Mindset: fixed or growth? Brainology: Transforming Student Motivation to Learn by Carol S. Dweck will change the way you think about learning. Dweck's article "Brainology" emphasizes the mindset of children and how they can become hardworking adults when they grow up or become lazy and feel the need to avoid working harder when faced with an obstacle. Excessive parental encouragement of excellent achievement can promote fear of failure in children as they grow up. Dweck addresses both the positive and negative aspects of student motivation and provides the right advice for understanding the effects of learning among children. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay A growth mindset is when students believe they can become much smarter and reach their full academic potential by learning more. Through numerous studies Dweck has been able to determine exactly how this mindset works. Students whose parents have told them to put more effort into their studies develop a growth mindset at an early age. These students believe that through hard work and adequate time spent on homework they will be able to do their best and achieve higher grades in school. Dweck has studied growth mindset students for two years. During this time, he saw that from 7th to 9th grade, as lessons became more difficult, growth-minded students saw each challenging problem as a way to improve in order to get good grades in school. Kids who are given the right amount of encouragement and told to try their hardest to excel at whatever they face at a young age will carry this attitude into high school, college, and adulthood. Fixed mindsets are the exact opposite of growth mindsets. Children with a fixed mindset believe that they will only be able to achieve what they are encouraged to achieve. They don't feel the need to work hard because they are afraid of failing. As Dweck later mentioned in his article, he also studied students with fixed mindsets for two years. Through her research and interviews, Dweck was able to determine that students with fixed mindsets were beginning to feel overwhelmed and lack interest in their subjects. Some students said that when they encounter a challenging problem in math class, they often hesitate to raise their hand and ask for help. These students sometimes feel stupid and quickly lose interest and focus on their class work. Some students said they would rather cheat than try to get help with a difficult assignment or test. Most parents tend to encourage or reward their children in their work with the hope of boosting their self-esteem and helping them build confidence. In this way, parents managed to increase their children's level of self-esteem. However, they failed to encourage them to continue studying and working hard. This resulted in children failing to work harder when faced with challenges. Parents should point out that they would become smarter and even more talented if they worked harder on topics that bother them. While many parents may have the right ideas regarding their children's academic development, it is important that they raise their children with an equivalent growth and fixed mindset. This way parents can praise children and also teach them.