[Hiroshima叡智 Academy Strategy] 'Growth Mindset' to Cultivate When Plans Fall Apart in Summer (Carol Dweck)

Introduction

Hello! This is iBASE, a specialist in public integrated junior and senior high school entrance exam preparation.

In our previous article, we discussed the choice for parents to 'not create' summer study plans. It is a proposal for how to spend the summer: entrusting the planning to your child, providing scaffolding through questioning, and gradually letting go of the reins.

At the end of that article, iBASE wrote: 'The plans your child makes will inevitably fall apart at some point.'

Perhaps some families are right in the middle of that 'collapse' right now. A day when they couldn't stop playing games. A week lost to travel or family gatherings. A few days where they sit at their desk but somehow get nothing done—.

When a plan falls apart, what we adults say matters. In fact, the accumulation of these words shapes the 'meaning of failure' within your child. As we touched upon briefly in the previous article, psychologist Carol Dweck's 'Growth Mindset'. This time, we will use this theory in its entirety to delve deeper and unravel how families can turn collapsed plans into an 'asset'!

1. People view their own abilities through two 'lenses'

Stanford University psychologist Carol Dweck discovered through decades of research that there are two types of beliefs people hold about their own abilities.

One is a 'fixed mindset.' This is the belief that intelligence and talent are determined at birth and do not change significantly even with effort. The other is a 'growth mindset.' This is the belief that abilities can be cultivated through effort, ingenuity, and the help of others.

iBASE views these two as different 'lenses' through which to see the world. Even the same event of a 'plan falling apart,' when viewed through a fixed lens, looks like a judgment of ability—'I am a failure who cannot keep to a plan.' When viewed through a growth lens, it looks like information for improvement—'There was something unreasonable about the current plan.' Even though the event is the same, the actions that follow are diametrically opposed. A child wearing a fixed lens will hide failures and avoid challenges. A child wearing a growth lens will look for the cause and try to change their approach.

2. Is 'You're smart' a no-go?

So, how does a child come to wear one lens or the other? There is a famous experiment by Dweck and her colleagues that is unavoidable when considering this.

Elementary school children were asked to solve puzzle tasks, and only the way they were praised afterward was changed. One group was praised for their ability, told 'You're smart,' while the other was praised for their process, told 'You worked really hard.'

The results were surprising. Many of the children praised for their ability chose easy problems for the next task and avoided difficult ones. Because they didn't want to lose the evaluation of being 'smart,' they could no longer take the risk of failure. Furthermore, after stumbling on difficult questions, their actual performance dropped, and some children even went so far as to report false scores. On the other hand, the children praised for their process chose more difficult tasks on their own and continued to work persistently even when they stumbled.

Even praise can be an act of distributing a lens. Try applying this insight to the situation of summer planning.

If you keep praising only the results during weeks when things went according to plan, saying 'Good job, you followed it properly,' then for your child, the plan becomes 'something for which I am evaluated based on whether I followed it or not.' Then, what happens in a week when it falls apart? They hide it. They cheat. Or, they only make low-level plans that will never fall apart—. Plans without challenges are easy to keep, but growth does not come from them. I imagine there are some of you who can relate to this.

3. Lenses are transmitted not through 'words' but through 'reactions to failure'

There is an even more important finding. According to recent research by Dweck and others, what predicts a child's mindset is not which mindset the parents themselves hold. What has a stronger influence is how parents react to their child's "failure." In other words, whether they treat failure as "harmful and shameful" or as "material for learning."

In short, no matter how much you tell them in words that "abilities can grow," if you frown, sigh, and react by saying "I told you so" on a day when their plans fall apart, the message your child receives is that "failure is bad and something to be hidden." Lenses are transmitted not through words, but through reactions.

That is precisely why a day when plans fall apart is not a crisis, but an opportunity. The three questions introduced in the previous article:
"Where did things not go according to plan this week?"
"What do you think was the cause?"
"How will you change next week's plan?"
can be called lens-changing words that switch a collapsed plan from "material for judgment" to "material for correction."

To take it a step further, I also recommend talking about your own failures as a parent at the dinner table. "I made this mistake at work today. When I thought about the cause..." Nothing conveys the lens of growth more eloquently than an adult looking back on their own failures with interest. Having failure be a topic that can be safely discussed within the home is also deeply connected to the "psychological safety of the home" that iBASE mentioned in a previous article.

4. However, mindset is not "magic"

Reading this far, you might have high expectations that "if I change how I speak, my child will change." However, iBASE does not want to tell you only the convenient parts.

In recent years, studies that have verified the effects of classes and programs that teach a growth mindset on a large scale have reported one after another that the effects on academic performance are not as great as initially expected (or are limited at best). The very idea of looking for "magic words" is a misuse of this theory.

However, iBASE believes that this is precisely why the essence stands out. Mindset is not a "technique" that can be injected with a single comment, but a "culture" that slowly takes root in the home through the accumulation of reactions every time a failure occurs. Every time a plan falls apart, do not blame, but look for the cause together and rebuild it with interest. Being able to repeat that process dozens of times this summer might be the true value of the long 40-day summer vacation.

And that culture will live on beyond the entrance exam. Next April, in the island's dormitory, there will be no adults to manage their plans, nor family to immediately comfort them when they fail. What will support your child there is the lens you cultivated at home this summer: "Failure is not a judgment of my worth, but material for the next step."

Conclusion

The day a plan falls apart is not the day your child's lack of willpower is exposed. It is the day the gap between the current plan and reality—in other words, where there is room for growth—became accurately visible.

"You're smart" is not as good as "I like how you rebuilt that." From results to process, from judgment to material. Just by having your family's words shift slightly in that direction during the summer, the meaning of failure within your child will change. It will become the power to rebuild hypotheses in the November aptitude test, the power to deal with difficulties during their six years on the island, and no matter what path they choose, it will become a lifelong foundation. iBASE believes that this summer's interactions will live on far beyond the results of the exam.

Collapse, then rebuild.
Please enjoy that repetitive summer together with your child.

iBASE will be offering various courses for Hiroshima Global Academy preparation again this summer. Please make use of them for your preparation this summer!