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High school xxx
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Success is a mountain, where those who attempt to climb it and give up, never reach the top. This concept can also be applied to high school, where countless teenagers cease to make an effort to better themselves. As these three articles, “The ‘mindset’ mindset: What we miss by focusing on kids’ attitudes” by Alfie Kohn, “Why Your Fear of Looking Stupid Is Making You Look Stupid” by Megan Gibson , and “You Can Grow Your Intelligence”, by Grow Your Brain, shows that success isn't just achieved by doing nothing, but instead by doing something to better yourself. Success is a difficult thing to achieve, it's not just earned through the effort of doing nothing, but is earned when you’re focused on learning and not getting ‘good grades’, and also if you're willingly to ask questions, and lastly if they are readily to put in the time to attempt to achieve it. …show more content…
This often happens since intelligence is seen as a fixed trait to many students. “Kids tend to fare better when they regard intelligence and other abilities not as fixed traits that they either have or lack, but as attributes that can be improved through effort” ( Kohn1 ). In addition to that, kids have a higher likely to do better when they believe that how they did well was the resultant of their efforts. In opposed to where, “things like grades, tests, and worst of all, competition - to become more focused on achievement than on learning itself” ( Khon2 ). Nowadays many kids go to school to only get ‘good grades’, this is the resultant of the brainwashing of the people who think that ‘good grades’ can help lead a ‘better’ life. However with that in mind, this results into focusing less on learning, and more focus on getting those ‘good
As Dweck explains, children who are praised for their intelligence does not want to learn hence develop a fixed mindset. A fixed mindset is where people believe that their qualities such as talent and intelligence are essentially fixed traits. Such people would only concentrate on documenting their intelligence instead of looking for ways for developing the same. In addition, these people make the assumption that their intelligence would make them successful. On the other hand, a growth mindset is where people are aware that it is possible to develop their abilities through hard work and dedication. When I was in Grade 7, a teacher encouraged all students that they all had the ability to perform well in science. After the initial interaction, the teacher was aware that a certain percentage of the class performed way below average; yet, he did not water down their spirit. I remember the way he used to acknowledge even some insignificant improvement made in his tests by comments such as “You are making good progress so far”. Primarily, this teacher focused on the perseverance, strategies, and efforts the students put towards improvement as opposed to praising talent (Dweck 5). The result was that we changed our attitude and focused more on self-improvement.
Praise of intelligence had backfired. Dr. Dweck had suspected this would happen. She explained that quote, "Emphasizing effort gives a child a variable that they can control...They come to see themselves in control of their success. Emphasizing natural intelligence takes it out of the child's control, and it provides no good recipe for responding to failure," unquote. Children who believe intelligence is the key to success discredit effort and don't seem to understand its importance. When labeled "smart," kids think, "I'm smart, I don't need to put effort." Dr. Dweck repeated her experiments on different groups of students, and results were the same, regardless of socioeconomic status, age, or gender. Preschoolers even showed the same
The definition of success differs from one person to another. If asked, people will define success from their point of view differently from one another. In Cathy Davidson’s article “Project Classroom Makeover” and Karen Ho’s essay “Biographies of Hegemony” both authors explore how people’s view and societal needs affect the educational system and how that in turn affects Society’s view of success. Both authors have had affiliation with “elite” institutions, despite both authors agreeing about exclusivity that elite institutions create, their definition of what is considered successful is still connected to what is considered elite by society. It is evident that society defines success based on what they think is important which creates a narrow
Results of students who received praise for intelligence: The students in this category had negative results after receiving praising. When asked afterwards if they wanted to do the same level of problems or try more challenging ones, they chose the task that would allow them to look smart and do well on. Consequently, while telling a child how smart he or she is, we are sending a message to not take risks and just look the part. Afterwards, these children were given a hard task, which they performed poorly on, and they know longer liked the problems and did not want to practice them at home. Children also felt “dumb” and when given the initial task (in which they did well), they performed significantly worse. Lastly, their opinions of intelligence reflected that it was an innate capacity as though you cannot improve.
