Progress-focused

Recent research ( Woznicki et al., 2023 ) examines the formation of classroom microclimates within STEM courses. This study looked at how course goal structures and instructor mindsets contribute to these microclimates and their impact on student perceptions and experiences.

A recent study ( Boncquet et al., 2023 ) investigated the influence of mindset and motivation on the academic performance of first-year secondary school students (N=3415). This study focused on the quality of motivation according to self-determination theory and the mindset about intelligence following Carol Dweck's framework. The goal was to reveal the impact on learning outcomes such as engagement, learning strategies, and performance.

I have previously written about how irrational beliefs can be harmful  and also how they can be difficult to change due to some systemic and psychological obstacles . But beliefs can change and believing they cannot change can cause us to stop talking honestly about our beliefs, creating polarization and making progress more difficult. With that in mind, here I am sharing my top 6 harmful beliefs plus a brief explanation of why they are so dangerous in my eyes. Hopefully, these thoughts will provoke further reflection.

In a LinkedIn post by Jan Rotmans , professor of sustainability in Rotterdam and author of the book Omarm de chaos , I came across the concept of ' illusion of powerlessness '.

"I'm just stupid. Just a loser," said a 19 year old boy after he failed his final exam. A sad response. New research sheds some light into how such response may happen. 

  Mindset is about more than learning and performing. A new paper by Seo, et al. (2020) shows how the relationship between a fixed mindset and internalizing symptoms (such as depression) comes about.

One of the most influential papers by Carol Dweck and her colleagues is the Mueller & Dweck (1998) paper entitled Praise for Intelligence Can Undermine Children's Motivation and Performance . Over the years, this study has been criticized or disputed from various quarters, sometimes largely justified , sometimes largely unjustified. Knowing these criticisms, I argue that Mueller & Dweck (1998) is a classic publication that has lost little or nothing of importance. Here you can read a brief description of that research.

The Coronacrisis is challenging for almost everyone and therefore particularly a period that requires a growth mindset.

"I-am-thinking" can be more harmful than we may realize. How we think and talk about ourselves, and others, can have a great influence on our and others' emotions, behavior, results, and development. Research by Mueller & Dweck (1998), for example, has shown that different types of praise can have different types of effects. Praising traits and abilities can evoke a fixed mindset while praising effort can evoke a growth mindset.

Perhaps a growth mindset sounds attractive. But perhaps it also sounds to good to be true. Therefore, let's have a look at what a growth mindset is and what it is not. Briefly put, a growth mindset is the belief that you can change your abilities though the investment of effective effort. People do not simply either have a growth mindset or a fixed mindset. Mindset is not like a switch with just two modes: fixed or growth. Instead, there are many degrees possible. It is better to think of mindset as a continuum than as a switch. Furthermore, mindset can be subject to fluctuations. Influences from our environment continuously act on how we think about the malleability of our abilities. In addition to that, it is normal to have different mindsets with respect to different topics. We may believe that we are able to develop certain abilities but may never improve other abilities.

Nowadays we hear a lot about racism and how bad it is. Famous football players, in a UEFA campaign, are sending the message to say 'no' to racism. By using the word racism we refer to the underlying concept of race. Races, subspecies, exist throughout biology. We all understand, perhaps not precisely, but roughly what is meant when we talk about human races and racism. I say that we understand roughly what is meant, because we all associate the term race with concepts like the with race, the black race, the Jewish race, and the Asian race. I say that we do not know precisely what is meant, because we do not know exactly, for example, what makes someone a Jew, and whether Chinese people and Indian people belong to the same race. It also gets confusing when we think about the race of president Obama. Does he belong to the 'black' race? That is what is often said ("the first black president' of the United States) but what about the fact that his mother was '...