I was treated for anxiety a while ago in Korea, so I thought it got better. Recently, however, I feel like I meet the biggest obstacle in my life; grade. Therefore, my anxiety disorder recurred due to the stresses of my grades. The results of my tests did not come out as I intended, so I am quite stressed and worried about whether I can go to my college or not. I feel like I am an idiot more than I thought, and I even doubt my talents that I used to perform very well. People say something like “try to achieve something very steadily.” It never seemed valuable to me. Before, I looked down a person who underperformed in study since I could get quite good grade and without an effort. However, the words that people told me is valuable to me now. I recognized that motivation, mindset to try more, and process to the way of achieving success are more important than our grades because sometimes we can get really bad grades due to lack of motivations and wrong processes.
I learned the difference between growth mindset and fixed mindset, which are two different perspectives of intelligence. Fixed mindset is the view that considers that intelligence is fixed, but growth mindset which is supported by Professor Carol Dweck thinks intelligence is increasable by our effort. I was quite sarcastic about the growth mindset that intelligence can be improved. However, even if it is quite controversial that we can achieve and be better only with effort, I support this theory now. No matter how hard we try sometimes, results can be bad and also, in my case, I easily get distracted by my anxiety that I might fail. So, intelligence is not only a factor that contributes to our grades, and there are some theories and facts that I saw that support growth mindset. First of all, according to my psychiatrist, when people try to think in certain ways, neurons recalibrate the way of thinking. In short, it is possible to be better in math when we think about hard problems because our brains find new ways of learning. Second of all, the research that was conducted by Angela Duckworth from the University of Pennsylvania and a few other professors, tried to improve one’s intelligence, 40 ~60 percent was successful. Lastly, Carol Dweck said when researching the brain of students with growth mindset and fixed mindset, the brain of students of growth mindset was more heated and activated than those of students with a fixed mindset. Of course, there is some theory like ‘what percent does effort contribute to work’ by University of Michigan: Ann Arbor which was saying that only 4 percent of effort influenced success in study, while 96 percent is simply intelligence. However, they did not consider about how important our process and motivation are. Obviously, it is true that there is still limitation even with our effort, but if we are going to try with better process, and if we are more motivated than we used to, I believe a lot of things are changed. Thus, I also believe Carol Dweck who insisted on growth mindset theory in terms of reminding us how important it is to be motivated and focused on the right process with our effort. Research from the University of Pennsylvania that conducted by Angela Duckworth: www.psychologicalscience.org/index.php/publications/observer/2011/july-august-11/improving-intelligence.html
1 Comment
Sabatino
9/30/2016 08:39:01 am
Thank you for sharing this thoughtful and insightful post. It takes gut to share such personal details from you own life. I appreciate how you connected your own life experiences with the overall conversation we've been having with each other (and with the research) about academic mindsets and student motivation.
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Jacob (Chan Woo Kim)
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