Assessment for Learning
And
Carol Dweck’s Self-Theories on how
children view themselves as learners
Carol Dweck’s self-theories
• Carol Dweck has done research over the last
20 years on primary and secondary students
in the USA
• She is particularly interested in how
students view themselves as learners
• Their self-theory is likely to have a major
effect on their self-belief, their motivation
to learn and their aspirations for the future
Self-Theories
Entity v Incremental
Carol Dweck - Self-Theories: Their role in Motivation, Personality and development, Psychology Press, 1999
I believe that intelligence is
not fixed
My intelligence can be
improved through learning
I thrive on challenge
I throw myself into difficult
tasks
I am self-confident
Incremental
I can ignore the low
aspirations of my
peers
(Growth Mindset)
I react to failure by
trying harder
I engage in selfmonitoring
I have learning goals
I like feedback on my
performance so I can
improve
About 40% of US students hold an incremental theory of ability
Self-Theories
Entity v Incremental
Carol Dweck - Self-Theories: Their role in Motivation, Personality and development, Psychology Press, 1999
I don’t like challenge
I don’t want to risk looking
stupid
I am vulnerable
I believe that intelligence is
fixed
I was born bright/not very
bright
Entity
(Fixed Mindset)
I tend to conform to
the low aspirations of
my peers
I like easy performance
goals and being told I’ve
done well
I react to failure by
switching off and
avoiding the issues
About 40% of US students hold an entity theory of ability
Easy praise is not the answer - it makes the situation worse
What promotes motivation for
learning?
Four Beliefs and Four Truths
about Ability, Success, Praise
and Confidence
(Carol Dweck – Self-Theories, 1999)
What promotes motivation for learning?
•
The hallmark of successful individuals is that
they love learning, they value effort and they
persist in the face of obstacles.
•
In her book “Self-theories”, Carol Dweck
presents research that explains why some students
(incremental learners) display these “masteryoriented” qualities and others (entity learners) do
not.
•
She also shows how, in the right environment,
students can learn to become incremental
learners.
1. The belief that students with high ability
are more likely to display “mastery oriented”
qualities
You might think that students who were highly
skilled would be the ones to relish a challenge and
persevere in the face of setbacks. Instead, many of
these students are the most worried about failure,
and the most likely to question their ability and to
wilt when they hit obstacles
(Leggett, 1985)
2. The belief that success in school directly
fosters mastery-oriented qualities
You might also think that when students succeed,
they are emboldened and energized to seek out
more challenging tasks. The truth is that success in
itself does little to boost students’ desire for
challenge or their ability to cope with setbacks. In
fact we can see that it can have quite the opposite
effect.
(Diener & Dweck, 1978, 1980)
3. The belief that praise, particularly praising
a student’s intelligence, encourages masteryoriented qualities
This is a most cherished belief in our society. One
can hardly walk down the street without hearing
parents telling their children how smart they are.
The hope is that such praise will instil confidence
and thereby promote a host of desirable qualities.
Far from promoting the hoped for qualities, this
type of praise can lead students to fear failure,
avoid risks, doubt themselves when they fail and
cope poorly with setbacks.
(Mueller & Dweck, 1998)
4. The belief that students’ confidence in their
intelligence is the key to mastery-oriented
qualities
In a way, it seems only logical to assume that
students who have confidence in their intelligence
– who clearly believe they are smart – would have
nothing to fear from challenge and would be
somehow inoculated against the ravages of failure.
But many of the most confident individuals do not
want their intelligence too stringently tested, and
their high confidence is all too quickly shaken
when they are confronted with difficulty.
(Henderson & Dweck, 1990; Dweck & Lin, 1998)
How do you view yourself – an
incremental learner or an entity learner?
Has your self-theory changed or stayed
the same since your school days?
