Carol Dweck 's piece "Brainology" and Rebecca Cox "The Student Fear Factor" have changed my pursuit towards my academic goals because it changes the mindset on how I approach any aspect in my everyday life, including work, but also how I will be praising the children whom I work with. This is because I am learning new approaches on how I should handle my college life and apply it to my daily life. Both of these pieces seem to have spoken to me because I get severe anxiety and reading what other students went through made me realize that I don’t have college life as bad as many students do. Instead of quitting (like most first time college students do), I will keep pursuing my associate’s degree in child development. I know that reading these …show more content…
Meaning that when children grow up with praise such as “oh you must have been so smart to get an A on that test”, instead of “you must have worked really hard on that lesson”, children could take the praise to their intelligence the wrong way and think that since they are “smart” instead of their effort on a task which will cause them problems in the future and they might want to give up and quit. I have seen this first hand and this has actually happened to me before, so I know from experience that this could have a negative effect impact on a student not just students in elementary school but also adults who are going to college or young adults who are looking for a job. In contrast, some students love to get that kind of compliment but they would always end up expecting that so when I work with children I will be complimenting them on the effort they put into everything that they do. From now on, I will be praising children on their effort and not on their …show more content…
I’ve read that statistics show that those who are the first in their family to go to college will get more discouraged and think that they can’t do it because their parents weren’t able to do it for some reason. However, since reading part of Cox’s book and doing other research I know that I can do this because I know how to manage my stress and for the most part I am able to keep my stress levels down and keep up with school. When I feel stressed I get too distracted from the assignment at hand, when this happens I typically have to step away from the assignment or essay and go take a walk or pray about the situation. I always pray about whatever situation I am in before I even do anything but sometimes I do have to take breaks from an essay because I typically get frustrated thinking that I am a bad writer or something. The student anxiety and fear management are the sections that really stood out to me in Cox’s book because I know that it relates to me especially when she had put some testimonies from other college students, this is relatable to me. From reading the fear management section and going over this book excerpt in class, I know that I am not going to avoid any formal assessment just because I am too afraid my writing will suck because I know that some peoples strong suits is in writing but some is in other areas, mine is working with
As Dweck explains, children who are praised for their intelligence does not want to learn hence develop a fixed mindset. A fixed mindset is where people believe that their qualities such as talent and intelligence are essentially fixed traits. Such people would only concentrate on documenting their intelligence instead of looking for ways for developing the same. In addition, these people make the assumption that their intelligence would make them successful. On the other hand, a growth mindset is where people are aware that it is possible to develop their abilities through hard work and dedication. When I was in Grade 7, a teacher encouraged all students that they all had the ability to perform well in science. After the initial interaction, the teacher was aware that a certain percentage of the class performed way below average; yet, he did not water down their spirit. I remember the way he used to acknowledge even some insignificant improvement made in his tests by comments such as “You are making good progress so far”. Primarily, this teacher focused on the perseverance, strategies, and efforts the students put towards improvement as opposed to praising talent (Dweck 5). The result was that we changed our attitude and focused more on self-improvement.
Psychologist, Carol S. Dweck in her well researched essay, “Brainology” analyzes how praise impacts mindset and how a growth mindset leads to greater success. She supports this claim by comparing the two different mindsets and how praise can affect them. She then proceeds to show praise leads to a fixed mindset harming a person by changing their views on effort. Finally, she argues that praise changes how and what people value, which can
When you praise your students, what words come to mind? Intelligent, smart? According to the article “How Not to Talk to Your Kids” by Po Bronson, these words may do more harm than good. When labeling a student “smart”, they are more likely to rely on their intelligence and disregard the importance of effort entirely. Alternatively, students should be commended for their effort. Effort-praising advocates working hard to get the results you desire. Praising students for their effort can promote them to challenge themselves, strain less, and develop growth mindsets.
Chapter two begins with a more then competent college student named Eva, who describes her first semester English class as completely nerve wrecking, terrifying, and extremely intimidating. Hence the title “The Student Fear Factor.” "The Student Fear Factor,” gives an insight of student’s fears, doubts, stress, and anxieties they endure while attending college. For example, Melanie who is a recent High School graduate compare the difference between High School vrs. College. She also makes a valid point about how important it is to becoming responsible, independent, and serious when it comes to college. For the mere fact that college is no joking matter and nobody is going to care about your GPA besides you.
In Rebecca cox, “The college fear Factor: How students and professors misunderstand one another”, in chapter two of her book she writes about an expression she calls “Total Fear Factor”. She has conducted this study between community colleges in diverse regions of the country and with a diverse range of students. Most of the students experienced fear and anxiety while being enrolled in college. High school for many students was far less complex and hurried and because of that, stress plays a huge roll in a college students educational achievement and goal outcome. The stress of once being in highschool to now being in college has a huge toll on a students well being. College is now more stressful and
In the introduction to “The College Fear Factor”, Rebecca Cox provides examples of how students can find difficulty in succeed in college due many factors like the gap of communication between the student and the teacher, the expectations the teacher has are different from the expectations of the student, how fear is the leading factor for a student to fail is fear itself.
