Home Tutoring and Mindset

How come some kids accept failure when things don't go their way, and others regroup and come at the problem again? We deal with kids who have tried and failed in our home tutoring service, and I always wondered about how different people can react so differently. Then I came upon a brilliant book by Carol Dweck simply called Mindset.

Basically, the premise is that everyone's mindset can be categorized as fixed or growth. (And, you can have a different mindset towards, say, math and writing and tennis, etc). With the fixed mindset you believe you are either smart or dumb, talented or clutzy, good at something or bad at something. In other words, your ability for something is fixed. With the growth mindset you believe that while you start with a certain ability level at something, you can always improve with effort and by applying yourself.

Naturally, the growth mindset is what we want to strive for, both as students and as adults. The possibilities open up to you when you realize that you don't have to be brilliant at something right away. In fact, most people who are brilliant at what they do work very hard at it. Michael Jordan had great physical ability, but he was also known for his tireless work ethic. He was famously cut from the basketball team in high school - if he had the fixed mindset, he may have concluded "I stink at basketball." But he found a way to pull it back together, work hard and the rest is history. Ling Ling, the world famous pianist, practiced for 15 hours a day for YEARS before he ever was paid a dime to perform. Thomas Edison had thousands of failures for every successful invention. These are all examples of the growth mindset in action.

Unfortunately, school tends to put labels on people: high math class, low math class A student, C student. These labels promote the fixed mindset - if I am a C student, then it takes a lot of effort to overcome that belief to start getting Bs. For most kids, it makes more sense to just keep getting Cs and not rock the boat. A students with the fixed mindset are less likely to take on risks and challenges - they would rather play it safe for the A. As a result, they don't grow.

Our home tutors often have to unwind the fixed mindset. "I am terrible at math." "I don't get this." We have to rebuild their confidence to do things step by step. We have to show them that effort is rewarded, that taking risks (particularly for A students who are coasting) will actually be good for them in the long run. This is a tough sell sometimes, but if we are able to generate rapport and trust with the student, we can often help them to inch over to the growth mindset. Not only is it a better way to learn, but it leads to more happiness.