Growth Mindset and PERMA: Brain and Learning Essay

Part A:

A growth mindset is the ability to look for strengths even after the biggest failures. For example, a subject perhaps maths at school is known to be a challenging aspect for students to cope up with. Growth mindset is the capacity of not giving up even after one is criticising and/or facing tough challenges yet continually learning from that. However, there is no such thing as one growth mindset, kids and adults can have a different growth mindset (Dweck, 2013). It is the mindset where one believes not everyone can be a scientist but at least could improve their intelligence. These are the people who get engaged in learning new things. The three concepts that will be discussed in this essay are Perma (positive education), character strength and mindsets & resilience. In addition, according to Seligman, students developing Perma in their eternal life will strengthen the idea of a growth mindset. Perma allows oneself to gradually develop themselves which enable them to think beyond. Moreover, it can help cultivate and sustain these five key building terms.

People who have a growth mindset tend to have more perseverance and willpower confirming the fact they are referred to as 'growth mindset'. In relation to Perma, these students seek out the importance and the significance meaning behind that certain task. In compliance with someone who has a fixed mindset about certainty. Froh (2010) and Hunter & Csikszentmihalyi (2003) remarks that engaged students are not just enhancing their mind, but this also associates with their wellbeing and accomplishment of meaningful goals. They become more curious and enthusiastic about useful pursuance’s. This leads to positive achievement within the child which is interpreted as the growth of personal potential by aiming for and achieving meaningful outcomes and requires the ability to work towards valued purposes. The motivation to continue notwithstanding difficulties and difficulties, and the achievement of provision and success in important aspects of life. As a teacher, I would make students perform a speech in front of the class which will overcome their fear and build courage. This will establish and develop their strength furthermore adapt as human beings. Positive Education is the idea of emphasising on the promotion of positive mental health in school and how it is so important. It is represented as classical education centred on academic skill development that fosters good mental health. In the article of Kern (2013), 'she has mentioned how by directly measuring subjective perspectives of well-being across multiple domains, there is potential to more successfully promote student well-being'. This is adequately examined by the most helpful practice teaching to encourage students to flourish. This will impact on student’s positive emotion and feeling of happiness and satisfaction (Norrish, Williams, O'Connor & Robinson, 2013).

The power of a growth mindset in relation to character strength, a child from a very young age is in the stage of curiosity and the purpose of his/her life. As this child grows, he then forms a perspective about the life he sets for himself. As a fixed mindset, he will encounter obstacles where he would question about his stability of overcoming that obstacle but as a growth mindset, he will not only question but gives it a try until he is happy with the outcome achieved. According to Oppenheimer, Fialkov, Ecker &Portnoy (2014), in developing strategies to resist the difference in achievement, teachers should closely review past and present ways of reconciling with youths in the school setting. Strength-based strategies developed upon the positive impact of personal resources, advising that those in need are the origin of the solution, rather than the cause of the problem. Strength-based practices build upon old strengths while also developing new ones, broadening the student’s capacity for positive emotional states and strengths such as creativity, hope, gratitude, and spirituality. In turn, strength-based approaches can cultivate adolescents who are healthy, happy, and capable of leading meaningful and fulfilling lives (Lerner & Benson, 2003, Park & Peterson, 2008). In relation to developing youth's character strengths, schools might be able to form happier, the more engaged students will result in possible increases in academic achievement and changes in behaviours. For example, the Penn Resiliency Program was produced and performed to improve students’ ability to maintain regular stressors and difficulties by promoting confidence, flexibility, assertiveness, creativity, decision-making, and other coping and problem-solving abilities to students (Seligman et al, 2009). The common depression among youth, the short rise in life satisfaction, and the collaboration between learning and positive emotion all demonstrate that the ability for happiness should be developed in school. There is strong evidence from well-established studies that skills that increase resilience, positive emotion, engagement and meaning can be prepared to youth (Ernst, R, Gillham, J, Reivich, K and Linkins M, 2009). To sum up, a link between the foundation of character strengths and elevated well-being were observed from the studies shown above, providing further evidence for the utilisation of positive psychology teaching applications with diverse, youth populations.

