JOURNAL ENTRY
• Prompt 1: Think of something about yourself you've been wanting to change. What is it? Has a fixed mindset prevented you from doing this? Think about it from a growth mindset and explain how you would make this change.
• Prompt 2: What did your parents do that fostered a fixed or growth mindset in you? Do you praise your children's intelligence, creativity, or other characteristics to make them feel talented or smart? Think of the last time you did this. How could you have given growth oriented praise instead?
• Prompt 3: Do you use feeling bad as a reason for doing nothing? When you feel disappointed, frustrated, cheated, or depressed, do you use this as a reason to stop trying? What steps could you take to help growth mindset thinking overcome your fixed mindset? What could you say to yourself to change your internal talk so that it supports a growth mindset?
• Prompt 4: Think of a time you faced an important opportunity or challenge with a fixed mindset. What were your thoughts and worries about your abilities, other people's judgments, and the possibility of failure? Describe them vividly.
EXAMPLE
Model Journal Entry
This is Sally's journal entry. Sally doesn't approach her journal assignment as a way to please her instructor nor does she simply complete it and cross it off her checklist of assignments. Instead, she takes some time to reflect how these concepts relate back to her past schooling and learning situations and carefully considers her own mindset. She uses this as an opportunity to take further ownership over her experiences by carefully analyzing what her mindset has been and why adopting a different mindset could help her grow in her abilities. Since the assignment is a reflective journal, Sally expresses her honest thoughts in her entry. She treats the process as though she's writing in a diary, therefore her writing is casual and conversational. Also, she isn't as concerned about her grammar as she would be if this she was completing a Waypoint assignment.
This totally helps me feel better. When I am in school or trying to learn something at work I sometimes get to the point where I think, "I've gotten too many thing wrong. Maybe I'm not smart or I can't learn this." I have totally suffered from the fixed mindset, and I'm wondering what to expect from my classes if I apply myself and focus on the process instead of the result, like Dweck talks about. In school I usually try to get through my work to get it done and get my A to show my teacher that I'm smart. If I don't do good in a class, I usually try to transfer to a teacher who likes me. I don't like to fail because then I feel like something is wrong with me. I didn't really try much in my last school, so I am kind of scared. I thought it was because I had crummy teachers or because I couldn't learn the information or I just wasn't smart. Now I am starting to realize that I probably had a fixed mindset and that when I wasn't doing well I said it was because I wasn't good at something or that my teacher didn't like me and that I had a good excuse to just give up. I see now that I need to remind myself that I'm in charge of what I do to learn and understand everything. I need to have a different mindset so that I can open myself up to learning. I have to work on seeing failure as something that is good that will help me get better.