Students’ View of Intelligence Can Help Grades
On the drive to work I head on Morning Edition (NPR), that a new study shows that if you teach students that their intelligence can grow and increase, they do better in school.
All children develop a belief about their own intelligence, according to research psychologist Carol Dweck from Stanford University.
“Some students start thinking of their intelligence as something fixed, as carved in stone,” Dweck says. “They worry about, ‘Do I have enough? Don’t I have enough?’”
Dweck calls this a “fixed mindset” of intelligence.
“Other children think intelligence is something you can develop your whole life,” she says. “You can learn. You can stretch. You can keep mastering new things.”
She calls this a “growth mindset” of intelligence.
This makes sense, since it is the attitude of a student that hinders him or her from scholastic potential. This is true especially in middle and high school where 30% of our nation’s students don’t even graduate.
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