What is growth mindset?

Thinky Pinky has two friends, Sam and Mia. Sam always had gotten good grades on his math tests and felt like he was good at math. One day, he was sitting in math class and realized he was struggling. "Struggling in math? No way! This can’t be!" thought Sam. "I'm good in math, right?" Sam started to get frustrated and thought to himself, “I am not good at math. There is no use in studying. I’m never going to get it.” Then, Sam stopped studying. Mia never really had considered herself a math person. She'd always thought that Sam was better at math. On the same day that Sam was struggling, Mia was struggling as well. She wanted to give up. She wanted to run away and never have to do math again. In her frustration, she yelled, “I QUIT!” Mia’s friend, Liz, was surprised by Mia’s frustration. Liz reminded Mia that it takes time and practice for the neurons in your brain to learn how to work together. She said, “Give your brain some time to learn this!” Instead of giving up, Mia continued to practice and make a few mistakes. She looked at her mistakes and thought, “I got this wrong now, but I’m going to learn from my mistake and get it correct next time.” Mia continued studying and started to notice that—slowly but surely—it was getting easier as her brain formed the new connections it needed to solve the math problems.

Mia and Liz also became study buddies. They do a lot of things together.

1. They ask for help. 2. They go in for tutoring. 3. They view mistakes as learning opportunities.

In part 1 of this activity, Sam and Mia had different experiences when learning a difficult concept in math.

Sam believed that if he couldn’t do it immediately, then he would not ever be able to do it. Mia believed that with the right learning strategies, such as giving herself time to learn and seeking help from Liz and her teacher, she would be able to learn.

Sam is not setting up his brain to grow because he doesn’t believe that his brain can grow, but Mia does believe her brain can grow!

Mia is exercising something called growth mindset.

The growth mindset is the belief that you can grow your brain and that your intelligence grows with effort and the right learning strategies.

Sam is exercising something called fixed mindset.

The fixed mindset is the belief that you cannot grow your brain and that if you can’t do or understand something immediately, you will never get it.