Teaching children that the brain works like a muscle that gets stronger with practice reinforces persistence. Encouraging students to visualize brain synapses firing when they overcome challenges is not merely a metaphor: Brain studies that Dweck and other speakers cited showed surges in brain activity when students respond to mistakes.
A body of research confirms that a growth mindset can improve performance, Dweck said. A 2012 study of all Chilean 10th-graders by Stanford colleagues showed students with a growth mindset significantly outscored peers with a fixed mindset in math and reading, regardless of income. A study of how mothers praised children between ages 1 and 3 showed there was an impact on learning that the children retained years later. Those children who received more “process praise†commending effort, relative to other forms of praise, were more likely to work hard, confront challenges and better deal with failure – traits of a growth mindset – in 2nd grade.
