JJ Jones is an outstanding high school linebacker. What sets
him apart, according to his coach, is not talent but work ethic. JJ is a leader
in film study, weight training, and all the other things that go into making a great
football player.
The other side of JJ, unfortunately, is someone who often
doesn’t do his math homework and whose writing assignments consist of just a
few, seemingly random sentences. It’s as if he doesn’t try.
JJ obviously isn’t lazy, so why the disparity between effort
in school and effort on the field?
The answer is in mindset. JJ thinks he can work his way to
the next level in football, but believes it simply isn’t possible for him to
learn math or write good essays. To use phrases coined by Stanford psychologist
Carol Dweck, JJ has a “growth mindset” for football but a “limited mindset”
when it comes to education.
People with a growth mindset believe that a mind is like a
muscle, the more you use it, the stronger it gets—they approach learning like
JJ does the weight room.
Those with a limited mindset think their potential is circumscribed
by natural ability. They give up when the going gets tough because they think
they’ve reached their limit and further effort is pointless.
Where does mindset come from, and how can one person have
radically different mindsets for different things?
JJ, who is fictional but represents a very common type in
the U.S., almost certainly got his mindset from what researchers call the
“surrounding culture.”
The most successful countries in educational achievement,
like Singapore, Finland, and Poland, have two characteristics: 1) a belief that education is the principal
vehicle for economic success and a high quality of life; and 2) a belief that effort,
not natural ability, determines success in learning. In other words, these
countries have a collective growth mindset about education.
Many communities in America share this positive mindset
about learning, but many don’t.
The powerful “you can definitely do it, it’s definitely
worth it” message that’s prevalent in more affluent and educated areas is
lacking in impoverished urban and rural communities where generations were systematically
denied opportunity, then discouraged from thinking they were capable. Even in more
affluent blue collar areas, the lack of educated mentors fosters a limited
mindset, augmented by skepticism about the payoff of college vs. an immediate
job. The challenge of high tuition and resulting debt exacerbates the concern.
What to do? How do we make the growth mindset pervasive?
There are some promising school and college-based programs to build positive mindsets
and these should be encouraged.
But it will be very hard to get the level of sustained
reinforcement needed to change mindset through school programs. One reason,
unfortunately, is that many in the U.S. are suspicious about any perceived school
intervention in society.
A more mainstream concern is practical: by graduation at age 18, a student will have
spent only about 13% of her waking hours in school.
In South Carolina we think a positive surrounding culture
can be created through local initiative. Opinion leaders in our Know2 program’s
three pilot communities have adopted a growth mindset about the potential for sharp
improvement in learning and education levels, and we’ve had a number of early
successes with both young people and with adults returning for GEDs. One new
initiative is training volunteers called Neighborhood Ambassadors to help
families foster and sustain a growth mindset in their children. We’re doing this
rather than advertising or the like because research says that peer
communication is more effective than top down approaches in changing attitudes.
But it’s early days and we need lots of creative research
and experimentation. It’s time for the big foundations to jump in. Are you
listening, Gates, Lumina, Ford?
