Growth Mindset
Before this assignment I had never heard of Carol Dweck nor the specific term "growth mindset". Even Though I hadn't heard of the term, the overall idea of praising the process and not the answer is something I have heard before. I remember in high school I was terrible at math, and I would always have to go to tutoring. My teacher would always encourage me and tell me I was doing well when I was getting answers wrong, and I really didn't understand that because for me I thought I deserved praise only if I got the question right. But I realize now that she was praising the process and my dedication to try to get it right, and that she cared more about that than getting the answer right.
I would have to say academically I lean towards the more fixed mindset, but not because that's what I want, but because I know that's the mindset for the majority of my professors. I think I naturally believe in the growth mindset. I get frustrated when professors don't recognize how much work and dedication I put into my studies and when my grades don't reflect it. When I feel discouraged about my work, I don't understand the point of trying if I'm still going to be criticized. In sports however, I did believe in a growth mindset. I knew that if I worked hard that I could get the spot on the team I wanted. I believed in working hard and showing dedication, because in the end coaches usually want an athlete that might not be the most skilled, but is more "coach-able", which I see as a growth mindset.
Since being at OU I have learned that I have to study a lot harder than most students, and that my grades don't ever reflect my work mainly because I'm a terrible test taker. I've learned that I learn best by writing out notes, physically having the textbooks, and making flash cards for anything and everything. Due to the fast moving pace of most college courses, my biggest challenge is learning all of my information in the long term memory portion of my brain. Most of the time my brain can only grasp it enough to store it in the short term memory, so by the time the following semester rolls around I've forgotten most of what I learned previously.
I'm really excited to learn about the growth mindset this semester, because I think that it's something that would have really encouraged me if all my teachers believed in it and I probably would have spent less time thinking I was academically challenged. I'll be taking Venture Capital which is an entrepreneurial finance class that tends to be on the harder side. With math already being a weakness of mine, and finance being more of a weakness I am a little worried about the class. So I hope that learning about growth mindset helps me to reward the process and not necessarily let my grade define my process.
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