Raising smart children is a significantly more complicated process than one might assume. In her article, Dweck wrote about the common misconception that accentuating intelligence and skill is crucial to one’s success. The writer explains that it is more suitable to focus on the process and praise children for their effort and dedication, as opposed to their talents and capabilities. Throughout the article, she refers to her personal scholarly research and the studies conducted by her colleagues, which proves that learners with a growth mindset had better achievements.
I would interpret the provided information as a set of recommendations to improve children’s academic outcomes. However, I do not think it is fully valid, as it ignores that people cannot be capable of everything. It is undeniable that talent is useless without hard work; however, it should be present in the first place. While the information is based on studies, it does carry a strong bias, ignoring that people similar to Mozart and Darwin may have had the right skills for their great contributions.
Prior to reading this article, I used to believe that intelligence and skill were highly crucial in academic success. I perceived any opposing implications as irrational and rather irrelevant. Having read it, I have a slightly different perspective on the matter. I agree with the methods of growing intelligence using process, however, it should be done with the consideration of one’s capabilities, as nobody is skilled at everything.
The conclusions from this article I can draw are the following: there is an overemphasis on intelligence and ignorance of effort, and a suitable approach is required to help children succeed. For example, the article offers to praise children on the basis of a specific process they implemented to accomplish something (Dweck, 2015). This is rather valid advice; however, it should be given in regards to a discipline they can handle, e.g., Algebra or Spanish.
My culture and my upbringing taught me that intelligence is not defined by being able to succeed at all subjects. On the contrary, I have been told that an intelligent person would have focused on the topics they can study with great results, while maintaining average scores in the ones they struggle with. Moreover, I have been told that mathematicians are not smarter than linguists or vice versa, they simply have different capabilities.
From this point on, I intend to use two actions with my friends to increase importance of the process when growing intelligence. First, I will focus my praises on the hard work, strategies and methods that they implemented. Second, I plan to motivate them by changing their attitudes towards mistakes. If my friends learn to be less fearful of errors, they may not only achieve great success, but handle failures more professionally.
There is one rather interesting quote which I find appropriate to match the article. “Through teacher care, social ties are created between teachers and learners, in which the learners feel appreciated and encouraged leading to students’ motivation and persistence that consequently decrease their LH” (He, 2021). I find this quote to be appropriate because the second section of Dweck’s article emphasizes how important praise and telling children about achievements resulting from hard work are. The outcomes of learners with learned helplessness have shown that those who were praised for the simpler tasks would fail to improve their ability to solve harder math issues.
In conclusion, I find this article to be rather interesting, as it understands some factors that result in a student’s success or failure. However, the writer seems too biased to acknowledge that learners cannot be capable of everything, which makes her viewpoint rather flawed. I intend to implement the writer’s ideas, such as praising my friends for their strategies and teaching them not to fear mistakes. Thus, while I consider her opinions to be imperfect, I believe that some of the recommendations she gives are valid.
References
Dweck, C. S. (2015). The Secret to Raising Smart Kids. Scientific American. Web.
He, H. (2021). Students’ learned helplessness and teachers’ care in EFL classrooms. Frontiers in Psychology, 12. Web.