Thoughts on Growth Mindset
Here are my thoughts and reflections on growth mindset resources I’ve explored.
Note: The thoughts and ideas expressed below are my own. The language has been polished with assistance from Claude.
Growth Mindset
My Understanding
Growth mindset is the belief that abilities and intelligence can be developed through effort, learning, and persistence. Rather than seeing talent as fixed, it views challenges as opportunities to grow, mistakes as valuable feedback, and effort as the path to mastery. The key idea is “yet” — you may not have mastered something yet, but with dedication, you can improve.
TED Talk: The Power of Believing That You Can Improve
- Speaker: Carol Dweck
- Link: TED Talk
My Thoughts:
The concept of “yet” is encouraging, reminding students they can still improve.
I grew up in China, where most students focus intensely on Gaokao, the national university entrance exam. In this high-stakes environment, students rarely think of “yet” – there’s only one chance at age 18, and the result can shape the rest of their lives. As a result, growth mindset is not as common in Chinese education, or at least not emphasized. While I understand why this exam matters so much, I believe the power of “yet” still applies outside such pressure-filled contexts. When pursuing hobbies or personal interests, we have space to embrace growth mindset and learn from mistakes without immediate consequences.
Article: Growth Mindset
- Link: Growth Mindset Article
My Thoughts:
I’m currently putting growth mindset into practice through learning Japanese. I can only speak a few simple sentences, but I’m not intimidated by how much there is to learn. Here’s how I apply the key principles:
Challenges are opportunities: When I travel to Japan, I try to communicate in Japanese rather than English. While it’s true that English isn’t Japan’s official language, the real reason is that I want to practice and test myself in real situations.
Effort matters: I practice every day through Duolingo, even if just for 5 minutes. This makes it easy to persist. I also take a 1-hour lesson with a native Japanese tutor each week.
Mistakes are learning tools: During my travels to Japan, there have been times when communication broke down and we had to fall back to English. It’s awkward, but those moments motivate me to keep improving.
Reflecting on this, I realize I naturally applied growth mindset to Japanese because I genuinely want to improve, while other pursuits are often driven by external pressures. With Japanese, there are no serious consequences to failure – it’s purely for personal growth.
However, I’ve only been applying this mindset to Japanese. This article inspired me to bring the same approach to my university studies. I’ve tended to choose WAM-booster classes (WAM is similar to GPA) regardless of how useful the content actually is. I used to place too much weight on grades when applying to graduate programs or jobs.
Now I’m gradually learning that experience and vision also matter, and may be even more important. Moving forward, I want to prioritize learning over grades and trust that growth will follow. Hopefully this realization will make me more willing to try courses I’m genuinely interested in without worrying so much about final grades.