Why is it that some students handle pressure flawlessly while others breakdown? After a failure, why some students come back with infectious energy and some just lose hope?
The answer to all these questions is the respective psychology of a child. The mindset that the child holds has the most powerful impact on how the child perceives things and shapes her thought process.
GROWTH MINDSET OR FIXED MINDSET?
With fixed mindset, a child assumes that her capabilities are preset and can’t be developed over a period of time. At every step, she focuses on proving her acumen rather than improving it and therefore, failure for her means unintelligence and she starts demeaning herself.
The fixed mindset does more harm than one can imagine. A child who believes that her
intelligence is static, focuses on meeting the intelligence standards set by the stereotypical society. Spending time and energy in proving over and over to the world, how bright she is, when she can utilize that time in improving her intelligence, is a dangerous process.
Whereas, with growth mindset, a child understands that a person’s potential is not fixed, and works hard to achieve the best of her abilities! For her, failure only means lack of efforts and thus, even after a failure, she comes back with power-packed enthusiasm to do better. Upcoming
success or failure is never an apprehension, the only concern is to learn!
Growth mindset results in development of IQ over the course of time and strengthens the existing capabilities of a person, to enable her to conquer greater heights.
As Funsuk Wangdu said, “Beta Kaabil ban, kaamiyaabi jhak maarke tere peeche aayegi”
Child with fixed mindset runs for success whereas, the one with growth mindset, always focuses on learning and eventually everything falls in place for her.
HOW TO DEVELOP GROWTH MINDSET?
At a very tender age, a child starts learning things from people and experiences around her. To
develop growth mindset in a child, the child should be encouraged to learn to acknowledge and embrace her imperfections and value the process over the end result. Using constructive criticism, as a feedback mechanism, can also be one of the ways. Infact, this process of developing growth mindset can be accelerated with the right style of providing education to a child.
In the age group of 5-12, apart from playing, studying is one of the most time consuming activity of any child. So, if the right features are incorporated in her style of learning, the effect will be reflected on her lifestyle as well.
The traditional way of teaching and indulging a child in rat race, should be avoided. This approach
pushes a child to compare herself with other children and ultimately shifts her focus to just proving her abilities to the world. On the other hand, every child learns at her own pace and hence every child should be given that space where the child solely focuses on improving her know-how and her capabilities, and not indulge in a blind rate race with her peers.
An after school program provides exactly that space to a child, wherein she can ask her doubts without any hesitation and without feeling little about herself in any sense. CG WhizKids, a similar after school program, encourages a child to work at her own pace and provides an environment to foster growth mindset in a child. When a child studies in such after school programs, she starts to perceive things differently and learns the right way of learning!
