Preview

Summary Of The Secret To Raising Smart Kids

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
954 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Summary Of The Secret To Raising Smart Kids
The theory that is mentioned in the article, “The Secret to Raising Smart Kids”, consists of three elements. These elements include the following: the belief of inherited intelligence, the concept of a fixed mindset and growth mindset, and the method of praise. The first element that consists of the theory is the debate of intellect. Some people believe that the base amount of intellect of an individual cannot be changed, thus creating a fixed mindset. Others believe that intellect can be refined to a much higher degree, this can be known as having a growth mindset. Research has shown that believing in the former argument can lead to the failure of academic progression. A study was conducted regarding the behavior of animals in a despairful …show more content…
A fixed mindset considers the fact that intelligence cannot be altered. A growth mindset considered the possibility that intellect can be developed through perseverance and dedication. A questionnaire was distributed to middle schoolers regarding the agreement of the following statement, “Intellect is something that is inherited and cannot changed.” This was to separate the students according to their beliefs. If they agreed with the statement, they were considered to have a fixed mindset. Otherwise the students had a growth mindset. Years later, the researchers returned to the same group of students. They compared the difference of grades between the fixed mindset group and the growth mindset group. As a result, the ones who had the growth mindset tended to have better grades than those who had the fixed …show more content…
If so desired, he can still use his sticker method. However, must distribute stickers that do not demean any other students in any way. For example, the sticker should say something like, “I did a good job today”. This will force children to avoid developing a fixed mindset, in essence, developing a growth mindset. If the principal had known the theory of intelligence, then he would not have an issue with his students. Instead of the distribution of stickers, he would have simply praised an individual’s efforts in the classroom. I believe that the principal should keep the sticker system. However, it should be unbiased towards the accomplishments of students. I would recommend that the stickers acknowledge their efforts, as it is a process to develop a growth

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Fixed Mindset

    • 909 Words
    • 4 Pages

    I thought that I had a certain amount of intelligence and I cannot improve it by practice or by anything. How funny is it because currently I am a biological science major at UC Irvine and my grades in the sciences courses are high? All this variation happened when I started going to American high school at the age of 14 years old. My high school teachers influenced me to stay resilient and keep practicing until I get the thing I want despite all the challenges. Thus, I started to modify my mindset from a fixed mindset to a growth mindset. As a high school student, I had desire to absorb and aim to survive through difficulties, learn from criticism, and be inspired by other successful individuals. Referring to Carol Dweck in her book Mindset: The New Psychology Of Success “Picture your brain forming new connections as you meet the challenge and learn. Keep on going.” Carol argues that mind develops and became smarter each time you challenge it. Also people should imagine how minds works overtime and system new networks, minds can be trained. My high school teachers trained me that making mistakes is fine because if you do not make faults in your life you do not attempt hard sufficient. And the significant thing is to pay attention to…

    • 909 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In conclusion, Dweck's writing moves in Mindset convinced me of the importance of a growth mindset with real evidence. There are always new challenges arising in our life. If we can learn the way to turn from a fixed mindset into a growth mindset, we may handle them more easily. From this reading, I asked myself, “Which mindset is a better mindset to be?” I suddenly realized that the ability to succeed in learning and in life is not IQ or talent, but it was each individual's effort and…

    • 420 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In The Smartest Kids in the World (2013), Amanda Ripley reports how countries with the highest scoring students are able to get the highest scores and how much importance is placed on education. Throughout the book, Ripley makes it clear that education around the world can vary and it can affect the social life of students. According to Ripley, “There is no better way to prepare for teaching than to actually teach and get meaningful feedback on how to improve” (94).…

    • 464 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In the passage “Mindset and School Achievement” Carol Dweck effectively convinces her readers that those with the right mindset will allow a person to live a successful life. Dweck jumps right into her dissection “why having a right mindset play an important role in all aspects of life” argument. She address how growth mindsets can lead us to greatness. She knows what it’s like to feel like you’re not good enough and connects with her readers using the knowledge. Throughout the passage, Dweck focus on the recognition that it’s not about intelligence, not about destined to be special.…

    • 208 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The moment little human beings start exploring the world, digging into knowledge, is when a successful mindset should be inputted into a child. At that age a child is full of innocence with almost the same mindset as anyone his/her age, almost everyone is equal and given the pathway to be successful. So what changes them as they get older? See a person's mindset is developed over time as they grow older but the way they see themselves, compare themselves to others, and what they believe they can accomplish all influence whether or not they will be as successful as they possibly can but it all starts from childhood. In a documentary, “Mad Hot Ballroom”, New York City fifth graders from different backgrounds, schools, ethnicity, wealth, etc,…

