ocostalitaresearchmethods

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The second topic chosen from the bridgingthegaps podcast list was a conversation with Professor Carol Dweck “Growth Mindset: A Must Have Tool for Success” 

This topic caught my attention because it has many points that make me think about past actions I had during my academic and work life, and I want to learn how to approach these situations better for when similar challenges appear I am more prepared to understand how to act in order to succeed.  

The discussion talks about people’s motivation regards to success. The term Fixed mindset and Growth mindset were very new to me. I learned that fixed mindset is someone who thinks that their intelligence is fixed, that they would never be able to learn a specific subject because they were not born with that ability. They also would accept criticism and would not learn from mistakes as they do not recognize them. This way of thinking limits their expectations on what they will want to achieve in life, and the effort they put into a task.  

Growth mindset is where individuals believe that they can develop their abilities. They understand that by putting effort into learning something and being persistent, they will achieve better results because they will learn with mistakes, and they will also allow themselves to have setbacks in order to learn.  

Babies are naturally eager to learn and do not give up. However, the studies show that the way mothers praise their children in their first years will affect their mindset later. Mindset is fluid and can be changed, so if the children develop a fixed mindset, they can be taught how to think in a growth mindset. As kids are more sensitive to the environment, the changes should also happen to their teacher’s and parent’s perspective, for them to understand that they are also in the journey of growth and learning.  

The research also approaches the studies made in organizations where some companies can have a Fixed mindset, such as having the Culture of Genius, where people are more individualist, and workers are hired because of their talent as opposed to companies with Culture of development (growth mindset) where employees are hired because of their eager to learn and improve their skills.  

Carol Dweck studies human motivation, she is the Lewis and Virginia Eaton Professor of Psychology at Stanford University and one of the world’s leading researchers on motivation and mindsets. She earned her Ph.D. in Social and Developmental Psychology from Yale University. She also held professorships at Columbia and Harvard. She has lectured on the importance of mindsets all over the world and won numerous awards, including the E. L. Thorndike Career Achievement Award in Educational Psychology from the American Psychological Association, the Klingenstein Award for Leadership in Education, and the Ann L. Brown Award for Excellence in Developmental Research. 

The research about mindset was done with students and adults, and it shows that the Growth mindset approach helps people to obtain better results and overcome challenges. 

Full discussion at: https://www.bridgingthegaps.ie/  

Other finds at: https://fs.blog/carol-dweck-mindset/  

And: https://www.mindsetworks.com/science/

[ocostalitaresearchmethods]

I chose to write about the topic "Learning How to Learn": Techniques to Help You Learn with Dr Barbra Oakley, because I am interested in developing new skills, and understand how techniques can help us to achieve better results. So, by listening to this discussion in my opinion I have given myself the opportunity to be exposed to valuable techniques about the process of learning.

One of my learnings is that there are two fundamental parts of memory, the working memory, which is kept temporarily in the mind (what we are conscious of at the moment), and the long-term memory, which connects the links we have previously built.

Also, through the discussion I learned that there are fundamental modes of thinking. The first mode is focusing, and another mode is when you are more relaxed, and ideas would come to your mind. We cannot be in both modes at the same time, however the learning process does involve both modes. So, we should not only concentrate on learning, but also on taking breaks which will help us to find fresh solutions for the same tasks.

Another concept that was completely new to me was the Pomodoro technique, which is a time management method that has focused sessions and frequent small breaks so we can reward ourselves after dedicating the time to concentrate. The idea is to remove any discretion for a certain time to focus in a task, and after that you get a mental break as a reward.

In the end of the discussion another fundamental idea mentioned is how debating with others is important for effective learning. When we are talking to someone about an idea, we are helping to embed that in our brain and see different perspectives which can make us understand things in a way we would not be able to figure out by just writing down on paper.

As previously mentioned the researcher of this topic is Barbara Oakley an engineering professor at Oakland University in Michigan and co-creator of Learn how to learn, one of the most popular massive open online course (MOOC) in Coursera with over 2.5 million users registered worldwide. She has experience in many areas, such as serving as a Russian translator on Soviet trawlers up in the Bering Sea, teaching in China, going from US Army private to Regular Army Captain, and working as a radio operator at the South Pole Station in the Antarctic.

Dr. Oakley has authored a few books, some of them being Learn Like a Pro, Learning How to Learn “Mindshift: Break Through Obstacles to Learning and Discover Your Hidden Potential.” A Mind For Numbers How to Excel at Math and Science.

Dr. Barbara Oakley and her husband created the course Learning how to learn in their basement where they set up their studio with equipment that costs $5,000. Learning How to Learn is based on the book A Mind for Numbers and is a course designed into 4 one-week modules, that are usually a video 5 minute long each week followed by mid-week and end-of-week assessments. The course gives access to learning techniques that will assist students in mastering new topics.

Information about the researcher taken from: https://barbaraoakley.com/books/ 

Full discussion available on: https://soundcloud.com/bridging-the-gaps/learning-how-to-learn-techniques-to-help-your-learn-with-dr-barbra-oakley  

Further references taken from: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41539-019-0046-0  

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/04/education/edlife/learning-how-to-learn-barbara-oakley.html