Open Growth

This week in Open Lab, we discussed at great length the differences and uses of a fixed learning mindset versus a growth mindset. Briefly, a fixed mindset is one that focuses on grades, and is blatant in their labels, with some being "smart" or "stupid". A growth mindset focuses on the attainment of skills in a subject over the grade you get, and realizes that "stupid", is merely inexperienced and turns into "not smart yet". This program is going to try to focus on learning over grades, and transition to a more growth based learning system. I personally am very happy with this. I am tired of taking knowledge, learning it, and forgetting it before I can apply it. In the long run, this benefits me more as well. The knowledge I take here can be applied later elsewhere, instead of getting the A and moving on. In life I will have skills others have lost, which will move me ahead. Say I have a project in a work setting. After completing the project, even if it was done satisfactorily, I will take what I did into consideration and look at what I did wrong to improve next time. As I improve, while others stay at the same level, it will look far better on resumes and in terms of moving up to do bigger and better things. After we had these talks, I looked up the fixed vs. growth mindset, and found much of what we had said spread across several sites. For example, in both http://www.brainpickings.org/2014/01/29/carol-dweck-mindset/ and http://jamesclear.com/fixed-mindset-vs-growth-mindset, they discuss how the growth person see's failure in a positive light, as it can only help you get better. While the fixed person worries about how they look to others, the growth person simply wants knowledge. This seems to me a better and cleaner way to learn, and it will last far longer. If someone is growth they continue to learn their entire lifetime, while a fixed person sticks with their "smart" or "stupid" label. Readers, I have a few questions. Do you think that growth should be fully and totally incorporated into schools? Why? Can you see any benefits to the fixed system? And if so, what are they? Here is a picture of the whiteboard after we discussed fixed vs growth and how it relates to the four tenets.