    • 137 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Dr. Carol Dweck researches environmental factors and how we view our intelligence. Her theory proposes we take either an entity view or an incremental view of ourselves (Niehart, Reis, Robinson & Moon, 2002). People with an entity view see their intelligence as fixed. Intelligence does not change. Entity view individuals want to appear smart and want learning to seem effortless. When working in a classroom, these students will not take risks unless they are sure the end will result in success. These students will become upset when given challenges, take a stance of helplessness, and not attempt the work (Niehart, Reis, Robinson & Moon, 2002). Students with and entity view expect praise for work, not for effort. Dr. Dweck believes that this view is cultivated in the early days at school and at homes. These gifted children often sit unchallenged, spend time working only on self-select work where success is assured, or through adults who praise the child’s success not the process (Fenstermaker, 2014). Conversely to the entity view is the incremental view. These people believe that intelligence continues to grow (Niehart, Reis, Robinson & Moon, 2002). As students, these people are willing to take learning risk and do not care if others perceive them as smart. They will set…

    • 349 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The frontal cortex provides humans with the ability to “achieve goals, solve problems, and regulate behavior…it includes the ability to control emotions and inhibit responses” (Durwin 99); this is known as executive functioning. These skills are mostly inherited from the child's parents, but in some cases; it is affected environmentally. Furthermore, this leads to the inability to control any or all emotions and decision-making; which could explain Mark’s behavior in the situation discussed earlier. The circumstances that occurred could have been handled differently if the teacher had been more compassionate towards the specific individual’s needs. The idea of positive attitude, “meaningful verbal praise to get and keep students actively participating in the learning process,” (Thompson 15) is an example of what could have been done in this situation as well as, creating a fair environment.…

    • 798 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    An individual possesses one of two mindsets: either the fixed mindset, or the growth mindset. In the former, someone believes that his talent and intelligence is present inside of him at birth. He is born either smart or dumb, and there is no use trying to get better at something that he is initially not skilled at. Furthermore, his success is a measure of how naturally good he is at something. To the latter, success is defined by his ability to face challenges and make mistakes. To a person with a growth mindset, failure is simply room for improvement. In Mindset, Dr. Dweck proves the existence of these two divergent systems of thought, and declares that everyone can alter their beliefs and acquire the growth mindset.…

    • 938 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    I read the Mindset book by Carol S, Dweck. This book really made me think and reflect about what kind of person I am. It focuses mostly on the benefits of having a growth mindset and the downside of having a fixed mindset. I learned a lot about how you can grow as a person instead of failing and giving up. Most of the most successful people are people with the growth mindset who learn from their mistakes and apply it to their career or everyday life. I use to believe that some peoples born talents are better than those who work harder but are not as naturally good. For example Michael Jordan got cut from his high school basketball team. Instead of giving up after he was told he wasn’t good enough that motivated him more and he worked hard and improved and eventually became one of the most talented basketball players in NBA history. One thing that I disliked was that the writer focused on the positive of the growth mindset when sometimes the fixed mindset can be useful. It sounds like common-sense but it is in how it carefully uses both biographical data and scientific research to strengthen the reader's understanding of the true implications of this finding. After I read 'Mindset', I understood much better why John McEnroe was famous for his tantrums (he had a very fixed mindset, a tennis loss meant that he was inherently worthless, that he was, permanently and in all aspects of life, a 'loser'), as well as why a four-star chef like Bernard Loiseau committed suicide. I learned that Chinese students who think that intelligence is unalterable don't follow remedial English courses, but also that American medical students who believe in innate ability flunk chemistry much more often than students who consider early failure as a sign that they haven't worked hard enough or that they should try other learning strategies. I also learned some things that are counterintuitive, such that you should never praise children for being smart or talented. I knew I liked the book…

    • 378 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    uses animal experiment data from psychologist Martin Seligman from the university of Pennsylvania to show how some students give up when faced to difficulty, whereas others continue to learn and strive. The researchers observed how animals give up after repeated failures and as the result of the experiment, Dweck is able to compare these behaviors to those of students; Dweck wondered if students also give up when face to face with a difficult situation or continue to strive despite the difficulty of the situation. With this in mind, Dweck developed a theory in which there are two classes of learners, The helpless learner's mindset, which believe that intelligence is a fixed trait and only reaches a certain point. Versus the mastery-oriented learners, or learners with “Growth mindsets” which on the other hand, believe that intelligence can be shaped or molded through education and effort. The benefit of having a growth mindset within a student’s perspective is that they are in store for significant academic success rather than those fellow mates who have a fixed mindset. In similar fashion to Malcolm Gladwell’s study on students in KIPP schools, Dweck, along with Lisa Blackwell of Columbia University and Kali H. Trzesniewski of Stanford University monitored 373 students in jr high school to deduce how their mindsets will affect their math grades. The students were given mindset statements and were tested according to their beliefs to get the result of their grades. The final result confirmed how the students with growth mindset beliefs received superior test scores in comparison to those who held a fixed…

