The Power of Believing that You Can Improve Introduction -

The Power of Believing that You Can Improve
   Good morning, everybody. Today, I would like to talk about the magic power of believing that you can improve. I would begin with a story in Chicago. I heard about a high school in Chicago where students had to pass a certain number of courses to graduate, and if they didn’t pass a course, they got the grade “Not Yet”. I thought that was fantastic, because if you get the grade “Failing”, you think, I’m nothing, I’m nowhere. But if you get the grade “Not Yet”, you understand that you’re on a learning curve. It gives you a path into the future. “Not Yet” also gave me insight into my early study which was a real turning point in my career. I wanted to see how children coped with challenge and difficulty, so I gave 10-year-olds problems that were slightly too hard for them. Some of them reacted in a positive way. They said things like, “I love the challenge.” They understood that their abilities could be developed. They had what I call a growth mindset. But other students felt it was tragic. From their more fixed mindset perspective, their intelligence had been up for judgment, and they failed. I’ll tell you what they do next. In one study, they told us they would probably cheat next time if they failed a test. In another study, after a failure, they looked for someone who did worse than they did so they could feel really good about themselves. And in study after study, they have run from difficulty. So what can we do? Here are some things we can do. First of all, we can praise wisely. Do not praise intelligence or talent. But praise the process that kids engage in, their effort, their strategies, their focus, their perseverance, their improvement. This process praise creates kids who are hardy and resilient. Secondly, we can find other ways to reward “yet”. We recently created a new online math game that rewarded “yet”. In this game, students were rewarded for effort, strategy and progress. The usual math game rewards you for getting answers right, right now, but this game rewarded process. And we got more effort, more strategies, more engagement over longer periods of time, and more perseverance when they hit really, really hard problems. Thirdly, just give the comments “yet” or “not yet”. We find these words give kids greater confidence, give them a path into the future that creates greater persistence. And we can actually change students’ mindsets. In one study, we taught them that every time they push out of their comfort zone to learn something new and difficult, the neurons in their brain can form new, stronger connections, and over time, they can get smarter. These are very significant. If we can change students’ mindsets with these, we can then achieve equality. In our country, there are groups of students who chronically underperform, for example, children in inner cities. And they’ve done so poorly for so long that many people think it’s inevitable. But when educators create growth mindset classrooms steeped in “yet”, equality happens. This happened because the meaning of effort and difficulty were transformed. Before, effort and difficulty made them feel dumb, made them feel like giving up, but now, effort and difficulty, that’s when their neurons are making new connections. That’s when they’re getting smarter. To sum up, when you are faced with difficulty, you should think you have just not solved it yet and believe that you can improve. If you believe, then you are capable of great growth. Next time, I would like to talk about my further study about the growth mindset.