Unfix Your Mindset
APRIL 14, 2015
Dave Paunesku, Executive Director of PERTS at Stanford University
Stanford University behavioral scientist Dave Paunesku has become an evangelist for promoting the understanding that you can grow intelligence like a muscle.
His work is focused on changing mindsets from a “fixed” belief that you are born smart or with talent to a “growth” belief that you can become smarter by working hard and learning from your mistakes. In the education world, Paunesku wants students, teachers and parents to focus on how children can improve rather than how they might be judged.
“I’m inspired and frustrated in the gap between what the research community and practitioners know about this,” said the Stanford University researcher and founder of PERTS, an effort to “fill the gap” between what scientists know and what some educators and parents believe.
“Our goal was to discover and promote practices that students can adapt and understand that intelligence is something you can grow,” he said.
Paunesku said too many Americans believe that intelligence is something you are born with. Not true. It’s critical in education to focus on effort and how to improve over time, rather than qualities interpreted as stable, like talent — something you either have or your don’t have.
To read the full recap of the event from Jennifer Swindell of Idaho Ed News, click here.