    • 614 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Those with growth mindsets believe that “...difficulty only indicates that their present skills and approach are not yet sufficiently developed for the task at hand…” (Dweck, 1). *When skills aren’t developed enough, these people work at them until they are developed and the task can be completed. Effort is put into every task until it is done sufficiently and exceeds expectations. To those with growth mindsets, “‘What was important was the motivation...students were energized by the idea that they could have an impact on their mind...’” (Trei, 2). *By believing that a person is capable of changing and having an influence on their mind, those with growth mindsets put effort into everything they do. These people never give up and will work as hard as they can until they know that they are doing well. The growth mentality also can influence people to “...keep growing beyond whatever it is we’ve accomplished today…” (Hochheiser, 1). *By developing and going beyond what a person has done today, they put in more effort and work until the person believes that they can be successful. In the story Flowers for Algernon, Charlie Gordon, a person many believed was not intelligent, worked and worked until he started to improve upon his reading and writing skills. *He was persistent and would not give up or put less than one hundred percent effort into his work. His skills began to improve as he worked harder. A growth mentality and believing that someone is intelligent affects success because it motivates a person to put all the effort they can into a…

    • 1176 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Soldiers Mindset

    • 561 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Depending on fixed or growth mindset, people develop different approaches when it comes to defend or adopt beliefs and viewpoints. In a fixed mindset, people spend time analyzing their intelligence or talent, assuming that these are basic qualities that bring success, while in a growth mindset, people spend their time in developing their brain and talent. Similarly, the soldier mindset shows its superiority by attacking somebody else's mindset, while the scout mindset accepts others' truth.…

    • 561 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Growth Mindset

    • 1044 Words
    • 5 Pages

    In Self Reliance, Ralph Waldo Emerson, a philosopher part of the Transcendentalism reform says, “Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind. Absolve you to yourself, and you shall have the suffrage of the world”. This stresses the importance of having an honest mind, and how being accepting of your mistakes allows for growth. Having a growth mindset means that when faced with failure or difficulty, you are able to learn from that experience instead of giving up. The growth mindset has been proven to affect academic performance, and can be used to close the achievement gap that exists in socioeconomic groups.…

    • 1044 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The article “You can grow your Intelligence” by Larry Ferlazzo helps the reader to understand the facts about intelligence and how it can be attained by practice. There is a misconception that leads people to believe that intelligence is inherent. Scientists have discovered that the brain can be improved by certain methods. The brain is capable of getting stronger if exercised frequently. The brains processing capacity increases the more it is being used. A body that is nourished and well attended to grows, but one that isn’t given any nourishment lacks growth and will eventually die, which applies also to the brain. The cells in the brain that are responsible for the ability to think are called neurons. Attaining new information helps the brain and serves as a great work out. Just like one would normally exercise to grow, in the same way one exercises the brain for it to grow when one uses it. Scientists conducted an experiment on animals to test this hypothesis of brain growth through exercise. The results of the experiment proved that animals that used their brains more had about a 10% more weight than the animals that barely used their brain. The experiment also disproved the ideology that “Old Dogs can’t learn new tricks.” It proved that the older animals also had the capacity of being intelligent despite of their age. The author then goes ahead and compares the growth and development of a brain to a baby. A baby develops the ability to listen and speak. The more the baby is exposed to speech, the more it will listen and try to understand the art, and the more the brain of the toddler will grow as well. The author then continues to talk about the misunderstanding between being smart and being dumb. People think that dumb people are going to be dumb till they die. In reality, “dumb” people really have the potential of being as smart as the smartest person. The reason why dumb people are “dumb” is because they don’t practice as…

    • 368 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    A mindset is the view a person adopts. Whether their abilities and characteristics can change, the growth mindset, or whether they are set in stone, the fixed mindset. Carol Dweck, a Stanford University psychologist, analyzes the difference between a fixed mindset and a growth mindset. People with a fixed mindset “care so much about how smart they will appear that they often reject learning opportunities” (Dweck 2) instead of wanting to achieve their full potential. Other people, the ones with a growth mindset, seek for higher achievements in learning, wanting to develop their knowledge capacity. It’s either they give up on their selves or learn from their setbacks and try again. A person with a fixed mindset believes that they are born with…

    • 749 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays