe that a person’s POTENTIAL can

be MEASURED. They aim to receive
validation from others.

 Receiving low marks mean that they are not

smart.

 Both success and failure cause ANXIETY.

 Goals: learning
 Those with a growth mindset tend to create
LEARNING goals.

 The goal is MASTERY and COMPETENCE.

 Scores and marks reflect how people are doing

NOW and do not measure a person’s potential.

 Creating goals for learning has shown to

INCREASE PERFORMANCE and enjoyment and
decrease negative emotion.
 Responses:
are how we react to events
 Response: helpless
When faced with failure or challenge, people with
a FIXED mindset:

 do not pay attention to learning information

 get depressed, become de-energised and lose
self-esteem
 denigrate their intelligence: ‘I am stupid’, they’ll
think
 under-represent past successes and over-
represent failures (pessimism)
 explain the cause of events as something stable
about them.
 Response: mastery
 Pay attention to learning information, and
so do better on future tests.
 Focus on what they are learning, rather
than focusing on how they feel.
 Try out new ways of doing things.
 Use self-motivating statements such as ‘
the harder it gets the harder I try’.
 When faced with tests which are impossible
to pass they will factor in other reasons and
not blame their intellect i.e. this test was
beyond my ability for now.
 Effort:
is it required for success?
 Effort
 Those with a fixed  Those with a growth
mindset view effort as a mindset see effort as a
reflection of low necessary part of success.
intelligence.
 They try harder when faced
with a setback.
 Hard work means ‘I
don’t get it’, ‘I’m
 Effort = success.
unintelligent
 They use effort to
 Effort = lack of ability overcome difficulty.
 Effort
 People were asked about intelligence and how
much they thought it was down to effort and
how much they thought it was about ability

Intelligence=______% effort _______% ability

 Fixed = 35% effort vs. 65% ability

 Growth = 65% effort vs. 35% ability
Effort: mindset
 Strategies:
how to reach success
 Strategies: growth mindset
 People adopting a growth mindset tend to generate
other, and new, ways to do things.

 If one route doesn’t work they will try others.

 They will think ‘outside of the box’ to solve problems

because they believe that they ‘can’.
 Strategies: fixed mindset

 Carol Dweck has found that students with

a fixed mindset keep using the wrong
strategy when faced with a problem.

 Then they disengage from the problem.

 Finally, they give up.

 Praise

 People are very sensitive to the messages

they receive about themselves.

 The way we interact with young people

can foster either a growth or a fixed
mindset.

 Praise for effort v. praise for ability.

Praise: ability
 Praising for ability (e.g. talent
or intelligence)
 Can change a young person’s mindset from growth to
fixed.

 Encourages young people to create performance

goals and display a helpless response when faced
with challenges.

 Encourages young people to lie about scores.

 Undermines motivation and willingness to take risks.

Praise: effort
 Praise for effort

 Encourages people to adopt a growth

mindset.

 Encourages people to create learning

goals and display a mastery response
when faced with setback.

 Increases motivation and success.

Praise is not a villain
Good feedback is important

 Constructive criticism is necessary if we

want people to develop and learn.

 Praise is not a villain – praising for the

effort and the process will help the person
become more motivated and ultimately
more resilient.
Frontal Parieta
Lobe l Lobe

Tempor Occipital
al Lobe
Lobe
Frontal Parietal
Lobe Lobe

Occipital
Lobe

Temporal
Lobe
The body in the brain
 A homunculus is used to
describe the relative amount
of space our body parts
occupy in the brain.

 In a model of motor
functions, some parts are
much bigger because we use
them much more, or with
more accuracy.
 The body in the brain
 The more we use a part
of our body, the more
space our brain needs
to control or interpret
it.

 In fact, by learning the

brain may have to
change the space it
uses to account for new
abilities.
 People who play music
have been found to have
auditory centres that are
BIGGER than normal.

 The ‘sound’ area of their

brain grew through
practising their music.
Evidence from neuroscience

 Rats in a rich environment have heavier

brains, by 10%, than those in a boring
environment.

 Taxi drivers have bigger areas which deal

with 3D space – the hippocampus - than
non-taxi drivers.

 Musicians have a larger auditory cortex.

 All of the areas of the brain
…like sound, communication, problem-
solving…
are made of cells called
NEURONS

They transmit information all around the brain.

Neurons pass information
through CONNECTIONS
with other neurons at
SYNAPSES
 Learning helps our neurons GROW.
The more we learn, the more connections they make.
People with large auditory areas in their brain
grew lots more neuron connections in the
sound area through lots and lots of practice.
 Final proof? Babies aren’t
stupid! They grow
connections.

The brain must develop

billions of connections:

every green dot is a

junction between one
nerve and another
 Lasting change
 Dweck suggests that we need to present
young people with information on the brain
and its huge potential. Including how the brain
learns.
 Praise for strategies, effort and processes
rather than for intelligence or ability.
 Positive stories provide people with role
models of those individuals who have
succeeded because of a growth mindset.
 Writing about your growth mindset
experiences, in order to convince others, will
deepen your own growth mindset.
 Summary
 A growth mindset helps people to be
motivated and to succeed.

 A growth mindset can be learnt.

 We can foster a growth mindset in others by

the type of feedback we give and by teaching
them about the brain’s huge potential.

 Role models give people evidence of the

growth mindset in action.
The Centre would like to thank the
Scottish Government for their
support in helping to produce
this resource.