growth mindset

Every semester at the Peer Learning Assistant training through the Student Learning Center I get the opportunity to dive a little deeper in my understanding and application of growth mindset. Last semester, we actually watched Carol Dweck's TED talk. It amazes me how a thought that seems so simple truly does control much of what we do everyday and is much more complex once you begin making the change. I get to see both growth and fixed mindsets in Action Center every time I tutor and TA Human Anatomy lab and my goal is to end the semester with more growth minded conversations than fixed.

This graphic is from a blog post by Jackie Gerstein: The Mindset of the Maker Educator. I am leaving this hear as these are many of the thoughts that go through my head after I leave a lab, tutoring session, class, workout, and more!

In case you are unable to read the text from the graphic, here is it typed out:

• Was I resourceful in terms of finding information, resources, and materials?
• Did I ask other people for feedback and information, to collaborate?
• Did I share my work and findings with others?
• Did I learn something new?
• Did I play and have fun?
• Did I try to either make something better or create something new, rather than just copy something that already exists?
• Did I approach learning as an open-ended process, open to new and all possibilities?
• Did I accept failure as part of the process and use it to inform my learning?

In high school, I most definitely had a fixed mindset. I did not want to be challenged and, when I was, I would blame my failures on everything but my lack of effort. I was not stimulated by the information or teaching methods and had to intention to ask for help.

My senior year of high school, I finally asked my mom if I could go to a psychologist as I could not even recall what subject we were talking about in a class the minute I walked out. After talking to someone, it turned out that I had a decreased amount of serotonin being secreted in my brain, just as was seen in the photo of a "fixed mindset" brain. I was diagnosed with both ADD and ADHD as all of my test results were off the charts.

After completing my first semester at OU on medication, I fell IN LOVE with school. My friends from home never believe me when I tell them that I am the tutor and am the one making good grades and wanting to learn more than I need to in courses. The funny thing is that I really thought it was purely this medication that was giving me some "instant smartness" that I could not acquire on my own. In reality, I did not put the fact that my Gateway professor and graduation coach both talked to me about growth mindset and it stuck ever since. 

Once I became a Peer Learning Assistant and got to attend a training specifically over growth mindset, I gained the confidence in my own capabilities without giving credit to some "magic pill" that I have to take to get myself to shut up and sit still. Now, I understand the self-talk I must engage in that can completely change the way I approach a topic that may not have my interest, such as chemistry. 

I have learned that, in order to perform well in a course, I cannot limit my learning to what's required. Some topics are more difficult for me and often times become easier when I dive a little deeper into details beyond what I will be tested over. I have learned that memorization is no good and I pay tuition in order to truly learn and better myself with the help of my professors. Without my introduction to growth mindset as a freshman, I am not sure I would still be on this campus as I took a 180 degree turn around in my academic career because of it.