Discuss in pairs or threes for two
or three minutes –
explain why you have this
self-theory
Incremental Learners
(mastery oriented)
• Can focus on the idea that everyone, with effort
and guidance, can increase their intellectual
abilities
• Less concerned with looking smart than with
learning something new
• Even if they have low confidence in their
intelligence, they can throw themselves wholeheartedly into difficult tasks – and stick with them
Entity Learners (goal
oriented/helpless)
• We encourage vulnerabilities in our students when
we try to boost their self-esteem in the wrong way
• Giving them easy successes and praising their
intelligence does not encourage a hardy, can-do
mentality
• It fosters an overconcern for looking smart, a
distaste for challenge and a decreased ability to
cope with setbacks
A different view of self-esteem
• Self-esteem for Entity Learners can be boosted
in the short term by easy success – but does not
last and is just as easily diminished by failures
• Self-esteem for Incremental Learners is much
more resilient and less likely to be affected by
failure
• It is a positive way of experiencing yourself when
you are fully engaged and using all your abilities
in pursuit of something you value
• True self-esteem is not something we give people
by telling them about their high intelligence
Carol Dweck’s research into how
different learners progress on
transition to High School
Carol followed groups of Incremental
Learners and Entity Learners as they
progressed through Y7 & Y8
What happens to entity &
incremental learners after
transition to High School?
• In Y7 the work may become harder in some
subjects (may be easier in others!)
• Grading may become more stringent
• Instruction may be less personalised
• Students may initially be less clear about
what their teachers require of them
• Classroom environment may seem less safe
What happens to Entity Learners
after transition to High School?
• Many showed a marked decline in their class standing
• Those who had done poorly in Y6 tended to continue to do
poorly
• Many who had been high achievers in Y6 were now
among the lower achievers
• Many who showed this decline had held high confidence
in their intelligence
• Were significantly more apprehensive about their school
work and tended to be more anxious about school in
general
• Did show some recovery in their standing in Y8 but were
still clearly below where they had been in Primary School
Henderson & Dweck 1990
What happens to Incremental Learners
after transition to High School?
• Many showed a clear improvement in their class
standing
• Those who had done well in Y6 continued to do
well
• Many of those who had been among the lower
achievers in Y6 were now doing much better,
often entering the ranks of higher achievers
• Many of those making the most impressive gains
were those with low confidence in their
intelligence
Henderson & Dweck 1990
Bright Girls’ Helpless Responses
• In Dweck’s research, students with the most
striking history of success were often the most,
rather than the least, vulnerable when confronted
with difficulties or failure. These are the bright
girls.
• Bright girls were more vulnerable than lower
achieving girls (with boys it was the opposite) and
more concerned with looking smart.
What could we do to encourage
more students to become
incremental learners?
Discuss with a partner for 2
minutes
Slide 20
How do we move entity learners towards
becoming incremental learners?
•Praise our children in the right way
•Praise effort, resilience and hard work – not intelligence (ie do
not tell children how clever they are)
•Concentrate children on improving their own performance (in
small achievable steps)
•Remind children that if the work is not hard they are not
learning (helps them to accept high challenge)
•Keep stressing that intelligence is not fixed, but is improved by
effort & hard work (we all learn at different rates & in different
ways)
Examples / role models:
Albert Einstein
• Was slow in learning to talk and initially thought
of as “backward”
• Asked to leave school at 15 for being “disruptive”
of his class
• Failed to get into the Polytechnic School in Zurich
to study electronics
• Failed to get a job as a teacher
• Later became Professor of Physics and won the
Nobel prize for Physics
Examples / role models:
Winston Churchill
• At age seven was thought of as “a troublesome
boy”*
• At age nine “made very little progress in lessons”*
• Became Prime Minister in 1940
• Was widely credited with leading Great Britain &
her allies to winning World War II
* My Early Life by Winston Churchill
Thomas Edison said:
“You must learn to fail intelligently. Failing
is one of the greatest arts in the world. One
fails forward to success”.