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Mindset
Our mind-set, as we enter the ‘Learning Pit’ is very influential on whether we exit the Pit with the understanding that we require. The work of Carol Dweck124 highlights how the learner’s mind-set and attitude of mind, affects how successful we are when it comes to learning and being able to enter and exit the Pit. Paraphrasing the words of Carol Dweck: If we have a growth mind-set, then we are not just willing to learn, but we want to learn, and this has a significant influence on how effectively and efficiently we can learn. Being confident and capable that we can learn, and that we can apply the Learning Process is critical to the learner’s success. Having a fixed mind-set, on the other hand, and being unwilling to change that mind-set means that learning becomes increasingly challenging. Our beliefs surrounding our ability to learn, affect our confidence that we can learn, before that learning has even occurred – yet!
We have the option of controlling our mind-set, and when we make the decision to take that control we can adapt and change our mind-set for the better. To a degree, who we are reflects our choices, both small and big. This is a process that takes some time to get used to and it also takes discipline to change the way we talk to self and the messages we keep repeating to self. We need to develop an honesty with self, tinged with a degree of optimism.
It is important to realise that our mind-set is never either Growth or Fixed for all contexts, but rather, it varies, dependent on the context. We can have a growth mind-set when we are in a relationship with friends and a fixed mind- set when we apply that to family relationships. Our mind-set is dependent on the context of the learning.
We can place a tick on each of the continuums in the figure to the right to get a sense of the variability of our mind-set across different contexts.
So, how do we encourage a growth mind-set instead of a fixed mind-set? It is important that when we work with learners, and when they collaborate with each other, that we all have honest conversations with each other about the amount of thought and effort being applied to the work we are creating.
Resource 41: Our Contextual Mindsets
124 Dweck, C. (2012). Mindset. Robinson.