Unboxed: If You’re Open to Growth, You Tend to Grow (NY Times)

[pinto]

(set in a business framework, but an interesting article - pinto)

July 6, 2008

Unboxed
If You’re Open to Growth, You Tend to Grow

By Janet Rae-Dupree

Why do some people reach their creative potential in business while other equally talented peers don’t?

After three decades of painstaking research, the Stanford psychologist Carol Dweck believes that the answer to the puzzle lies in how people think about intelligence and talent. Those who believe they were born with all the smarts and gifts they’re ever going to have approach life with what she calls a “fixed mind-set.” Those who believe that their own abilities can expand over time, however, live with a “growth mind-set.”

Guess which ones prove to be most innovative over time.

“Society is obsessed with the idea of talent and genius and people who are ‘naturals’ with innate ability,” says Ms. Dweck, who is known for research that crosses the boundaries of personal, social and developmental psychology.

“People who believe in the power of talent tend not to fulfill their potential because they’re so concerned with looking smart and not making mistakes. But people who believe that talent can be developed are the ones who really push, stretch, confront their own mistakes and learn from them.”

In this case, nurture wins out over nature just about every time.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/06/business/06unbox.html?_r=1&sq=If%20You%27re%20Open%20to%20Growth&st=cse&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&scp=1&adxnnlx=1215488397-m6D8aMcoJK/dJE2aseGCMA&pagewanted=print

[Lydia Leftcoast]

1. That's what I noticed as a teacher

Students who may not have had an innate talent for languages could outdo those who had talent IF they worked hard enough. Too many students just said, "This is too hard. I'm giving up."

Personally, I spent the first twenty years of my life believing, thanks to bad teaching, that there were physically fit people and physically unfit people, that there was nothing you could do about it, and that the teachers would be mean to you anyway. In my junior year in college, having postponed my final required phys. ed. course, I finally got an instructor who knew how to increase people's fitness step by step.

Math was another weak point when I was younger. I will never be a mathematical genius, but when I was in my thirties, I realized that my instinctive methods of studying humanities and languages were not appropriate for math. With instructors who were willing to try different approaches, I actually made it through pre-calc, something I never would have believed possible when I barely scraped a C out of elementary algebra at age 14.

I'm also convinced that people who don't stretch themselves make themselves boring and have more boring lives than people who are adventurous.

[Demeter]

4. You Are Living Proof of the Different Learning Styles Theory

and that there is no universal, one-size-fits-all, sure fire teaching method that benefits all students alike, contrary to all "educators", teaching colleges and their approach to learning.

Teaching is ultimately the most creative job, because all people are different. The more of a generalist and open-minded the teacher, the better the chance that a connection will be formed and learning will happen. On both sides.

[RNdaSilva]

2. Great philosophy...

[eridani]

3. Comparing American and Japanese parents opinions of math classes

Why do some kids do well at math?

American parents say that it's inborn talent for the subject.
Japanese parents say that it's more study and hard work.

Guess which kids do better on international math tests?

[Lydia Leftcoast]

5. It's also a matter of being taught HOW to study

As I mentioned in my comment above, I struggled with math for years because I didn't know HOW to study it. The techniques that made me do well in languages, literature, and history just didn't work in math.

When I returned to the subject as an adult, I found that I could do acceptable (not great, but B-level) work if the instructor used a varied approach. The best instructor I had was, believe it or not, a TA who looked as if he belonged to a heavy metal band, but who explained every concept at least three ways.

But the Japanese are onto something there. When I was a college professor, my colleagues in all subjects used to remark about students who complained that the next phase of the class was "too hard." These students then shut down. You could almost see the door slamming shut. The difference between the successful students and the unsuccessful students was that the unsuccessful students saw an increase in difficulty as a Stop sign, while the successful students saw it as a Proceed with Caution sign.

The successful students came in for coaching during office hours or formed study groups when the going got rough. The unsuccessful students just sat in the back row and looked hopeless.