Growth Mindset is a concept that was familiar to me due to my previous experience in psychology classes. While I had not heard of Professor Dweck until my Mythology and Folklore class, my understanding of the concept was essentially the same as hers. My experience with the Growth Mindset has certainly evolved over years. Growing up, I was accustomed to putting the worth or value of things I did into awards and achievements. I think part of that mindset was due to being naive and not really understanding what was truly the best way of approaching my life. Grades and achievements are still important to me, I won't deny that, but my use of the Growth Mindset has definitely "grown" over the years, including my time in OU. My failures and setbacks are now more of an opportunity to learn and grow rather than as a validation of any type of worth. A specific example of the Growth Mindset while in college was the second semester of sophomore year when I took biochemistry. The class had notable reputation of not being an easy class around campus and it definitely lived up to its reputation. I remember having to study so much, and still not performing as well as I would have liked in some parts of the class. Yet, I saw this experience as an important building block towards my future as I knew I would need to know how to handle tough classes in medical school. Nevertheless, I was able to the leave the class with the grade I had aspired for and came out for the better. The experience was long and hard, but I am grateful for all of the lessons I took from the class. I just wished I had the insight of the 13 year old in Professor Dweck's TED talk who was able to come to this Growth Mindset so quickly. It is a concept many should consider looking into.
In addition to growth mindset, I also read Dr. Gibb's blog post about ungrading. I remember when someone first posed this to me as a freshman at OU, I thought it was an unreasonable concept. To me, it did not make sense how someone could be evaluated or progress with distinct criteria and evaluation. However, after taking Mythology and Folklore last year, I have really come to see the worth in ungrading. The lack of consistent grading allowed me to purse literature that I enjoyed while learning on my own time. With college students having so many other expectations, it is a huge load off shoulders to be able to learn on our pace. I do not believe this led to a drop in quality but actually increased my enjoyment with the class. Although the transition to an ungrading system for all courses would be difficult, I definitely think some aspects of ungrading can be incorporated in other classes to reduce stress and increase learning.
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