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Smart is a Fixed Mindset

Conversations about mindset often begin with talk about whether a belief or idea reflects a “fixed” or “growth” mindset.  For those not familiar with this lingo, when we have a fixed mindset, we are likely to say things like, “This looks hard, I must be dumb,” or “I’ve never been good at math; there’s no need for me to even try.”
When we have a growth mindset, on the other hand,  we are more likely to respond to challenges with thoughts like, “This looks hard, but I can figure it out,” or “If I practice math problems like this they will get easier and easier.”  With a growth mindset, we tend to give ourselves room to “grow” into the things that don’t quite “fit” us yet.
In Mindset: The New Psychology of Success (2007), Carol Dweck describes a fascinating study in which she discovered that children who were told they did well on a test because they were smart were less likely to volunteer to take home extra practice problems, were more likely to shy away from taking a harder test in the future even though it promised to teach them something new, and were more likely to lie about their scores on the test even though they did well! In contrast, the children who were told they did well because they “worked hard” were more likely to volunteer to take the harder test and to take home extra practice problems!
The idea that discussions about innate intelligence inhibit a growth mindset is absolutely central to shifting the way students think about themselves as learners.  When we begin to talk with students about mindset, however, children don’t immediately grasp the smart/fixed paradox.  They sometimes default to the idea that, if saying or thinking “I’m dumb” is a fixed mindset, then thinking its opposite–“I’m smart”–must be a growth mindset. While we want children to have positive self-esteem, the belief that success and achievement are attributable to being  “smart” can be as debilitating as attributing difficulty to being “dumb.”
For us, mindset is an important teaching and learning conversation because of its potential to affect student achievement. It goes without saying that self-talk such as, “This is hard. I’m dumb.  I can’t do this,” stands in the way of children’s learning.  When students talk like this, we want to help them see themselves differently.
In chapter 2 of Reading Wellness, we include The Leaning In/Leaning Out lesson, which introduces students to mindset by helping them think about the things they do and don’t like–the things they literally lean into or lean away from. Then, children participate in read alouds or shared reading from literature about characters who “lean in or lean out” to different things in their lives. Books such as Ish by Peter Reynolds, Salt in His Shoes by Deloris Jordan, That Book Woman by Heather Hensen. These books help us to make the point that, much more than ability, productive effort and practice influence how well a person can do something, not ability.  
This idea bears repeating! Much more than ability, productive effort and practice influence how well a person can do something.