Fixed Versus Growth Mindsets - Society or Psychology?

The primary school my kids go/went to (the younger one is still at the school, at least until they close it on Friday for the COVID thing) preached the whole fixed v growth mindset thing ad nauseum lol. But I think it is a very important thing to instil in children and my kids did very well at the school and the one at secondary school is doing well there as well.

I don't know how the book in question defines the whole growth mindset thing, having not read it. There is a tendency for people to take legitimate research and put their own spin on it and blow it all out of context and add in a whole lot of opinion and unproven assertions before they sell an idea as a book. So without reading it I don't even know how they're defining "growth mindset" never mind whether I agree with the writer's spin on it.

As I understand it, a growth mindset simply refers to the ability for people to perceive their abilities/skills/etc as a work in progress, not something that's fixed. Saying "I'm not good at maths" and letting this belief stop you from learning, trying, progressing, etc in maths because you believe that you've not been blessed with the gift of maths so there's no point trying is a fixed mindset. Saying "I don't understand this maths but if I keep trying or ask for more help and then keep on trying and practising, I'll get the hang of it" is a growth mindset.

In practical terms a lot of it is about how teachers speak to the children and how they teach the children to deal with failure and difficulty. No longer will teachers tell children they're rubbish at something or get cross with them for getting it wrong. They also don't label children as "good at maths" "bad at maths" etc. Instead they'll give children constructive feedback on how to improve and encourage them to keep trying. When children say things like "I'm rubbish at this" the teacher will help them with what they're stuck on and get them to believe "I can do it if I keep trying". The whole ethos is one of encouraging a growth mindset.

Another related thing that I learned when I was a teacher is that having a growth mindset comes from people's beliefs about how much control they have over their successes and failures.

People who believe that success is down to luck/external factors (you were born good at it; your doing something well was a fluke) and that failure is also down to luck/external factors don't have much motivation to keep trying. You do something, it doesn't work out therefore you're not good at it and there's no point trying. This leads to a lack of success which unfortunately reinforces the believe that they're just not good at it.

People who believe that success is down to how much work you put in but failure is down to luck/external factors (it failed because random factors did not go in my favour; it failed because other people did stuff wrong) are motivated to keep on trying to achieve success but will get frustrated by failure and blame others or bad luck when it goes wrong, rather than learning from it.

People who believe that success is down to luck/external factors and failure is down to them are poorly motivated as they perceive that they have no control over their ability to succeed at anything, but blame themselves and beat themselves up when things go wrong. This mindset is particularly bad for mental health.

People who attribute both success and failure to their own efforts have the best motivation and the best chances of succeeding as they are motivated to work hard to achieve success and are able to reflect on failure and see what they can do better next time. These people don't get frustrated by failure but instead see it as a learning experience and will bounce back and keep on trying. This is the best mindset to have, both in terms of succeeding in the long term and having good mental health.

Teachers therefore must help students to learn that success and failure is within their control. It's very important not to punish kids for failing but instead to help them reflect on what went wrong and what they could do better next time. It's also important how you praise kids for success as you don't want them to believe that their success is down to luck (which includes the idea that they were born able). So for example you don't say "you're so gifted at maths" you say stuff like "you're enthusiasm and hard work in maths really paid off. That was a great score you got in the test." You're attributing the success to interest, effort and work, not inborn ability.

While I think that it's very important to instil a growth mindset in children, I think it is also important to acknowledge that some people are born with more ability than others (although this only makes someone a good beginner - no-one is born an expert - that comes from years of hard work) and that hidden disabilities such as dyslexia exist. But you can acknowledge those things while still keeping people in a growth mindset. For example, I'm dyslexic and can still read and write well. It took me quite a lot longer to learn this, I have to use a spell checker and I'm probably never going to be one of those people who can read a whole novel in an afternoon, but I can still read well enough to read any book I want to. I hate it when teachers and other people think that dyslexia means never being able to read and write because it's just totally not true. It means kids need a lot of extra help and the right teaching methods (synthetic phonics in most cases) and the kid will need to work that much harder, but it can be done. That's a growth mindset. "I can't read because I'm dyslexic" = fixed mindset. "I can't read that well YET because I'm dyslexic BUT I'M WORKING ON IT" = growth mindset.

ETA: all the above also applies to adults too. It's just I've always approached the whole thing as a teacher and a parent. I do encourage myself to have a growth mindset too though.