1. Growth mindset and Fixed Mindset are terms that Dweck coined while studying student’s behavior while presented with problems. Those with a Fixed Mindset when faced with a problem “run from error, don’t engage with it.” These students believe that their intelligence and other abilities are all “fixed traits”, and can not change. Having a Growth Mindset means that a person believes their intelligence has the ability to grow with time. These people “understood that their abilities could be developed.”

2. Two approaches Dweck claim to stimulate a Growth Mindset are to praise wisely, and change mindsets. Praising wisely means to stop praising children for intelligence or talent, but instead praise “the process that kids engage in.” This includes praising their effort, focus, strategies, and perseverance and improvement. I believe this actually could help kids begin to engage more in class, because it rewards their effort in school instead of their natural abilities. I agree that only rewarding natural problem solving or intelligence can make kids who aren’t as talented feel inferior. The second approach stimulates Growth Mindset by teaching them “every time they learn something new and difficult…over time they can get smarter.” I don’t believe this method would have lasting results, especially compared to the first approach. I don’t think that simply telling kids to push out of their comfort zones would make them change.

3. I see Dweck’s model of intelligence being on how one is able to persevere and find solutions to problems when they don’t know the answer. People she perceives as intelligent she says have a Growth Mindset. Dweck provides information from a study comparing the electrical activity in the brain when students were confronted with an error. The students that do not engage with the problem had very little brain activity. Although, those who “engage deeply”, “process the error, learn from it, and correct it” had significantly higher levels of brain activity than the other group.

4. I have had my own fixed mindset moments in school, especially doing my math homework during high school. Many times when we’d be given math homework, and there were certain problems that I was unable to solve I’d try for a few minutes then immediately give up. I’d skip these specific problems, and usually would ask in class the next day if I had the opportunity, but if these problems were on the test I’d usually get them wrong. This scenario is very similar to other students Dweck studied, because I would encounter these challenging problems and just think I wasn’t smart enough to solve them. Although Dweck would argue that I just was not smart enough to solve them yet, and I would need to challenge myself by trying harder.