Carol Dweck Brainology

In her article “Brainology transforming students’ motivation to learn”, Carol Dweck argues that possessing a mindset that embraces intelligence as static has destructive effects to students’ motivation for learning. That being the case, she claims that students learning under the growth mindset find ways to turn mistakes made into gainful experiences and look upon their setbacks as a way to get smarter. Specifically, Dweck notes “Students with this growth mindset believe that intelligence is a potential that can be realized through learning”. In other words, she believes that learning with the mindset that intelligence isn’t fixed will greatly develop the student. Ultimately, to prove her argument, Dweck conducted research on a body of students

In other words, students that are completely demotivated in a subject most likely will either study enough to pass or fail the class out of indifference towards it. While it is true that students are in control of their minds, it does not necessarily follow that the student’s discouragement in learning will perpetuate forever. That is to say, the teacher makes the course interesting and show concrete and clear connections to the student’s life. If the students are motivated and they start making many mistakes, without the teachers’ enthusiastic personality to motivate them they might get completely disappointed and dislike the subject without thinking twice. The teacher in that case would have been of help because of the correct pedagogy that would allow the student to understand that mistakes are there to learn. Teachers’ job under my viewpoint is not just to transfer knowledge to the students but rather try and engage them and facilitate their learning experience the best way possible. Bluntly, teacher’s task is not easy to but can result in a much more motivated body of