A fixed mindset can often lead to fixed intelligence that can be interpreted as a lack of knowledge. This way of reasoning compromises resilience in an educational setting even amongst high-performing students. Thus, making it clear this can reduce resilience (Yeager and Dweck, 2012). A person's mindsets can be developed and that doing so can promote resilience. It is essential to see that the implicit theory of intelligence and personality are discrete, it is likely for a child to conclude that intelligence can be improved but that personality cannot. Blackwell et al (2007) affirm that these are the variables that define why students with higher incremental theory were more resilient and scored more powerful grades when they faced a challenging school change. However, a recent study claimed to reduce HSC pressure in support of a growth mindset. 'Efforts could be made to reduce the ATAR's reliance on the final years of schooling and to allow appropriate flexibility around deeper learning areas,' the Education Department recommended. It is recommended to consider ways the curriculum could be changed to more suitably prepare learners for a rapidly evolving society and put importance on the achievement of students' non-cognitive skills, such as a growth mindset. If students can be led towards understanding intellectual strength as something that can be acquired over time with effort and strong strategies, then they are more resilient when they are confronted with the uncompromising learning possibilities offered to them. Numerous institutional improvement efforts have focused on improving precision in the curriculum, although if they do not also discuss resilience in the face of these more challenging examples, then making such improvements may be less efficient than expected. Primary responsibility for parents and teachers is to prepare learners to react resiliently when certain challenges occur. A study from Yeager and Dweck's (2012) article have discovered that what students require the most is not self-esteem encouraging or quality labelling, preferably, they require mindsets that outline challenges as something that the student can take on and master over time with effort, new approaches, learning, help from others, and patience.

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In conclusion, it can be seen intelligence and skills can be developed through effort. It is important to consider why a growth mindset is important, that is because it can improve the probability of success. However, an individual would have to operate both a growth and a fixed mindset in a certain stage of life. Quite a large number of researches suggest that people with the growth mindset are more successful than the fixed mindset. People with the growth mindset are much more resilient which allows them to overcome challenges. A growth mindset can be developed by understanding that it exists and allowing the brain to change. Numerous institutional improvement efforts have focused on improving precision in the curriculum, although if they do not also discuss resilience in the face of these more challenging examples, then making such improvements may be less efficient than expected.

Part B:

For example, in the classroom or at home having students solve a jigsaw puzzle does intensify their mind, this engages them to seek new challenges and continuously work on them till they are proven accurate. Such exercises extend student's intellectual and emotional boundaries and resistance, as well as maintain concentration and effort. The next time seeing a child entirely engaged with their assemblage, think twice before interrupting them. This level of engagement is salubrious and productive to sustaining happiness.

An activity to do it with the class is asking them to raise their right hand as high as they can, then asking them to take their same hand but this time taking it a little bit higher than the one they did before. It would be surprising to see how all of them had their hands raised even higher. As a teacher, I would want to know as to why they had not raised their arms as highest as it could go in the first time asked. This activity looks at the perspective of one character and its strength and changing mindset and overcoming obstacles in the first time instead of delaying.

An exercise to do particularly with the students would be creating the Resilience Kit which is a collection of worksheets, posters, activities, and colouring pages designed to help children develop grit and perseverance. They will also discover that resilience can be learned like any other skill. It just takes practice and patience. This collection of printable helps children develops their inner grittiness, putting them on the path to happiness and success. Other information will include why failure is important in a learning environment- it is to make you strong and resilient.

Reference

1. Dweck, C. (2013, October 20). 'Mindset - the new psychology of success' at Happiness & Its Causes [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=82&v=QGvR_0mNpWM
2. Kern, M, Waters, L, Adler, A & White, M. (2015). A multidimensional approach to measuring well-being in students: Application of the PERMA framework, The Journal of Positive Psychology, 10(3), 262-271, DOI: 10.1080/17439760.2014.936962
3. Koziol, M. (2018). Reduce HSC pressure in favour of a 'growth mindset', NSW tells David Gonski. The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved from https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/reduce-hsc-pressure-in-favour-of-a-growth-mindset-nsw-tells-david-gonski-20180215-p4z0fo.html
4. Norrish, J. M., Williams, P., O’Connor, M., & Robinson, J. (2013). An applied framework for positive education. International Journal of Wellbeing, 3(2), 147-161, Doi:10.5502/ijw.v3i2.2
5. Oppenheimer, M, Fialkov, C, Ecker, B and Portnoy, S. (2014). Teaching To Strengths: Character Education for Urban Middle School Students, Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology, 10(2), 91-105. Retrieved from https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy.uws.edu.au/docview/1699516382?accountid=36155&rfr_id=info%3Axri%2Fsid%3Aprimo
6. Seligman, M, Ernst, R, Gillham, J, Reivich, K & Linkins, M. (2009). Positive education: Positive psychology and classroom interventions, Oxford Review of Education, 35(3), 293-311, DOI: 10.1080/03054980902934563
7. Yeager, D & Dweck, C. (2012). Mindsets That Promote Resilience: When Students Believe That Personal Characteristics Can Be Developed, Educational Psychologist, 302-314, DOI: 10.1080/00461520.2012.722805
8. Koziol, M. (2018). Reduce HSC pressure in favour of a 'growth mindset', NSW tells David Gonski. The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved from https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/reduce-hsc-pressure-in-favour-of-a-growth-mindset-nsw-tells-david-gonski-20180215-p4z0fo.html