Stay Motivated 2012 Angela Dierks Student Services Mind sets Stay Motivated 2012 Angela Dierks The feedback that you may get from your tutors particularly after your first assignment may be disappointing for you. How you react to the feedback and to perceived setbacks in general is crucial for your learning. www.bbk.ac.uk/mybirkbeck

Student Services We would like to thank Napier University’s Centre for Confidence and Wellbeing for generously allowing us to use their resources. www.bbk.ac.uk/mybirkbeck

What do you think: is intelligence innate? Student Services What do you think: is intelligence innate? Discuss in your small group whether you think that people are born smart or become smart? Do you think that intelligence is something basic about you that can’t be changed or that you can always substantially change how intelligent your are? www.bbk.ac.uk/mybirkbeck

People are made, not born this way Student Services Two mind sets People are born smart People are made, not born this way www.bbk.ac.uk/mybirkbeck

Winston Churchill Repeated a grade in primary school Student Services Winston Churchill Repeated a grade in primary school Was placed in the lowest division of the lowest grade www.bbk.ac.uk/mybirkbeck

His teacher called him a hopeless composer Student Services Ludwig van Beethoven His teacher called him a hopeless composer www.bbk.ac.uk/mybirkbeck

Was described as ‘academically subnormal’. Student Services Albert Einstein Was described as ‘academically subnormal’. www.bbk.ac.uk/mybirkbeck

Student Services This cartoon can be used to introduce the two mindsets towards intelligence. The message to get across to people is that a mindset is the belief a person holds about their intellect and ability. The other message is that there are two mindsets people hold about their intellect. The first is that intelligence is fixed: ability is carved in stone e.g. people are sporty/arty/clever or they are not. People and their potential are fixed. The second mindset is a growth mindset. People with this mindset believe that intelligence is malleable. People can grow, change, and develop potential. www.bbk.ac.uk/mybirkbeck

There are two mindsets Fixed mindset: intelligence is innate. Student Services There are two mindsets Fixed mindset: intelligence is innate. Ability cannot change. Growth mind: You become intelligent through learning. Ability can change. There are two mindsets that people adopt. Mindsets are meaning systems into which people organise their experiences. Each mindset is related to a belief about ability. Though both mindsets are normal, when people believe that intelligence is fixed, and they can’t change, this limits their experiences and can undermine learning. Believing that intelligence is fixed makes people unwilling to try new things because of fear of failing, and it encourages people to give up after failure because they, erroneously, believe that they can’t change. Adopting a growth mindset, on the other hand, helps people to overcome setbacks because they believe that they can achieve and learn new things. In this slide the emphasis is on the benefits of the growth mindset. When people hold on to a fixed mind set it is often for a reason. At some point in their life it served a good purpose. It told them who they were or they wanted to be (ie a smart, talented child) and it told them how to be that (ie perform well). In this way it provided a formula for self-esteem and love from the primary carers.  www.bbk.ac.uk/mybirkbeck

What is your mindset? Do you agree with the following statements? Student Services What is your mindset? Do you agree with the following statements? You are a certain kind of person and there isn’t much to be done to really change that. No matter what kind of person you are, you can always change substantially. You can do things differently, but the important parts of who you are can’t be changed. You can always change basic things about the way you are. Mind set doesn’t just relate to your beliefs about intelligence it also relates to other abilities and personality traits. Questions 1 and 3 reflect a fixed mind set, 2 and 4 a growth mind set. You also have beliefs about other abilities. Your personality mind set comes into play in situtions that involve your personal qualities , for example how dependable, cooperative or caring you are. The fixed mindset makes you concerned with how you will be judged, the growth mind set with how you may improve. www.bbk.ac.uk/mybirkbeck

Student Services Your mindset Creates a whole mental map for your related to your belief in ability A study of children tested on their mindset showed that children who were praised for ability rather than effort did less well on their enjoyment and performance scores. Our mind set is often the result of being praised for being clever as children rather than being praised for making an effort. These studies show what happens when people praise others for intelligence versus praising for effort and the effect this has on young people’s motivation and performance. Carol Dweck gave young people puzzles to carry out and found that the praise they received after success determined their motivation and performance. Carol Dweck found that 90% of the people who were praised for effort wanted to perform tasks which they could learn a lot from. She found that two thirds of young people praised for ability wanted to carry out a task which ensured further success. After a set of harder problems the students in the different praise conditions showed differences in their motivation i.e. those praised for intelligence reported the least enjoyment. www.bbk.ac.uk/mybirkbeck

