Carol Dweck: Brain exercise boosts motivation

Jessica Zack, Special to The SF Chronicle

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

  

Parents and teachers of school-age children are probably familiar with the self-defeating pronouncements kids can make: "I'm not good at math," or "I can't draw well."

The question of how to encourage students to persevere in areas where they don't feel confident has long vexed educators. Why do some students approach new challenges with enthusiasm, while others shirk pursuits outside their comfort zone?

"It turns out the way young people view the learning process itself and what they believe about their brains are hugely important in determining the answer," says Carol Dweck, a Stanford University psychology professor who for three decades has been one of the world's leading researchers in the field of motivation.

In her 2006 book "Mindset: The New Psychology of Success," (Random House; $26), which has sold more than 300,000 copies and been translated into 18 languages, Dweck probes the puzzling nature of success, seeking to explain why some people achieve their potential while those who are equally talented don't.

Dweck, 64, who came to Stanford in 2004 after 15 years teaching at Columbia, might not be a household name, but her book is used in fields as varied as education, sports coaching and corporate management. One of Malcolm Gladwell's most popular articles ("The Talent Myth," 2002) in the New Yorker was based on Dweck's studies of mind-set, and Po Bronson devotes a chapter in his 2009 best-seller "Nurture Shock" to Dweck's research on the negative effects of parental praise.

At the core of Dweck's work, stemming from multiple studies of school-age children, is her finding that people generally hold one of two beliefs about their abilities. People with a "fixed" mind-set - "I am smart" or "I am athletic" - believe their intelligence or abilities are innate, unalterable traits. A fixed mind-set can create an urgency to prove yourself and make challenging situations threatening to self-image. Conversely, people with a "growth" mind-set - "I can get better with practice" - believe that they can cultivate needed skills and greater intelligence through focused effort. They are more equipped to handle setbacks and know that goals are attainable through hard work.

What is most intriguing about Dweck's work, especially for parents hoping to help an underperforming child, is that she addresses the question: Can a mind-set be changed?

"Yes. Yes. Yes," says Dweck, her naturally calm voice becoming animated during an interview in her quiet office on Stanford's Quad. "We've seen profound effects on motivation - and performance and grades - by teaching students the basic premise of the growth mind-set: that your intelligence is malleable, not just handed out at birth, and your intellectual growth is to a large degree in your own hands."

You can get smarter

This "incremental" view of achievement runs counter to what Dweck calls "the misconception that IQ is fixed (a notion largely discredited by neuroscientists) and the pervasive assumption that hugely successful people are 'naturals' - that Michael Jordan was born to be a star, that top CEOs are natural leaders, when in fact I have never studied any extremely successful person and not found that person worked harder than anyone else."

"I open 'Mindset' with examples of kids who thrive on difficult challenges," says Dweck, remembering the fifth-graders she encountered in her early research who enjoyed tackling increasingly complex puzzles, compared to their peers who wilted as the tasks outstripped their ability. "I wondered, could I somehow bottle that growth mind-set and share it?"

Dweck has, in fact, made the fruits of her research available to all students in her online instructional program Brainology (www.brainology.us), which teaches middle and high school students about the growth mind-set through four 45-minute sessions.

In the colorful, interactive world of Brainology, students follow two animated teens, Chris and Dahlia, through their school day, visit a virtual "brain lab" and learn "brain boosting" study skills, all of which reinforce a basic tenet of neuroscience - that the brain changes with exercise, growing new connections every time students learn something new.

"Children love this idea that their brain is like a muscle that gets stronger as they use it," says Dweck, who pilot-tested the program in 22 New York City schools. Since coming out in 2009, Brainology has been used by more than 15,000 students in over 300 schools, including many in the Bay Area.

Measurable success

The success of the Brainology program has been measured in numerous studies. In one, 375 students making the transition to junior high in New York City were tracked for two years. Half of them, in a control group, received lessons in study skills, while the other half received Brainology lessons on the growth mind-set. The control group continued to show declining grades, but the growth mind-set group showed a clear rebound in their grades.

A similar study focusing on Latino students in Texas yielded similar results, with participating girls closing the gender gap in math.

San Mateo High School math teacher Stephen Asp, who has used Brainology with his students for three years, says, "I've seen fewer kids suffering a lack of confidence and giving up on themselves. I personally love (Dweck's) program because it helps students understand that they are works in progress, that their intelligence is not a static state. The phrase 'I'm bad at math' had been pretty much stamped out of our classroom vocabulary."

Dweck says, "Think about being a teenager and feeling like school is just about taking tests you may or may not be interested in, after which someone will judge whether or not you're smart. No one's going to be inspired by that. But when you learn that school is really about growing your brain, making yourself smarter by doing difficult things, you'd have to be a fool not to want to do that."

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This article appeared on page E - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle