Here Shenk addresses the blank slate idea and completely dismisses it. He argues how identical twins start off similar and develope similarly becasue of the environment that they initially start in, in the womb, and how they are raised in the same environment as children. He makes the argument however, that there is no possible way that the twins can be one hundred percent the same. He has seen that there are many differences that twins have and that develope later in life due to the fact that they do not have identical experiences and identical means of dealing with those experiences.
How can growth mindset and fixed mindset be seen as a possible difference for twins? Is it possible for these traits to be pre-determined or is the groth mindset and fixed mindset learned as well? In other words, does the environment that a child grows up in able to determine whether or not they will have a fixed or growth mindset? Also, what sort of environment would create each?
Hannah Perl (hannahperl94@gmail.com)
Renowned author David Shenk states how identical twins start off with similar genetics and develop similarly because of the environment that they are born and raised in. Yet he also critiques how the identical twins cannot be completely equal as they have different experiences throughout their lives. Another differentiating factor in identical twins can be their mindset, whether fixed or growth. A growth mindset is one in which people "believe that intelligence can be developed, that the brain is like a muscle that can be trained; this leads to the desire to improve" (http://michaelgr.com/2007/04/15/fixed-mindset-vs-growth-mindset-which-one-are-you/). Having a growth mindset allows people to bounce back from failure, as these kinds of people see that "one must fail first in order to succeed" (Michael Jordan). A fixed mindset is one that includes people who "think that 'they are the way they are'"(http://michaelgr.com/2007/04/15/fixed-mindset-vs-growth-mindset-which-one-are-you/). If one of the twins would have a growth mindset, they would have more motivation and ambition to bounce back from failure, causing them to work harder and come back 10 times stronger. If the other twin has a fixed mindset, after failure they would not have the same motivation that their brother has and so would not come back stronger and would go on to another task.
ReplyDeleteThese traits are ones that can be learned. A growth mindset can be taught, but the students learning this mindset must be open to failure and must be motivated to bounce back. They must realize that “most successful people had failures along the way” (http://mindsetonline.com/changeyourmindset/firststeps/index.html). The ability to succeed, after all, is "a process" and is reached through hours upon hours of determination and hard work; factors that people of a growth mindset contain (7).
The environment that one grows up in greatly influences the type of mindset one has. Having a growth or a fixed mindset is not an innate behavior, rather it is a created through learning, "the modification of behavior based on specific experiences" (Campbell 1125). An environment that encourages and fosters learning and education of individuals as well as one that believes it can always be improved would be the best one to create people of growth mindsets. On the other hand, an environment that would foster growth of fixed minded people would be one that believes what they have is good enough.
A growth mindset is the one that successful people have. In midst of failure, it is important "to never retreat, to never surrender", because this leads to success (King Leonidas).
-Arjun Ahuja (aahuja12@gmail.com)