The Perils of ‘Growth Mindset’ Education??
In Alfie Kohn’s article named “The Perils of Growth Mindset”, Kohn emphasizes that research psychologist Carol Dweck’s idea of growth mindset is a phenomenon that educators picked up and are using incorrectly. Kohn himself writes, “The problem with sweeping, generic claims about the power of attitudes or beliefs isn’t just a risk of overstating the benefits but also a tendency to divert attention from the nature of the tasks themselves: How valuable are they, and who gets to decide whether they must be done?” He then later discusses how the growth mindset didn’t seem to help students when they face the idea of failure. According to Kohn, when students adopted a growth mindset, they “…were even more likely to give themselves an excuse for screwing up- a strategy known as ‘Self-handicapping’- as compared to those with dreaded fixed mindset.” He concludes his article by offering a suggestion about using an alternative to the strict guidelines of the growth mindset. Kohn’s point is that “…The real alternative to that 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 agreements.”
Alfie Kohn mainly uses statistical evidence and cites experts when providing evidence. After reading his article, the evidence seems vague in my opinion. The one piece of evidence that seems credible is when Kohn talks about a study that was conducted in 2010. Kohn states “ A 2010 study found that when students whose self-worth hinges on their performance face the prospect of failure, it doesn’t help for them to adopt a growth mindset.” This is the only statistical evidence he uses throughout the entire article. He refers back to Carol Dweck quite a few times but fails to provide any other source of expertise. One example of this is “Social psychologists use the term ‘fundamental attribution error to mean paying do much attention to personality and attitudes that we overlook how profoundly the social environment affects what we do and who we are.” He talks about the social psychologists but does not give credit to one.
Kohn asserts that “fixing students mindsets diverts attention to other societal factors that influence learning such as sexism, poverty, economic, or political barriers.” Although I agree with Kohn up to a point, I cannot agree with his assumption that these mindsets divert attention away from most factors. I would say that growth mindset ignores negative thoughts such as failure or disappointment in one self. It doesn’t shy away from real societal issues that he stated. The growth mindset can give you insight into this topics from a different point of view.
You claim, “ Although I agree with Kohn up to a point, I cannot agree with his assumption that these mindsets divert attention away from most factors. I would say that growth mindset ignores negative thoughts such as failure or disappointment in one self.” Yes, I agree with your point of growth mindsets ignoring negative thoughts like failure, but I believe Kohn was discussing that the teachers were diverting away from the these societal issues and blaming it on mindsets.
