Dweck's Mindset Theory and Willingham's Learning Theory

How do we learn?

This topic sets two influential learning theories side by side. Carol Dweck argues that your mindset shapes how you learn, and Daniel Willingham argues that knowledge must come before skill. For top marks you must not only describe each, but evaluate their strengths and weaknesses. This module ends with you writing one.

Fixed and growth mindsets

Dweck says people tend towards one of two beliefs about ability. The belief itself is not the point; what matters is how differently the two make people behave when work gets hard:

Which pupils have a growth mindset?

Select the THREE things a pupil with a GROWTH mindset is most likely to say.

• I got that wrong, so I will try a different method next time
• I picked the harder question because I would learn more from it
• I am not good at this yet, but I will be if I keep practising
• I do not have a maths brain, so there is no point revising
• I chose the easy questions so I would not get anything wrong
• She only did well because she is naturally clever

The power of praise

Dweck found that how we praise children shapes their mindset. Praising the process (the effort and the strategy) builds a growth mindset; praising the person (being clever) builds a fixed one, because it tells the child that the result came from something they cannot change. Gunderson et al. (2013) recorded parents praising their toddlers at home, then followed the children up five years later. The toddlers who had received more process praise showed more of a growth mindset at the age of seven or eight.

Marking a book

A teacher is writing a comment in a pupil's book. Which comment is most likely to build a growth mindset?

• You changed your method after question 4 and it worked. Do that again.
• A natural mathematician! You make this look easy.
• Excellent, 87%. Keep getting marks like that.
• Do not worry about the low mark, this topic is hard for everyone.

Describe the pupil

Rosa avoids the extension questions in case she gets them wrong, and says she is just not a science person: that is a _____ mindset. Her teacher stops saying "you are so clever", which is _____ praise, and starts naming the strategies Rosa used, which is _____ praise. A year on Rosa is choosing the harder questions, which suggests a _____ mindset.

Evaluating Dweck

Describing the theory is worth few marks. Evaluating it means saying how far we should trust it, and why: - Strengths: it has clear, practical uses in education, and studies such as Gunderson et al. (2013) support it with real long-term data. - Weaknesses: splitting people into just two types may be an oversimplification, since the same person can be fixed about maths and growth about football, and some later large studies have found much smaller effects than Dweck's original work. An evaluation point is only finished when you say what it MEANS: "this suggests the theory may work better as a teaching tool than as a description of personality".

Spot the evaluation

Below is part of a student's answer. Tap the TWO sentences that EVALUATE the theory, rather than simply describing it.

• Dweck argues that people hold either a fixed or a growth mindset.
• Gunderson et al. (2013) found that toddlers given more process praise showed a growth mindset five years later.
• This is a strength because it is long-term evidence from real homes, which suggests the effect is not just a laboratory finding.
• A fixed mindset means believing that ability cannot be changed.
• However, sorting people into two types may be an oversimplification, so the theory may be more useful to teachers than accurate about individuals.

Willingham: knowledge first

Daniel Willingham argues that factual knowledge comes before skill. Three ideas do the work:

Straight to the analysis?

A history teacher wants her class to analyse why the Weimar Republic collapsed. The class has not yet studied the events of the 1920s. What would Willingham predict?

• They will struggle, because analysis needs facts to think with
• They will be fine, because analysis is a transferable skill
• They will succeed if they have a growth mindset
• Only the naturally able pupils will manage it

Which revision works?

Willingham says memory is the residue of thought. Two pupils revise for the same hour. Which one would he expect to remember more, and why?

• The one who closed the book and tested herself, because she had to think hard about the material
• The one who highlighted the textbook neatly, because she covered every page
• The one who copied her notes out again, because repetition is what matters
• Neither: only the total time spent revising matters

Help a struggling student

A student has just failed a hard test. Use the two theories to guide them.

• Which is a growth-mindset response to the failure?
• Following Willingham, what should the student build first?
• To build a growth mindset, the teacher should praise...

Write the evaluation

A school is about to spend its whole training budget on growth-mindset workshops for staff. Evaluate Dweck's mindset theory, and say how far the school should rely on it.

• Give one strength, and name the evidence that supports it
• Give one weakness, and explain WHY it is a weakness rather than just stating it
• Say what the weakness means for how far the school should trust the theory
• Use evaluative connectives: however, this suggests, on the other hand

Learning theory summary

Dweck contrasts a fixed mindset with a _____ mindset, in which _____ is the path to improvement, so teachers should praise it rather than cleverness. Willingham argued that factual _____ must come before higher-level _____.