Thoughts on the 'Growth Mindset'

Carol Dweck TED Talk, "The Power of Believing That You Can Improve" and "Make Challenge the New Comfort Zone"

There is a lot of validity in this TED talk from Carol Dweck in the concepts that pushing students to be successful and proficient in the future is considerably better compared to the push of being successful and proficient in the now. This is because of the way understanding of ones own performance can be immensely impacted based on how we view failure and success in a 'now' time frame. If we took a test recently and fail it with, say a 35%, we usually feel inadequate, uneducated and often times unable to do well in that specific topic or subject indefinitely. That is a very 'now'/'set' mind set that addresses our failures and successes in a short term rewards system (our grade in a course). That is what is called a 'reactive system'. This is compared to a 'not yet' mind set where the failures and successes we have now, will lead into the future successes we have like a domino effect, cascading information, motivation, and inspiration to do better and to push harder in the topics that are sub-standard (this can also be referred to the instant vs delayed reward system, or even chess strategies). That is what is called a 'proactive system'.

Chess Strategy: Thinking Ahead

Both of these systems have validity in different situations. But as for education, the proactive system is a more effective teaching and study strategy for students than the reactive system. With the proactive system, again, students are pushed to learn form their mistakes, engage in critical thinking and trial and error learning aspects that will ultimately lead to break thoughts and innovation in their [critical] thinking and education. There is no benefit that comes from viewing errors and failures as permanent deterrents; viewing them as future successes, however, is drastically beneficial.
Challenging ourselves with difficult problems and critical thinking is an excellent way to push ourselves into doing better in all aspects of education.