The motivational framework supporting mindsets includes Student Services The motivational framework supporting mindsets includes Goals Responses Effort Strategies This slide highlights the main topic of the presentation: the goals people create; the responses people display when confronted with setbacks; the beliefs about effort; and strategies for success. These differ according to which mindset a person adopts www.bbk.ac.uk/mybirkbeck

Student Services Goals - what we aim for 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. This slide details one of the components supporting the fixed mindset: performance goals. People endorsing a fixed mindset believe that intelligence and ability can be measured. This means that other people can measure their ability and potential. Because of this, people endorsing a fixed mindset are more likely to create performance goals which they believe reflect their intelligence and ability to others. For them, learning is not an end in itself, but rather a means to looking good. This means that success is difficult to enjoy because the person has to keep proving themselves. If they meet failure they see it as a reflection of their lack of intellect or ability, rather than a learning opportunity. People with learning goals see learning as an end in itself. The goal in a learning environment is to understand the subject. This means that those with a growth mindset will come to the learning environment with a different attitude. They will persevere with tasks because the goal is to figure out the problem for the enjoyment of learning. They will ask questions, overcome setbacks and try new things because of their curiosity for learning. When people adopt a learning goal they can exceed their ‘potential’. This means that they grow and learn new things. www.bbk.ac.uk/mybirkbeck

Responses – how do you react to a disappointing event? Student Services Responses – how do you react to a disappointing event? Now it is time to introduce the idea that when people meet with successes and challenges they respond in different ways. This slide shows one reaction to setback. Discuss with your neighbour how you react to set backs. www.bbk.ac.uk/mybirkbeck

Responses – thought record Student Services Responses – thought record Discuss with your neighbour how you react to set backs. You can take a little while to think about a situation recently where you experienced a set back – how did you react to this situation? The thought record will help you for this exercise and in future to assess difficult feelings in relation to set backs. www.bbk.ac.uk/mybirkbeck

Responses – feeling helpless Student Services Responses – feeling 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. This slide highlights the response that people adopting a fixed mindset show when faced with failure, challenges and setbacks. Carol Dweck calls this a ‘helpless’ response. You can run through each point one at a time. For example, people with a fixed mindset do not pay attention to learning information because they are too consumed with how they feel and what the failure means about them. Because they tend to blame themselves for the failure they get depressed and their self-esteem decreases because it is contingent on their success or failure.   This slide gives more details about the helpless response to challenges. People displaying the helpless response, erroneously, believe that they cannot overcome this situation. The reason for this response is that they explain the cause of the failure as resulting from their lack of intellect. Because people with a fixed mindset believe that failure means that they lack intellect/ability, they give up in the face of challenge. Brain imaging studies have shown that when people fail a test, and are given the right answer to correct their mistake, those with a fixed mindset do not pay attention to this information. These individuals have an internal focus on how they feel, rather than an external focus on what they can learn. www.bbk.ac.uk/mybirkbeck

Responses – mastering the situation Student Services Responses – mastering the situation When faced with failure or challenge, people with a GROWTH mindset: 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 www.bbk.ac.uk/mybirkbeck

Effort Effort Fixed mindset Student Services Effort Effort Fixed mindset Effort is viewed as reflection of low intelligence. If you have to work hard this indicates that you ‘don’t get it’. Effort means lack of ability. Growth mindset Effort is a necessary part of success. When faced with challenge they try harder. Effort is associated with success and with overcoming difficulties.. This slide introduces the third component of the motivational framework: effort. This image shows someone cycling up a hill. Illustrating that success requires hard work.   This slides shows the different beliefs about effort held by people with fixed mindsets vs. growth mindset. Those who endorse a fixed mindset think that effort is a reflection of low ability. This is because if people are ‘born smart’ they shouldn’t have to work at it. People endorsing a growth mindset believe that hard work and effort will get them there. This is because they believe that ability can be grown and this requires effort. This slide shows that people endorsing different mindsets hold a different view about the effectiveness of effort www.bbk.ac.uk/mybirkbeck