In school there are cases where very intellegent kids just don’t have that push or motivation to be successful, but then there are the kids that get a straight
The article “How to Be a Success” by Malcom Gladwell speaks about how success is something that can be achieved if you put the time and work into it, and how success is not achieved overnight but rather through long hours of constant practice. His article is targeted to more than one group of individuals. The groups of individuals that his article targets are teenage students, young adults, adults, people who want to become an expert, or want to succeed in something they have an interest in and in general society. Another article also related to the success of an individual “An A+ Student Regrets His Grades” by Afraj Gill describes how in society many schools focus more on students’ grades, rather than their learning, and how a student is
Society instills today's youth with that without a college education they will not be successful. But then again what defines success? Success is a wide-ranging term that has different meanings to different people. Some people believe that making money defines success, while others believe that success is having a loving family. Still, society seems to demonstrate and even promote that success is portrayed by making money. The general public states that in order to be a successful person one must make a heavy salary out of college. The problem with this philosophy is that some people are not meant for college. In Bird's article, she writes that college is not been effective for everyone. Half of all high school graduates attend college and the pattern of dropouts is becoming more and more obvious showing that some students don't fit the mold (305).
Dweck also argues that attributing poor performance to lack of ability depresses motivation more than belief that lack of effort is to blame. Another argument is that persistent students look at failures as mistakes that need to be fixed. Dweck gathered his information by studies from different universities and fro 373 students that were monitored for two years into their transition into Junior High school. This article is meant for students that lack intelligence and ability in school to motivate them to give more effort in school. Just like Marita's Bargain both articles promote that education is important. Both articles have ways that students can become successful in school. In conclusion students with lack of motivation need to learn that mon ones is born smart, but they need to work hard to become
Everyone strives to be the greatest, especially teenagers in school, failing can be upsetting when it comes to failing a class or grade. Failure in school can have a huge impact on a student's future. When students aim for a goal it's either accurate or precise depending on their mindset.
Some students will go far enough to even cheat on an exam just to seem smart. Students believe the medal is worth more than what you did to get there. When a growth-minded student fails a test, they strive to learn what they did wrong, growth-minded students tend to work harder to be average but will achieve more in the long run. In the secret to raising smart kids, Dweck’s research on 60 fifth graders shows that a child's road to success is paved by the way they embrace their failures. The students were told that you are either born smart or just aren't cut out for academics.
This misconception will act as a disservice to these students because they believe that they “do not [need to] improve their mastery of a subject.” And once he/she reaches a point where they have to make a decision in the career path that they have chosen which requires said mastery and skill, they will realize that they have been misconceived and that they are not the intellect that they once believed they were. In the end, grade inflation is.
“The Perils of Promise and Praise,” written by Carol Dweck was on the subject of how the right and wrong type of praise can affect children and their motivation to learn. Dweck is a psychologist who specifically studies how our mindset affects our behavior. She writes about how some students believe that their intellect is a fixed trait, whereas others believe it is developed over time. She says when kids are focused on improving their intellect, they do not fear how they will look to others. When you praise a child for being smart, they can believe that to be a natural trait that they cannot improve. This way of thinking can lead to the child having a fixed mindset. Intelligence can always be improved. Dweck says when students have a fixed
Students with less knowledge are given less opportunity. Placement tests and evaluations prove it, and more advanced students are given greater amounts of support and encouragement. These students are usually the ones who are told they can do anything they set their minds to, rather than “maybe that isn’t the best choice for you”. Students who are led to believe they are not as good as their more intelligent peers tend to fall into a rut. The learning path they are sent down is less challenging and less rewarding. Rose describes this path by saying, “… You’re defined by your school as ‘slow’; you’re placed in a curriculum that isn’t designed to liberate you but to occupy you, or, if you’re lucky, train you, though your training is for work the society does not esteem,” (Rose 350). The future of these students is affected by the way they perform early on, and many do not try to do better because they do not think they can. All many of them want to do is pass the tests and be on their way, never even considering college as an option for the future. To Rose, “The reality of higher education wasn’t in my scheme of things,” (356), and for many students in public education, the same goes for
Having explained the reason most children have become disheartened at the thought of school, I now turn my attention to the students who do realize school’s educational value. These are the students that will continue to prosper throughout their lives because they realize the extreme importance of education. There is a secret, yet not so secret, motivation behind their determination to exceed standards and expectations in school. The secret they withhold is their overwhelming desire to be successful in the future.
The Oxford Dictionary defines intelligence as “the ability acquire and apply knowledge and skills.” Many people are born naturally intelligent, able to grasp and understand concepts easily, with little work. In children, it is easy to separate those born with higher intellectual ability from the rest, because they easily excel in learning. This skill is often lost by those born with it, and through a great deal of work others attain it. In order for an individual to have true intelligence into her adult years, she must foster what gifts she is given, and strive to better her self academically. Even as early as elementary school, many who are born with natural talent begin to fall behind intellectually. These students are often not