Reaching your pontential
This post was inspired by President Obama’s speech to American students. The speech sent students messages that their situation can change and that they can achieve their potential through hard work, nothing new here!
However, previous generations of students, including my own, rarely listened the idea that their intelligence was malleable or that their potential was not set from the begining. In fact, the idea about intelligence was that it was fixed.
What is the impact on sending kids a message that intelectual ability can be developed? Is it beneficial? If so, what should be done to promote a belief of incremental inteligence?
These are the questions we will try to answer in this post.
Types of believes regarding intelligence
According to Standfords’ Professor Carol Dweck research there are two types of beliefs regarding inteligence:
Some believe that intelligence is more of an unchangeable, fixed ‘‘entity’’ (an entity theory). Others think of intelligence as a malleable quality that can be developed (an incremental theory).”
Some of us had episodes in primary school that clearly impacted how we saw our abilities and therefore our academic performances and professional lives. I recall when I was studying in high school drawing was not seen as a subject where hard work could make you better, you had to be talented. Needless to say that in the majority of the cases, professors where responsible for these beliefs.
Successful learning
The research shows the different atitudes among entity and incremental theorists (papers here, here and here), and suggests that these can explain a better learning success of incremental theorists. Successful learning is described as a path where new challenges are not avoided, strategies to overcome setbacks are formulated and implemented, and where motivation and performance is sustained. This definition of successful learning sends already the right message to kids (reducing pressure), as opposed to the message sent by a definition of successful learning as the final grade students attain.
What makes incremental theorists successful learners?
The research suggests that each class of theorists shows the following behaviours:
For those endorsing more of an entity theory, the belief in a fixed, uncontrollable intelligence -a ‘‘thing’’ they have a lot or a little of – orients them toward measuring that ability and giving up or withdrawing effort if the verdict seems negative. In contrast, the belief that ability can be developed through their effort orients those endorsing a more incremental theory toward challenging tasks that promote skill acquisition and toward using effort to overcome difficulty.
Those who believe intelligence is a fixed entity (entity theorists) tend to emphasize ‘performance goals,’ leaving them vulnerable to negative feedback and likely to disengage from challenging learning opportunities. In contrast, students who believe intelligence is malleable (incremental theorists) tend to emphasize ‘learning goals’ and rebound better from occasional failures.
Entity theorists tend to be more concerned with besting others in order to prove their intelligence (‘performance goals’), leaving them highly vulnerable to negative feedback.
As a result, these individuals are more likely to shun learning opportunities where they anticipate a high risk of errors, or to disengage from these situations when errors occur.
In contrast, incremental theorists are more likely to endorse the goal of increasing ability through effort and are more likely to gravitate toward tasks that offer real challenges (‘learning goals’).
Performance goals, with their emphasis on outcomes as measures of ability, were shown to produce a vulnerability to helplessness and debilitation after a setback or negative feedback, particularly in cases where current perceptions of ability were low.
That is, when the goal is to validate ability and individuals do not believe they can accomplish this, motivation and performance tend to suffer. Learning goals, with their emphasis on understanding and growth, were shown to facilitate persistence and mastery-oriented behaviors in the face of obstacles, even when perceptions of current ability might be low.
What could be done in order to change children’s beliefs regarding intelligence?
Social marketing has been a powerful tool to change behaviour across social, political, safety, health and environmental issues. The same techniques that comercial marketing uses are being use to promote a healthy lifestyle, garbage separation, inclusion and etc. These sucess stories could be applied to promote an incremental intelligence.
Using Art to change behaviours.In addition, group-specific activities should be implemented. Art can play an important role here. For instance, twenty-two years ago I saw a play at school regarding hygiene and I still recall most the story that was created to send simple messages as wash your hands before you eat. You can see more about how art is being used to change behaviours by watching Mallika Sarabhai TED’s presentation.
What messages on intelligence should we send children?
It seems US students are getting the right input in terms of messages to see intelligence as something that can be developed. The following messages were extracted from President Obama’s speech:
We need every single one of you to develop your talents, skills and intellect so you can help solve our most difficult problems.
If you get a bad grade, that doesn’t mean you’re stupid, it just means you need to spend more time studying.
And you won’t necessarily succeed at everything the first time you try.
No one’s born being good at things, you become good at things through hard work.
You’re not a varsity athlete the first time you play a new sport. You don’t hit every note the first time you sing a song. You’ve got to practice. It’s the same with your schoolwork. You might have to do a math problem a few times before you get it right, or read something a few times before you understand it, or do a few drafts of a paper before it’s good enough to hand in.
The research above used “analogies such as (e.g., to muscles becoming stronger) and examples (e.g., of relatively ignorant babies becoming smarter as they learned).” to send messages such as:
learning changes the brain by forming new connections (…) students are in charge of this process
everything is hard before it is easy.
As Eistein put it: “Intellectual growth should commence at birth and cease only at death”.
