Salman Khan is an American entrepreneur who founded the free online educational site Khan Academy. In his website he posts thousands of videos from basic arithmetics to Calculus, to biology, astronomy, physics, history and etc, In his article “The Learning Myth: Why I’ll Never Tell My Son He‘s Smart,” Salman Khan wrote about how people learn and grow when they “succeed at things” they find difficulty with and not the things they are already good at. This is because our brain is like a muscle and it grows when we make mistakes while doing difficult tasks, Some people may not have this ability to learn as they have a fixed mindset. However, this can be changed as our brain has the ability of Neuroplasticity. There is a variety of things that play a role in an individual‘s success in life, Such as motivation, curiosity, practice, determination, ability to learn, Etc.
It is important to have some sort of motivation in life to become successful. That is why every single person has one of the two mindsets to help them make decisions. Mindsets are beliefs about yourself, your characteristics, and how you use your basic abilityr Based on new psychological studies by Dr. Carol Dweck there are two categories of mindsets, fixed and growth mindsets, A fixed mindset is a belief that abilities and intelligence are set by genes and cannot be altered. According to the book Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol Dweck “In a fixed mindset, people believe their basic qualities, like their intelligence or talent, are simply fixed traits. They spend their time documenting their intelligence or talent instead of developing them” This type of mindset makes learning new things difficult, as it prevents you from failure of learning new things.
On the other hand, a growth mindset is a belief that abilities and intelligence can grow through effort, failure and perseverance. As stated in the book Mindset: The New Psychology of m by Carol Dweck “In a growth mindset, people believe that their most basic abilities can be developed through dedication and hard work—brains and talent are just the starting point.” This type of mindset is the most effective in helping students to develop new skills because even with the fear of failure the students efforts and struggles helps them develop the skills to get better, For instance, a student with a growth mindset, who struggles in math class might take on the challenge of taking Calculus as they know that their efforts and failure might increase their learning capability, While on the other hand, a person with a fixed mindset might not even take on the challenge of taking Calculus because they fear of failing the class. As a result, people who have a growth mindset are more likely to maximize their potential.
Even though, the mindset we have helps us get through difficult situations, we have the ability to change our mindset, This is because mindset is something we set for ourselves In the article “The Learning Myth: Why I’ll Never Tell My Son He’s Smart” Dri Carol Dweck stated ” Process praise acknowledges the effort; talent praise reinforces the notion that one only succeeds (or doesn’t) based on a fixed trait,” This means that commenting a person when they “succeed” at difficult things can help change a person’s mindset. Not only that, but also we ourselves can change our mindset from fixed to growth mindset by simply trying even with the fear of failing. The ability in humans that allows us to change our mindset is the process called Neuroplasticity. Neuroplasticity is the brain’s capacity to change and adapt.
It refers to the physiological changes in the brain that happen as the result of our interactions with our environment, From the time the brain begins to develop the connections among the cells in our brains reorganize in response to our changing needs, This process allows us to learn from and adapt to different experiences. With this said it can be stated that when we learn new things our brain adapts and modifies in order to store information. As according to Durbach “There appear to be at least two types of modifications that occur in the brain with learning. A change in the internal structure of the neurons, the most notable being in the area of synapses. An increase in the number of synapses between neurons Initially, newly learned data are stored”.
This type of change can be seen in a brain of a newborn baby. This is because as the babies grows they first begin to crawl and try pull themselves up, they then began to walk with a walker, then walk with more balance, and eventually be able to run. Therefore, when we try difficult things like learning a new language our brain changes in order to adapt and eventually learnt As has been noted, people have different mindsets one which prevents them from trying out new things in fear of failure, and another which encourages us to keep trying till we get better. After completing this research I have learned that even though our brains are fully developed it can still modify and grow just like how our muscles grow when we lift heavier objects, I will use this research to enhance my learning by not giving up in things 1 find most difficulty with because giving up doesn’t help the brain to grow but only prevents our brain from reaching its full potential.
