You will shortly be receiving ILPs and going through subject reviews with your teachers/tutors 1:1. Some of you will do better than expected. Some of you will be disappointed and will need to work to improve and not be defeated by poorer grades than expected but challenged by them. Professor Carol Dweck (Stanford University, USA) offers help to show us how to build this positive resilience to improve…

Motivational video – watch the first couple of minutes -9A -9A

First, test Your mindset! On your note pad, write the number and word/s which most describes how much you agree or disagree with each statement: (there are no right or wrong answers!) Strongly Agree/AgreeMostly /Mostly Disagree/Disagree/Strongly Disagree ? 1. You have a certain amount of intelligence, and you can’t really do much to change it. 2. Your intelligence is something about you that you can’t change very much. 3.No matter who you are, you can significantly change your intelligence level. 4. To be honest, you can’t really change how intelligent you are.

Did you have a fixed or growth mindset? On your note pad, write the number and word/s which most describes how much you agree or disagree with each statement: (there are no right or wrong answers!) Strongly Agree/AgreeMostly /Mostly Disagree/Disagree/Strongly Disagree ? 1. You have a certain amount of intelligence, and you can’t really do much to change it. = Fixed mind-set 2. Your intelligence is something about you that you can’t change very much. = fixed mind-set 3.No matter who you are, you can significantly change your intelligence level. = growth mind-set 4. To be honest, you can’t really change how intelligent you are. = fixed mind-set

Dweck – ‘Mindset’ theory In a fixed mindset, people believe their basic qualities, like their intelligence or talent, are simply fixed traits. They spend their time documenting their intelligence or talent instead of developing them. They also believe that talent alone creates success— without effort. They’re wrong. In a growth mindset, people believe that their most basic abilities can be developed through dedication and hard work—brains and talent are just the starting point. This view creates a love of learning and a resilience that is essential for great accomplishment. Virtually all great people have had these qualities. Let’s explain…Dweck's definitions of fixed and growth mindsets from a 2012 interview:

Please click on the link above for Carol Dweck’s theory which will help you to see how you can work to improve and enjoy challenges rather than being defeated by them (like most successful people say they do).

Mindsets are beliefs—beliefs about yourself and your most basic qualities. Think about your intelligence, your talents, your personality. Are these qualities simply fixed traits, carved in stone and that’s that? Or are they things you can cultivate throughout your life? People with a fixed mindset believe that their traits are just givens. They have a certain amount of brains and talent and nothing can change that. If they have a lot, they’re all set, but if they don’t... So people in this mindset worry about their traits and how adequate they are. They have something to prove to themselves and others. In the fixed mindset it’s not enough just to succeed. It’s not enough just to look smart and talented. You have to be pretty much flawless. And you have to be flawless right away... After all, if you have it you have it, and if you don’t you don’t... This desire to think of yourself as perfect is often called CEO disease. In Mindset, Dweck explored several CEOs who had ‘bad, even fatal, cases of this disease.’ Beyond how traumatic a setback can be in the fixed mindset, this mindset gives you no good recipe for overcoming it. If failure means you lack competence or potential—that you are a failure – where do you go from there? “Think about your intellligence, talents, and personality. Are they just fixed or can you develop them?”People with a growth mindset, on the other hand, see their qualities as things that can be developed through their dedication and effort. Sure they’re happy if they’re brainy or talented, but that’s just the starting point. They understand that no one has ever accomplished great things—not Mozart, Darwin, or Michael Jordan—without years of passionate practice and learning. The ‘Mindset’

Benjamin Barber … an eminent sociologist, once said, “I don’t divide the world into the weak and the strong, or the successes and the failures... I divide the world into the learners and nonlearners.” Which one are you/will you be when you go through your ILP?

Extension work: If you are interested In this topic 1.click on the link for an interview with Carol Dweck on Radio 4. 2.Research how Carol Dweck’s work has been criticised fairly recently.