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Opinions about "Growth Mindset: A Must Have Tool for Success" a conversation between Professor Carol Dweck and Dr Waseem Akhtar

As soon as I heard some comments during the lecture about the conversation with Professor Dweck it captivated my attention and I decided to write about it. Since I was a little kid drawing has been one of my “talents” which I feel, I have lost throw out the time and I could not understand why. After listening to a few minutes of this enriching conversation a few thoughts came to my mind. When I was a teenager, I took up oleo painting and no sooner had I started to bring my work than I started listening to praises from everyone around me. And now I wonder why I never got better at it. At the present in my professional life, I always keep telling myself that I am not talented enough and usually find myself not trying because if I do, I could fail and that would make me feel utterly disappointed. 

Professor Carol Dweck has a PhD in Psychology from Yale University, she has been conducting research on motivation and success for many years. In her studies she found out that among people there are two types of mindsets. Fixed and growth mindset, the first one is usually the one who does not let people develop their abilities or talents. When you have a fixed mindset, you are content with what you already have or know and there is no place for imperfection. In contrast with a growth mindset, you are open to new challenges that would forward develop your abilities and talents alternatively getting new ones. This kind of mindset allows people to achieve more in the long term.  

It was fascinating to discover that a fixed mindset is always trying to show off and their negative attitude regarding effort. In contrast with a growth mindset, they believe that if you are intelligent or talented enough you should not put as much effort into something as someone who is not intellectually gifted. This is one of the reasons why fixed mindsets are usually quitters. Considering that if I need too much effort to achieve something then I am not good at it. While a growth mindset is focused on learning, they do not waste time trying to demonstrate how smart they are. They prefer getting smarter by learning from their mistakes. 

Professor Dweck explains how babies are keen on learning, from starting to talk to starting to walk. They never get uncomfortable despite their mistakes. Although as they grow, they commence judging themselves or sensing being judged by others. Therefore, they start avoiding learning to not make mistakes and protect themselves to not feel dumb. 

Among all the studies she has carried out the same outcome has arisen. A growth mindset is more likely to achieve their goals. Furthermore, an engrossing consequence of building up growth mindset is that it allows minorities to break free from their stereotypes. Her findings in brain scans show that a fixed mindset tends not to get involved in the process and they usually get very emotional when they find out that they made a mistake and do not deeply process what they learn. As for growth mindsets are prone to understand why they fail and find the solution while profoundly processing the current information. 

She points out that nurture is particularly important, but critique is key. Taking parenting as an example, professor Dwek says that telling a kid how brilliant or clever they are leads to a fixed mindset. They would even be willing to lie if they do not obtain a clever mind score, just to keep being applauded. She talks about the online program for adolescents “Brainology” which teaches how their brains could make stronger connections when learning so that it could be applied to school. 

One of the recurrent aspects of this conversation was about how we should be learning growth mindset at all levels. As parents we usually praise kids for their intellectual or talent achievements and what this does is stop them from becoming resilient and successful. As a teacher it is crucial to understand that a fixed mindset can depend on the way they approach their pupils. And as a student it could be a great instrument to develop new talents and make our studies less miserable. 

As Mexican and as a woman rounding her 30s (plus), I am constantly stopping myself from learning, because my age or background. I am well used to comparing or diminishing myself. However, this fascinating conversation shed some light on my fixed mindset and encouraged me to work on it. 

Find out more about Professor´s Carol Dwek research here.

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Impressions about ¨Learning How to Learn¨ : Techniques to Help You Learn with Dr Barbra Oakley a conversation guided by Dr Waseem Akhtar

I consider myself a terribly slow learner. Constantly worried about whether I will ever be good enough to retain all the information that I am reading or listening to. Now at a Master level it would be beneficial to acquire tools that assist me in the learning process. When I came across the discussion Learning How to Learn: Techniques to Help You Learn it instantly encouraged my interest in gaining a better understanding about the learning process. 

Dr Oakley started this discussion by acknowledging that she was the type of person who used to dislike math and science. Not until she faced the difficulties of not having good enough job opportunities, did she get interested in knowing how our brain learns. She asked herself what if it was possible to change her brain, she could start being good at those subjects that she was not really into. Here is when the conversation fully captivated my attention as she ended up being a professor of engineering at Okland University in Michigan.  

