Understanding Personal Growth

Clearly this work is important. But here's the thing: Dweck's growth mindset really isn't a mindset. It's a set of beliefs, specifically about intelligence. And as it turns out, some of the growth mindset beliefs are far too simplistic.*

The reality is that intelligence (as traditionally defined in an academic context) doesn't really budge all that much in our predominant educational paradigm. The research shows that the school a person attends, and the quality of education they receive in fact plays little role in the growth of general intellectual functioning, whereas schooling does impact the growth of standardized test scores (see here). So yes, we can teach to the tests. And having an academic growth mindset may cause growth in standardized testing, but it doesn't actually show growth in general intellectual functioning.