Chan Woo Kim

Sabatino Mangini
ENG 100

Growth Mindset and Fixed Mindset

There are two mindsets in thinking about intelligencethe growth mindset and fixed
mindset. Carol Dwecks growth mindset believes intelligence is fluid or can be developed
by ones effort. According to Dweck the professor of Stanford University, scientific
evidence indicates that neurons strengthen their connections when people solve
complicated problems. On the contrary, those with fixed mindsets think that intelligence is
inalterable. However, people have a problem that if teachers teach right mindsets in study
and enthusiastic in teaching. About this, Sociologist Alfie Kohn, in his article The Perils of
Growth Mindset Education, the matter of students underperformance is curriculum not the
mindsets. He said underperformance of students is the matter of curricular rather than
mindsets. There are a lot of controversies and still brain functions are not completely
discovered by scientists, so it is hard to say that one specific theory is right. However, the
theory intelligence is malleable is more dominant. Yet, I contend that to improve American
educational system to make better performances of students, educators or officials have to
more focus on system rather than mindset.

Here is one article that shows how important education structure is. According to
one report written by Professor John H. Bishop from Cornell University, The fundamental
reason why American students, teachers, parents, and voters in school elections are
comfortable with significantly lower academic achievement than their counterparts in
Northern Europe is the absence of good signals of learning in secondary school and
consequent absence of powerful rewards for effort and learning in secondary school. This
is the outstanding output of right teacher and system. In short, the atmosphere tolerates low
academic achievement contributes to American students low performances.
Alfie Kohn since he is a sociologist, he spoke with sociological perspective which
is social location; education, culture, social structure, and class, affects in forming ones
academic achievement. However, Alfie Kohns opinion is controversial in some ways. As
bringing up Carol Dwecks growth mindset, Alfie Kohn showed skeptical perspective of it.
However, Carol Dweck is not a blind believer in effort itself. Carol Dweck did not insist to
praise effort itself, but praise students strategies and processes and tie those to the
outcome, this is coming from right teachers. Perhaps, most of people agree with Carol
Dweck. Nonetheless, without educations structural revision, no matter how there are a lot
of good teachers, students low performances cannot be improved. South Korean education
system is the good example that shows the problem of pursuing only mindsets. Korean high
school teachers, since they have a responsibility in promoting their students to study and
send them prestigious colleges, they stress the importance of grits which Professor
Angela L. Duckworth of University of Pennsylvania insisted, and the importance of attitude
of putting efforts and believing possibility in themselves. However, most of Korean

students under performances are not the matter of their dumbness or the problem of
teachers, rather their social structural or cultural problems.
As much as Korea has been called as the country of scholars, Korean students have
high aspires in achieving successes with study. Thus, according to statistics of illiteracy rate
carried out by Index Mundi, Koreans illiteracy rate is only 2.1 percent while America has
14 percent of it according to Huffington Post, and from another research called Trends in
International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMISS) tells that 8th grade of Korean
students got the highest level in mathematics among many of students from experimental
group countries. Nevertheless, Korean society is destroying their students with serious
competitions and atmosphere that only stresses study not arts or sports. It is such a sad
reality, but Korean society brands their students with their colleges name values, in
addition to that they even brand their students as loser when their academic achievements
are poor. 94 percent of students want to go to college later on, and almost all of them go to
college, but the problem is whether they are from famous college or not. Therefore, this is
the moment Alfie Kohns opinion is required.
According to OECD statistics, Korea has staggering 29.1 percent of student
suicidal rate which is the top among many OECD countries. Even in my case, I go out for
school at 7 A.M and come back at 12 A.M after I finish private tutoring for better grades.
Even though teenager life should be excited and filled with dreams, living as a Korean
teenage student is very barren and solidary. The biggest problem is even if Koreans
perceive their educational structure is problematic, it is hard to revise structure at once
which has been continued for a long time. In addition to that people wrongly think that if

teachers are motivational and helpful, the quality of education rises and students
performances will get better. However, it is not true, it should be more focused on
educational structure and importance of impeding right motivation to students are more
important to make students study in happy and rightful motivational environments.
From the video about Scandinavian education, students were very active and
teachers were also very dedicated. Scandinavian education stresses not many materials to
learn in mathematics compared to Korea. However, in many statistics, Scandinavian
countries illiteracy rates were even lower than Koreans do, in addition to that their
happiness index rate was way higher than that of Koreans. In terms of this, South Korea
should revise their education system, while leaving their passions towards their studies, and
more focusing on their students happiness and revising their perceptions that brands
students. Korean students always say our happiness is not row of our grades, and we really
hate adults who stress us competitions with our friends. However, students do not have
powers to change system. Korean adults should perceive that their education system is
problematic, and try to revise system into which student can be more efficient and happy to
study. Korea is very advanced country in education, and also every person has aspire to
study and learn well. However, for better education, education infrastructure such as strong
public education and less school hours should be founded anyway.

Works Cited
Bishop, J. H. (2010). Which secondary education systems work best? e United States or
Northern Europe. Cornell University. Web. 07 Dec. 2016.
CCE Heramb Kulkarni, Typical Finland Classroom. Youtube. 17 June 2015. Web. 07 Dec.
2016.
Crum, Maddie. "The U.S. Illiteracy Rate Hasn't Changed In 10 Years." The Huffington
Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 12 Dec. 2014. Web. 07 Dec. 2016.
David Santandreu Calonge Visiting Professor, Sungkyunkwan University. "South Korean
Education Ranks High, but It's the Kids Who Pay." The Conversation. The
Conversation, 30 Mar. 2015. Web. 07 Dec. 2016.
Perf. Angela Lee Duckworth. Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance. TED Talk.
N.p., Apr. 2013. Web. 29 Nov. 2016.
. Perf. Carol Dweck. The Power of Believing That You Can Improve. Prod. Ted TalkTED
Talk. N.p., Nov. 2014. Web. 29 Nov. 2016.
"South Korea Literacy." South Korea Literacy - Demographics. Index Mundi, 30 June
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Koo, Se-woong. "An Assault Upon Our Children." The New York Times. The New York
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@kellyj1111. "11 Ways Finlands Education System Shows Us That Less Is
More." Filling My Map. Filling My Map, 12 May 2015. Web. 07 Dec. 2016.
@worldatlas. "25 Countries with The Highest Literacy Rates." WorldAtlas. WorldAtlas, 19
Sept. 2016. Web. 07 Dec. 2016.