Dr Oakley explains the root of learning as ‘building blocks.' Our brain makes connections between neurons (‘working memory’), these connections get stronger by repetition (‘long term memory’). For instance, when we are learning how to drive, we start to focus on specifics like which mirror to look at. Later as we do it repeatedly, we start adding new tasks within the driving such as listening to music. Having said that our brains tend to get overloaded as we first learn, however as it becomes habitual it grows into an automatic task. And by consequence we can focus on other things while doing what we learnt. 

It was to my surprise finding out that metaphors are a great mechanism to help us learn. As she did with the car for example. She discovered in her research that numerous lectures use this method to teach their lessons. Although some of them refuse to do so, as they believe that is a way to ‘dumb things down’ but she is quite confident that this is the way you ‘build up knowledge.’ 

One of the interesting methods that came about during the conversion was the ‘Pomodoro technique.’ Once we understand we only have two modes ‘focusing’ and ‘default’ mode we can start by applying this technique. Beginning with 5 minutes break (‘reward’) after each 25 minutes of focus. This process needs to be repeated at least 4 times before you get a longer reward. I find this method compelling since as we constantly use it, we will develop longer periods of focus. 

One thing I would like to stick to is her perspective about the likelihood of changing our brain. There are a few tips that could help to develop our learning, such as discussing with our peers as an effective way of knowing where we are failing. Furthermore, she advises us to push ourselves into the hard stuff and go at our own peace. The fastest runner is not always the first to arrive.  

She implies that we need to grow the ‘Pomodoro technique’ as it would be beneficial to lower the impacts of a constantly developing technological era. Afar from now she believes that it could be plausible to invent some medical supplements that would help us to gain knowledge easily. Her opinion is because if we look backwards in time at the things we are using now, it would have seemed like magical solutions. No one would have believed it and yet we have gone this far. 

Dr Oakley is a professor of engineering at Oakland University and McMaster University. She co-created and taught one of the most famous courses online “Learning How to Learn: Powerful mental tools to help you master tough subjects" with about two and a half million attendance record. Find out more about Dr Barbra Oakley here.

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Thoughts about “Forgetting: The Benefits of Not Remembering” a discussion with Dr Scott Small conducted by Dr Waseem Akhtar

The moment I read the title it at once struck my attention. I knew that I wanted to write about it. There are very few things I am sure about; this was one of them.  

My motivation when selected Forgetting: The Benefits of Not Remembering was because not only did I happen to be working with dementia and Alzheimer's patients, but I also regularly find myself forgetting loads of important stuff. Last week I struggled with remembering my personal mail password and it was not the first time. Two months ago, or so I had to reset my account as none of the passwords I remembered were working. I know forgetting my password is not the end of my life but what if this is only the start? My job requires me to get along with people with these disorders in various stages and it hits me badly not only for the difficulty it carries but also for my future. Essentially, I went for this discussion because I am extremely interested in how our brain works and the impact that it has on our daily lives. 

It was of absolute amusement discovering that there is a completely different part of our brain which is dedicated to forgetting. It is not a deficiency of our memory ability as I assumed. What is even more compelling was that for Dr Small remembering and forgetting are two separate processes for a reason. He expands on this when he uses the example of Borges’ short story. In his own words he describes having a photographic memory as a ‘nightmare’. Remembering every detail would make anybody's life miserable. We need to forget to forgive which would lead us to have better social lives. 

Furthermore, he makes a distinction between ‘normal forgetting’ and ‘pathological forgetting’ in which it implies that Alzheimer disease is not part of the natural aging process. Although it is mostly an old age pathology, the broken parts of the circuit are completely different to the ‘normal forgetting’ broken ones. 

It was particularly peculiar finding out that we are the only species that can develop Alzheimer. Even though most mammals have literally the same sort of ‘hub’ as he calls the small little part of the hippocampus where we process all the information, the ‘glitch’ only happens because it is repeatedly overstimulated, while thinking or during our sleep as we dream. I fact this is the price we are risking paying to live meaningful lives. 

To my shock there are genes related to Alzheimer disease which are decisive for developing it. Dr Small suggests that cardiovascular health is important to care for to prevent you from suffering this disorder, as well as avoiding all sorts of flavonoids.  

Finally, the bright side of this discussion was when he came up with the benefits of forgetting for creativity. He claims that we need to live a balanced life. Remembering and forgetting are equally important to create what he calls ‘eureka moments’ if we would have everything set up; there was no space for mistakes which sometime lead to great discoveries. 

Scott A. Small M.D. is the Director of the Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center at Columbia University. His research focuses on the hippocampus, a circuit in the brain targeted by these and other disorders, notably schizophrenia. Find out more here.