Dweck's Mindsets and Willingham's Learning Theory

What you do, not what you are

This part of the Development topic asks you to know two learning theories, one from Carol Dweck and one from Daniel Willingham, and to say what is wrong with them. It is easy to learn them as two separate lists. They are far easier to hold, and far easier to evaluate, once you see that they make the same move. Both theories take something people treat as a fixed label and replace it with a changeable action. Dweck is about belief in ability. Some learners believe ability is fixed, something you are born with and cannot change. Dweck calls this a fixed mindset. Others believe ability grows with effort and practice. Dweck calls this a growth mindset. Her key finding is about praise: praising a learner for effort tends to build a growth mindset, while praising them for being clever tends to build a fixed mindset and a fear of failure. So the fixed label is being clever, and the changeable action is effort. Willingham is about how learning sticks. A popular idea says each learner has a fixed learning style, such as being a visual or an auditory learner, and that teaching should be matched to it. Willingham argues this is a myth with no good evidence behind it. What actually makes learning stick is thinking about the meaning of something, because we remember what we think about the meaning of. So the fixed label is a learning style, and the changeable action is thinking about meaning. And that shared move is exactly why the same criticism fits both. Both lean heavily on nurture, on what teaching and effort can change, and both can be challenged for downplaying nature, the innate differences people are born with. That debate is the nature and nurture debate. Carry one question through everything that follows: does this treat the learner as a fixed type, or as someone whose actions change the outcome?

Words for the two theories

Five terms, each defined by what it is. Two are from Dweck, two are from Willingham, and the last is the criticism.

Tap the two changeable actions

Tap the TWO statements that describe a changeable action a learner can take, rather than a fixed label put on them.

• A learner puts in more practice and treats a hard task as a chance to improve
• A learner works out what a topic actually means rather than just rereading it
• A learner is told they are naturally clever at this subject
• A learner is labelled a visual learner and taught only with pictures

Which praise builds a growth mindset

A pupil finishes a hard task well. According to Dweck, which comment is most likely to build a growth mindset?

• You kept going and tried different approaches, and it paid off, which praises the effort and the strategy
• You are so clever, this kind of thing just comes naturally to you
• You were lovely and quiet while you worked
• You finished faster than anyone else in the class

Fixed against growth

The same setback lands very differently depending on which belief a learner holds.

Match each idea to what it means

Two that follow from the shared move

Select the TWO statements that follow from both theories replacing a fixed label with a changeable action.

• They both suggest a learner can improve by changing what they do, not just accept a label
• They both lean on nurture, which is why the nature and nurture debate is their main criticism
• They are really one theory said in two ways, so you only need to learn one
• They both prove that people are born with no differences in ability at all

Answering a question on these theories

A method for any question that asks you to describe and evaluate these theories. State the theory precisely, and attribute it. Say what Dweck claims about fixed and growth mindsets and about praise, or what Willingham claims about learning styles and meaning. Naming the psychologist and the exact claim earns the first marks. Give the mechanism, not just the label. For Dweck, say why praising effort builds a growth mindset. For Willingham, say why thinking about meaning helps memory. A claim with its reason is worth more than a claim alone. Then evaluate with the named debate. The criticism the specification wants here is nature and nurture. Both theories emphasise nurture, what effort and teaching can change, so a fair evaluation notes that they may downplay nature, the innate differences learners bring. Balance it. Give the strength as well: both theories point to something a teacher or learner can actually do, which is useful, and Willingham rests his case on evidence. Two habits cost marks. The first is describing a theory without attributing it or giving its mechanism. The second is evaluating with a vague this is good or bad instead of the nature and nurture debate the question is really asking for.

Order how praise shapes a mindset

Put the steps of how, in the account from Dweck, praise for effort builds a growth mindset into order.

• A learner works hard at a difficult task and does well
• An adult praises the effort and the strategy, not natural cleverness
• The learner comes to believe that effort is what improved the result
• That belief grows into a growth mindset
• The learner then takes on harder challenges and keeps going after setbacks

Build the shared idea

This is the idea that joins the two theories. Assemble it.

The learning-theories quick-fire

Five questions on the two theories and the criticism. Three lives.

One lesson, taught two ways

Here is a worked contrast to show what Willingham means. The lesson and the pupils are invented, so nothing real is being reported. Imagine a class learning why the seasons happen. A teacher who trusts the learning-styles idea sorts the pupils by a supposed style: the visual learners get a diagram to look at, the auditory learners get a talk to listen to, and the rest get a model to handle. Each pupil meets the topic in only one way. Willingham would predict this makes little difference to how well they learn, because there is no good evidence that matching a style improves learning. A teacher who follows Willingham does something else. Whatever way the material arrives, the teacher makes every pupil think about what it means: why the tilt of the planet, and not its distance from the Sun, gives us summer and winter. Pupils explain it back, spot a wrong version of it, and use it to answer a new question. They are made to think about the meaning. Weeks later, it is the second class that remembers, and the reason is the heart of what Willingham argues: we remember what we think about the meaning of. The first lesson sorted pupils by a label. The second changed what they did with the idea. That is the same move Dweck makes with effort, arriving from the other direction.

Complete the mindset facts

The belief that ability is something you are born with and cannot change is a _____. The belief that ability grows the more you work at it is a _____. The account from Dweck says that praising a learner for their _____, rather than for being clever, is what helps build the second one.

Three classrooms to advise

Three situations. In each case pick the response these two theories actually support.

• A pupil says they are just not a maths person and never will be. What response fits the account from Dweck?
• A teacher plans to label each pupil with a learning style and teach each one only in that style. What would Willingham advise?
• A student writing an evaluation says only that these theories are useful and leaves it there. What does the specification actually want added?

Explain the two theories and their limit

A student in the year below has to revise these two learning theories and does not see how they connect or how to evaluate them. Explain the theories and their main criticism.

• Explain what Dweck means by a fixed mindset and a growth mindset
• Explain what Dweck found about praising effort rather than cleverness
• Explain what Willingham says about the learning-styles myth and about meaning
• Explain the shared idea that both replace a fixed label with a changeable action
• Evaluate both using the nature and nurture debate
• Finish with one genuine strength of these theories for a teacher or learner