Noted authors, Brandon Chambers, is quoted saying, “If you are going to fear anything fear success. Think about what you are doing and when you succeed what life you will have.” There are several different reasons why I could stay home, work and not go to college; I could go to work every day and make more money for the house, it’s easier, and I would be less stressed. Now, on the other hand there are many reasons why I should go to school; such as further my education, make my family proud, and make myself proud. I am attending college for several different reasons. One reason is to further my education. I hate feeling like I don’t know something, I like being the person everyone comes to for information. Also, because I want to be better prepared for my major, I want to be better then the next person with the job credentials. I want to major in Social Work and Criminology. I dream to be a counselor or an clinical service social worker. I want to help people who need someone there for them someone who can guide them or even just talk too. Another reason is because I would be the first in I would be the first in my family to go to college. I feel in some type of way I am setting an example for my parents and my brother that they too can go back to school. Lastly is simply because I love school. I love knowing more and more each day. College is not for everyone, but I will be successful by grasping the benefits, preparing for the problems, taking heed from experts, and working on strategies to be successful.
The word fear makes my mind draw a blank. I am trying to make sense of it but I can not, at least not for everyone. It is a word that is left up to a person’s digression. It almost seems unfair to have a clear cookie-cutter definition of what it is. The word is too broad to be sectioned off by one definition.
I am always a little nervous and hesitant when I begin writing an essay. Ever since I was little I was an honor roll student, passed all my tests, was placed in honors and AP classes, and eventually graduated a year early from high school. I used to be so confident when I would begin writing a paper, I could finish it within a couple minutes. During junior year of high school, I began taking duel credit classes. I was passing all the classes so far until I reached English 111. It was an 8-week course and I started to get overwhelmed. All throughout the course I was having a little bit of trouble on the essays. I would still receive a passing grade, but it wasn’t an A. I began becoming a little discouraged and didn’t understand what was going
While many first year college students are over stressed and constantly in a state of panic or fear, I was able to teach my brain how to relax and keep stress to a minimum. It is because of this that my first year of college has been relatively easier then
When reading the article “The Perils and Promises of Praise”, I was taken aback by the fact that there was a thing as negative praise. The studies show that just telling someone that they are intelligent is detrimental to future success in challenging situations because of the fear of failure. Encouragement of hard work and effort works more effectively than praising intelligence. I still feel that there is a missing element that was not mentioned in the article. It is secret number three in motivation for success in school. That motivation is the parents of the students. I was told that if I failed my classes, I could expect severe punishment and retribution for my failure, unless I prove I tried my best. Motivation is not just praise; it is the support of those adults in a student’s life that gives reinforcement of positive ideas
A parent would easily prefer that their children not develop a fixed mindset about their capabilities because that would prevent them from responding well to obstacles. By focusing on a child’s effort, parents can encourage the development of a growth mindset. Children would benefit from understanding that their hard work can pay off when life starts getting difficult. If a child is thriving, however, it is imperative not to provide them with too much admiration for their efforts otherwise they may consider themselves having low ability. This can be equated to a soccer player who is congratulated for having the best effort on the team rather than being the team’s most valuable player. In order to foster growth mindsets, parents must convey to their children that what they accomplished was done through hard work and perseverance. Looking back at the Sally Forth comic example, it was not the best idea for Sally to tell her daughter what she did. As discussed before, it would have been better for Sally to inform her daughter that her abilities are malleable and will grow with hard work, instead of suggesting that her abilities were fixed and she had them even if she “were a full-blown idiot” (Marciuliano & Keefe,
Everyone deals with stress at some point in his or her life. Most people deal with it daily. As defined in the book called Principles and Labs for Fitness and Wellness, stress is, “The mental, emotional, and physiological response of the body to any situation that is new, threatening, frightening, or exciting” (Hoeger & Hoeger, 2012). This stress is caused by a stressor, which is also known as “a stress-causing event” (Hoeger & Hoeger, 2012). Stressors can take all different forms, from moving to a new town, having a baby, or even writing a paper (Boyd, Wood, & Wood, 2011). One major stressor in life can be going to college. If not coped with properly, these stressors can leave a person with too much stress that could end up harming them mentally and physically, such as developing an illness (Boyd, Wood, & Wood, 2011). There are several ways to cope with stress. Some healthy ways to cope with stress would be practicing emotion-focused coping, building time-management techniques, and practicing meditation.
We as educators and parents want our children to grow up to be the best that they can be. Are we helping them when we tell that they are doing a good job on something or are we hurting them? Some research has shown that praising a child with words like “Good Job” or “Way to Go” is not helping them build their self-esteem or grow as individuals. We need to do more to help them grow as individuals and learners. According to Alfie Kohn (2001) “praise is a verbal reward” (p. 1). He states in his article “Five Reasons to Stop Saying Good Job” that praise is also controlling (Kohn, 2001) Have you ever been at a restaurant or out to local grocery store (or even said to your own kids) and hear if you will be good I will buy you a treat. Controlling? Yes controlling, but in the classroom do we use the same type of praise to get our students to do the same thing?
According to Berk (2012), children with a history of parental criticism of their worth and performance give up easily when faced with a challenge and express shame and despondency after failing (p. 367)”. Knowing that children who come from a home where they are not being encouraged and are constantly being put down can help me as a teacher in my future classroom. Knowing this I know how important it is to encourage my students so that they can build up their self-esteem. Berk (2012) states, “Adults can avoid promoting self-defeating reactions by adjusting their expectations to children’s capacities, scaffolding children’s attempts at difficult tasks, and pointing out effort and improvement in children’s work or behavior (p.367)”. This is important for me as a future teacher so I know that not all students in my class are going to perform at the same level and that is okay. I will know to point out when a student is doing something good and showing improvement in their work even if it is not the best yet. I want all of my students to have high self-esteem and feel good about themselves and their work because, I know how important having high self-esteem is for a child and how it will help them throughout their