MINDSETS CHAPTER
Our values define us. Yet mindset is the succession of thoughts the mind automatically perceives and thinks about things, for good or bad. Mindsets are why we succeed or fail at things. For example, when a child encounters some challenges, a negative mindset may cause the child to believe that there is no way to overcome it and the child may give up. However, another child with a positive mindset may cause him or her to find the challenges interesting or intriguing that he or she would go find exciting ways to overcome it and to achieve better results.
Mindsets are critically important because they lead to different learning behaviors, which in turn create different learning outcomes. A child’s mindset plays a critical role in how he or she copes with life’s challenges.
Neuroscience tells us that our brains are ‘plastic’ and continue to develop and change even as adults. This plasticity nature that allows the brain to be reshaped over time forming new neural pathway is known as neuroplasticity.
These neural pathways are developed by doing or thinking particular things. The qualities of connections depend on the regularity and frequency we do or think these particular things. The things that we do or say more often become hard-wired into our brains as habits and even habitual mindsets. These repeated actions strengthen the pathway of the neurons connectivity and become easier to use each time till we do not need to think about these actions anymore.
Carol Dweck and her colleagues have shown that everyone has a mindset, a core belief about how they learn. People with a Growth mindset are those who believe that smartness increases with hard work, whereas those with a Fixed mindset believe that they can learn things but you can’t change your basic level of intelligence.
In school, a growth mindset can contribute to greater achievement and increased effort. When facing a problem, people with growth mindsets show greater resilience. They are more likely to persevere in the face of setbacks while those with fixed mindsets are more liable to give up. Research showed that students with a growth mindset experience enhanced brain activitythan those with fixed mindset and pay greater attention and awareness to their mistakes. These students with growth mindset were more likely to go back to correct their mistakes and move towards their goals.
Mindsets can be changed. Negative mindsets can be replaced with positive mindsets. Mindsets are rooted in our belief system. Changing mindsets starts with taking ownership. Building and maintaining healthy mindsets is a lifelong process. When people change their mindsets and start to believe that they can learn to high levels, they change their learning neural pathways and achieve at higher levels.
We can empower our children and teach them to choose their thoughts that cultivate the right mindsets, about challenges, resilience and many more.