Growth Mindset vs Fixed Mindset
Useful Resources
Articles
- Carol S. Dweck (2007). “The Secret to Raising Smart Kids.” Scientific American Mind, vol. 18, pp. 36–43.
Books
- Carol S. Dweck (2007). Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. New York:Ballantine Books.
- Jo Boaler (2015). Mathematical Mindsets: Unleashing Students’ Potential through Creative Math, Inspiring Messages, and Innovative Teaching. San Francisco:Jossey-Bass.
- Jo Boaler (2015) What's Math Got to Do with It?: How Teachers and Parents Can Transform Mathematics Learning and Inspire Success. New York:Penguin Books.
Web Resources
- YouCubed (created by Jo Boaler et al.)
Research Articles
- Leslie, S. J., Cimpian, A., Meyer, M., Freeland, E. (2015). “Expectations of Brilliance Underlie Gender Distributions Across Academic Disciplines.” Science, 347, 262–265. In this article the authors describe how the results of a national survey they conducted support their hypothesis that academic fields in which fixed mindset dominates growth mindset, are the same fields in which women and African Americans are underrepresented. Mathematics is a good example of such a field; just think of how many people say things like "I'm not a math person." The authors suggest that this may be due to the effect of negative stereotypes, leading to bias in these fields and stereotype threat effects on performance. To counter this, we need to start talking more about the value of effort and effective study methods, as opposed to natural talents, in mathematics courses.