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November 29, 2007
How People Learn - FASCINATING!
There's a really interesting article I found in Scientific American about how people learn. They explain that there are two basic mindsets: one who thinks intelligence is a fixed entity and therefore, something that's unchangeable and another who thinks that intelligence is something that can be achieved through a focus on effort (growth mindset).
As I read this article, I thought back to how I did in school. I went from a fixed-intelligence mindset to a growth mindset. In grade school and middle school, I thought that my bad grades meant I was just dumb and when things got hard, I would fail because I was incapable of learning.
But then when I got into high school, this changed drastically, thanks to two really great people. The first was a math tutor my mom got me to get me through trigonometry (don't remember his name, just know that he was a math major at Wayne State or something) and the other was my sophomore/junior year English teacher. I can't tell you how grateful I am to have had them in my life!! Up till now, I could never figure out what it was the math tutor did to make me get better grades. Now I know it's because he showed me if I just think harder and try harder, I can actually do the work and understand why things are the way they are; he taught me to not accept failure. I went from having a nearly failing grade on the first test to a 94% on the last test of the year. The better grades I got, the more I enjoyed learning and the more I wanted to try.
The same was true with my English teacher. She saw how I was failing and spent lots of extra time with me and just showed me that if I just put more effort into my work, I could improve. And she was right! It's thanks to her, most particularly, that I became a professional copywriter because she gave me the love of words and writing. And this mindset is what really got me through college. I found that the harder I tried, the better my grades got till I was getting lots of 3.5's and 4.0's in my senior classes.
Aside from that, I think of myself now and how much I love watching the Discovery Channel and how much more interest I have in learning things, compared to when I was very young and hated it. Now, it's obvious why.
It's most apparent in the way I learn martial arts. When I'm in class, and I know I'm not doing something right, I want to keep trying until I do get it right. I always think (as I do with my writing) that what I do isn't ever going to be perfect, but that won't stop me from trying to make it perfect. I'm happy when something's pretty good, but I'm happier when it's even better.
Read the article and tell me this isn't cool stuff!!
Posted by Amy at November 29, 2007 09:35 AM
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