Dear Michael,
I am not exactly sure what your point is supposed to be
but I will leave to those who are more knowledgeable than
I in these areas as well as having more interest in pursuing
these issues than I. But I would to like to make a couple/few
points on what is said below. I will try not to go jenga on
you. ;-)
On Mon, 17 Aug 2015 13:46:50 -0700, Michael Britt wrote:
Powerful article about the whole "mindset" business:
I'm note sure I understand what a "powerful article" is, I mean,
I don't think you are saying that it has a lot of energy (it can
power a Tesla) but, perhaps, you mean that the article is
either "influential" (all readers will be have their opinion changed
as result of reading it; if so, what is the data on this) or contains
a solid factual basis as well as a logical argument that is
free from error (since we're talking about inductive reasoning
here, it is likely that some sort of errors have to be present,
that's just the nature of the beast). Given that it is (a) an opinion
piece (i.e., the article is more concerned with persuasion
and advocating a particular viewpoint instead of focusing
on facts) and (b) it does not provide research results that
clearly falsify the "mindset" hypothesis or theory or business,
all it is really trying to do is persuade the reader that the
"mindset" hypothesis/theory/business as articulated by
Dweck and others is wrong and bad for education.
It is clear that at least one reader was persuaded but it is not
clear that people who (a) have a pre-existing opinion
[e.g., pro-"mindset"] have changed their opinion as a
result of the article, and (b) would all researchers who are
knowledgeable about the situation being described agree
with Alfie Kohn (the educator who wrote the article and
appears to have a commercial stake in his position) or
would they agree with Dweck (who also seems to have
her own nonscientific agenda, if Kohn is to be believed)
or would they say these people represent different perspectives
that is at least partially supported by the research evidence.
I tend toward the latter but what do I know?
http://www.salon.com/2015/08/16/the_education_fad_thats_hurting_our_kids_what_you_need_to_know_about_growth_mindset_theory_and_the_harmful_lessons_it_imparts/
For Tipsters who are disinclined to read articles that are linked
to in a post (and you know who you are) I think the following summary
captures the key points of the overall argument:
(1) In education, one can focus on the capabilities and attitudes of
the student and how these are related to academic performance
and general success in life. Let's call this the "agent" perspective
because the student/agent's performance is mostly/solely determined
by the agent's characteristics. There is additional stuff on whether
an agent's intelligence is "fixed" (cannot be changed) or "flexible"
(I believe that the traditional term is "fluid") but IMHO this is mostly
BS but psychologists, especially working in intelligence, have got
to talk about something. From this perspective, a person like, say,
Angela Duckworth is a genius with drive and persistence ("grit")
which has been validated by her being awarded a MacArthur
"Genius Grant" Fellowship. In other words, Duckworth and the
people may be described as being *Machers" (a Yiddish word;
see the following for a definition and description of machers:
http://forward.com/articles/128641/what-makes-a-macher/ )
(2) The other perspective is an environmental one, that is, what are
the characteristics of the classrooms and schools as well as the
family and community situations. It is difficult to be enthusiastic
about
being a student if your school is in a building with limited resources,
overcrowded, and, perhaps, falling apart. It is difficult to be an
enthusiastic student when one's peers see the overall culture
as oppressive and playing along ("being a good student") means
that you agree to be oppressed as well as being oppressive
towards others. Kohn argue for this perspective which may seem
somewhat ironic given that he is such a macher. ;-)
(3) If one views the above two factors as "main effects", then it
is reasonable to talk about the interaction between them.
So we have agent status (geniuses vs dummies) and environment
(enriched vs impoverished) and ask are the main effects the
most important factors or is some combination of factors
(e.g., being a genius in an enriched environment), that is,
an interaction between the two, more important.
The above may be an oversimplification of the situation but I
think I capture the key points. I don't know enough about this
situation to say what position one should have but allow me to
argue by analogy: in general, long-term cigarette smoking
is bad for one's health, will help certain diseases to develop,
and reduce the length of one's life span. That being said,
there are some people who are in the 80s or 90s and have
smoked all their lives without any apparent harm. There are
non-smokers who develop lung cancer and other diseases that
smokers develop. Should the latter point dissuade us from
keeping people from starting to smoke cigarettes? I don't
think so. But the key point is that "There are more things in
heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy".
And if you have to ask who Horatio is.....
Even if you haven't read the research or the book, I've seen the
book prominently displayed in my local Barnes and Noble. The
other day I read a facebook post in which someone felt that they
needed to change their lives. She said, "I just have to change my
mindset!". As if it were that easy. I mean, who needs therapists?
I guess all of the cognitive behavior therapists are on vacation (it
is August afterall ;-). The following quote, I think, is
representative
of the cognitive approach as developed by Albert Ellis and Aaron
Beck:
|In simple terms, cognitive therapy is based on three principles.
|Firstly, teaching the anxiety sufferer that the view of the world
|that you "choose" is essential to your mood. The word "choose"
|is very important, because, if you believe in free will, our viewpoint
|is, to a large extent, a matter of choice.
|
|Secondly, there is the principle that mood and thought are connected.
|If you change your thoughts, you alter your mood, for better or worse.
|
|The third principle involves "working" on your thoughts and beliefs.
|Cognitive therapy is effective in improving mood and easing anxiety
||not by working directly on your mood, but on the thoughts that affect
|your mood. By improving your thinking, you can lift and calm your mood.
http://treatanxiety.co/cognitive-therapy/
Ellis was fond of quoting Epictetus, specifically:
"Men are disturbed not by events, but by the views which they take of
them."
http://www.rebtnetwork.org/whatis.html
For more on Ellis also see:
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2003/10/13/ageless-guiltless
If you do a search for the phrase "cognitive restructuring" in
scholar.google.com,
one of the procedures that was developed in cognitive therapy, one will
find about 50K hits/sources, so if you are unfamiliar with the concept,
go to town.
All that being said, Ellis relates how he overcame his anxiety about
asking a woman out for a date (as a young man he was shy and
anxious about approaching women romantically). by spending a
summer going to the Bronx Botanical Garden (a very nice place,
right next to the Bronx Zoo) and forcing himself to approach women
and talk to them. One version of this story claims that during that
time he approached about 130 women, 30 of whom just walked
away "at contact" (feminists might agree with this course of
action, afterall, who was Ellis to enter these womyn's personal space).
He managed to talk somewhat to the remaining 100 women
and even managed to arrange a date with one of them but wound up
not showing up. Some guys might look upon such an experience as
getting continuously hit with a bag of hammers but Ellis had a different
"view". For more on this story, see:
http://albertellis.org/bronx-tale/
In summary, life is hard, m'kay? And then you die. Try to make
yourself
happy some of the time. And/or educated.
-Mike Palij
New York University
[email protected]
---
You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected].
To unsubscribe click here:
http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=46395
or send a blank email to
leave-46395-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