Strategies – fixed mindset Student Services 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. This focuses on the strategies people use when endorsing a fixed mindset, when they are faced with setbacks. Research has shown that people adopting a fixed mindset will persevere with the same wrong answer. When they fail they will try the same wrong answer again to solve the problem. This is because they think that there are no other ways – they are helpless. Other research has shown that people with a fixed mindset disengage from the problem when faced with adversity. For example, in a study one boy kept picking the same wrong answer (a brown box). When asked why he kept choosing the answer he said that it was because he liked chocolate. This was an elementary answer from an older young person. Other studies have shown that people with a fixed mindset just give up. This is because they think ‘what’s the point’?   www.bbk.ac.uk/mybirkbeck

Strategies – growth mindset Student Services 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’. People endorsing a growth mindset develop new ways to do things. This is because when the goal is to learn and master a subject people with a growth mindset become more creative. Studies have shown that people will try many ways of doing things and will only disengage when the problem really is too hard. www.bbk.ac.uk/mybirkbeck

Creative thinking #1: How do you put a giraffe into a fridge? Student Services Creative thinking Below are four simple questions.  Try to answer all of them before looking at the answers. #1:  How do you put a giraffe into a fridge? #2:  How do you put an elephant into a fridge? #3:  The King of the Jungle is holding a meeting for all of the animals.  One of them is not there.  Which one? #4:  You are standing on the bank of an alligator infested river and have to get to the other side.  What do you do? www.bbk.ac.uk/mybirkbeck

Creative thinking Student Services And now for the answers to the four questions: #1:  Open the fridge, put the giraffe inside, and then close the fridge. #2:  Open the fridge, remove the giraffe, put the elephant inside, and close the fridge. #3:  The elephant.  The elephant is in the fridge. #4:  You swim across the river because all the alligators are attending the meeting. This is what the questions are trying to find out: #1 checks to see if you try to make simple things complicated and make assumptions about problem boundaries.  Nobody actually said that the fridge was not big enough to put a giraffe inside! #2 tests your ability to consider previous actions.  Who says that they are four separate questions? #3 simply tests your memory. #4 checks to see how quickly you learn.  After all, you must have answered question 4 correctly. www.bbk.ac.uk/mybirkbeck

Change the way you think Student Services Change the way you think 1. Pay attention to your fixed mindset ‘voice’. 2. Recognise that you have a choice. 3. Talk back with your growth mindset ‘voice’. 4. Take the growth mindset action. 1. Your voice will say something like this: Are you sure you can do this?/ If you fail you will be a failure./You don’t have the talent for this. 2. How you interpret setbacks and challenges is your choice. Rather than deciding to give up you can choose to decide that you need to work harder/change your approach/stretch yourself. 3. Tell yourself that while you aren’t sure you can do it you can certainly learn with time and effort. 4. Take on challenges wholeheartedly. Learn from set backs and try again. www.bbk.ac.uk/mybirkbeck

Some learning from neuroscience Student Services Some learning from neuroscience All of the areas of the brain …like sound, communication, problem-solving… are made of cells called NEURONS They transmit information around the brain. This slide illustrates how the brain DOES grow. For example, when we think a thought, talk to someone or practice an instrument our brain communicates this message. It does this through tiny cells called neurons, of which we have around a 100 billion. Neurons are made of an axon and a dendrite. The messages arrive via the dendrites and leave via the axon. The message is them passed through a gap between to neurons to another dendrite. This process is known as synaptic transmission. The main message on this slide is that cells communicate information to each other when we do things, feel things and see things. www.bbk.ac.uk/mybirkbeck

Some learning from neuroscience Student Services Some learning from neuroscience Neurons pass information through connection with other neurons at synapses: www.bbk.ac.uk/mybirkbeck

Some learning from neuroscience Student Services Some learning from neuroscience The more we learn the more connections our neurons make: This slide is reinforcing the point that as we learn things the brain makes connections. It also makes the point that the more we learn about a specific subject the stronger the connections are (this is why our brains get denser when we practice things). www.bbk.ac.uk/mybirkbeck

Some learning from neuroscience Student Services Some learning from neuroscience Look at babies: their brain has to develop millions of connections. This is called learning. Every green dot shows a connection between two neurons. This slide has an image of a baby and next to it an image from inside the brain which shows thousands of cells connections. This is an important message – people are not born knowing lots of things. Babies have to learn. www.bbk.ac.uk/mybirkbeck