How parents can support growth mindset of children

Mindset is a simple idea discovered by world-renowned Stanford University psychologist Carol Dweck in decades of research on achievement and success.

Two mindsets people can have: a fixed mindset and a growth mindset. In a fixed mindset, people believe their basic qualities, like intelligence or talent, are fixed traits. Instead of developing them, and believe that talent alone creates success, which is wrong.

In a growth mindset, people believe that their most basic abilities can be developed through dedication and hard work. This view creates a love of learning and a resilience that is essential for great accomplishment. Research shows that people with this view reach higher levels of success than people with fixed mindset beliefs. In teaching and Learning a growth mindset creates motivation and productivity in the worlds of arts, culture,business, education, and sports. It enhances relationships, and increases achievement.

No parent thinks, “I wonder what I can do today to undermine my children, subvert their effort, turn them off learning, and limit their achievement.” Of course not. Rather they think, “I would do anything, give anything, to make my children successful.”Yet many of the things done, boomerang. Their best intentioned judgments and motivational techniques often unintentionally send the wrong message..

“The best contribution a parent should render to the child is to mould him to be at the forefront prominently among the learned leaders”.

–Thirukural.

This exactly can be a fixed mindset message that says: “You have permanent traits and I’m judging them,” .In turn they are prone to retort from even attempting to accept any challenges towards growth. In the present higher education scenario, children slip away from the growth choice of professional courses in Medicine, Engineering and Entrepreneurial pursuits. Here the absence of Parent-Child mental connect on mutually agreeable futuristic learning brings meaningless indecisive outcomes. On the contrary, it can be a growth mindset message that says: “You are a developing person and I am interested in your development.” The most important thing a parent can do to help the child develop a growth mindset is to genuinely praise them for effort rather than for talent.

Contagious becomes such mental push that creates real sense of challenge in children to search for educational glory in professional courses ensuring unswerving achievement tracks. Result, a win-win situation for both parents and Child for all brainy ventures prospectively.

Cultivating a Growth Mindset at Home when children encounter difficulty in their future, they tend to feel not smart and prefer to retreat. Instead, messages such as “I like the way you approached that problem”, or “Good job to hang in there and find a different strategy that did work,” or “Sorry, that seemed to be too easy for you, let’s do something more challenging,” teaches kids that effort is something we can all benefit from to reach our full potential, and that they need to be working purposefully and taking on challenges in order to grow. 

IIT/NEET coaching served in an invigorating intellectual study pattern besides subjective studies gets packed with application models for mindful learning, knowledge retention and natural recall during exams. This conceptual clarity in Parents handling of child’s learning behaviour

makes them see the benefits behind parents’ aspiration for their future.

Best Wishes
D Ganesan,
Student- Parent Counsellor
CONCEPTREE