The Perils of “Growth Mindset Education”
In the article, “The Perils of “Growth Mindset Education,” author, Alfie Kohn challenges the ideas of psychologist, Carol Dweck, about how praising and obtaining a “growth” mindset can only take children and students so far or worse, may actually be contributing to a lower success rate in whatever tasks they do. Kohn explains that we shouldn’t be trying to “fix” the attitudes or mindsets of children, but rather fix the way we teach and praise. Kohn asserts that, “as I’ve explained in books and articles, the most salient feature of a positive judgment is not that it’s positive but that it’s a judgment; it’s more about controlling than encouraging.” Kohn believes that the problem with praise is that it is a form of judgment and praise, as a reward, should be given to kids as a form of “nonjudgmental feedback and guidance,” as well as unconditional support.
In addition, Kohn continues to criticize Dweck’s research by explaining that, “the series of Dweck’s studies on which she still relies to support the idea of praising effort…included no condition in which students received non-evaluative feedback.” Kohn believes that the studies of Dweck’s research are inconclusive and incomplete. He feels that studies on feedback that is nonjudgmental, are needed to make her claims about praising accurate. Kohn then points out that, “other researchers have found that just such a response – information about how they’ve done without a judgment attached – is preferable to any sort of praise.” Students’ given such support and feedback, appeared to have a positive response in the outcome; thus evaluating that Kohn’s claims about praise without judgment are true. So, going back to the ideas of growth mindsets, it seems that no matter what kind of mindset a student has, praise has a negative affect every time. Furthermore, Kohn finds that both Dweck’s ideas about fixing mindsets and praise are false and that a change in something bigger, something that does not have to do with the students directly, may be the solution to students continuing to succeed now and in the future.
When Kohn talks about fixing a students’ mindset, he argues that it would only lead to other “societal factors that influence learning such as sexism, economic, or political barriers." Kohn is saying that if you focus on "fixing” the mindset of a student, you may become blind to other contributing factors in that students ability to being a successful learner. Yes, I say that Kohn makes a good point. Changing a student’s mindset can only take them so far, to truly be able to help them, you have to understand each of their unique situations. No student is the same, we all live and learn differently. When looking back at Dweck’s mindset theory which is about changing mindsets, Kohn illustrates that, “ Dweck’s work nestles comfortably in a long self-help tradition, the American can-do, just-adopt-a-positive-attitude spirit…the message of that tradition has always been to adjust yourself to conditions as you find them because those conditions are immutable; all you can do is decide on the spirit in which to approach them.” Again, Kohn argues that you can change a student’s mindset to want to be engaged and learn what is being taught, however, they will only know how to be motivated to memorizing the material, instead of understanding it. So changing mindsets and praise fill in some gaps to the initial problem, but then lead to other problems down the road. In all, the one thing that could be the solution to continued success in students is a change in the way students are taught. This is another topic Kohn writes about further in his article. Kohn declares that, “the real alternative… isn’t a different attitude about oneself; it’s a willingness to go beyond individual attitudes, to realize that no mindset is a magic elixir that can dissolve the toxicity of structural arrangements. ” this change he talks about is a change in the system in which educators teach students. If teachers change their method of teaching, from just simply throwing forgettable facts at students, to actually captivating students to be engaged and truly understand about what it is they are being taught, it could have great effects on how students think and perceive the world around them.
In your response to Kohn you seem to agree with his opinion when you state " Changing a student’s mindset can only take them so far, to truly be able to help them, you have to understand each of their unique situations. No student is the same" I see your point of view when you explain how educators are to busy trying to fix their mindset without considering how their background contributes to the mindset they portray. Although I feel Dweck's theory has a lot of well thought out points, this may be one of the aspects her theory lacks. The way we are raised is our normal, in order to try and fix their minds we have to dig everything out to then replace it with new information.