DEVELOPING A GROWTH MINDSET
The Secret to Improving Your Grades!

WHY DON’T WE SEE UNMOTIVATED BABIES?
Bored baby Active, interested, babies
WHAT HAPPENS?
Young people bored or sleeping in class
WHAT IS MINDSET?
What is mindset?
A mental attitude that determines how you will interpret and respond to situations.
(http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=mindset)
YESTERDAY’S THEORY: WE ARE BORN WITH INTELLIGENCE
There is a fixed intelligence that can be measured using an IQ test (Dweck, 2010)
No matter how much you learn or how hard you work your intelligence stays the same!
Alfred Binet
Alfred Binet Invented the first useable IQ test

TODAY’S THEORY: MINDSET MATTERS
The distinguishing feature of geniuses is their passion and dedication to their craft, and particularly, the way in which they identify, confront, and take pains to remedy their weaknesses (Good, Rattan, & Dweck, 2008).
IN OTHER WORDS…It’s not what you are born with that matters; it’s your mindset that matters
THE BRAIN IS MALLEABLE
The brain is like a muscle that gets stronger and works better the more it is exercised.
Too often students believe the brain is static, leading them to think talent and giftedness are permanent, unchanging personal attributes that automatically bring later success.
Every time you work hard, stretch yourself and learn something new your brain forms new connections and over time you actually become smarter.
MINDSET MATTERS
Fixed Mindset: Intelligence is a fixed trait (Dweck, 2008)
Growth Mindset: Intelligence is a quality that can be changed and Developed (Dweck, 2008)
Carol Dweck, professor of Psychology at Stanford University
Carol Dweck, professor of

Psychology at Stanford UniversityGiven research over the last several decades, one thing that is clear about learning is that people, including students, of course, who think they can improve their ability to learn achieve better grades and success in other areas of their lives. On the other hand, people who think their ability to learn is just something they are born with, that they can’t help, do less well.
Thinking — really believing — that you can improve your ability to learn has come to be known as a Growth Mindset, while thinkingyou are simply stuck with what you were born with is called a Fixed Mindset.
So, for this assignment, I would like for you to read through the attached brief slideshow, take the little quiz that’s in there, and write a brief reflection on what you read and did. You will not be graded on the quiz. It’s just a way for you to find out for yourself if you have more of a Growth or Fixed Mindset currently. Over the semester, as I said, we’ll do just a couple of things that may help build that Growth Mindset.
Your Reflection should be written, as with everything in this class, in MLA format, with Times New Roman font, 12 point, double-spaced, and an appropriate MLA heading. For this assignment there really won’t be a “Works Cited” page, so that won’t be a worry.
It should be a minimum of 250 words (that’s tiny!), and should be turned in by no later than 11:59 p.m. on the date shown in the course schedule.
Attached (up near the top) is a link to theslideshowyou will base this on.
Hope you have fun with this!