Have you heard the term \u2018growth mindset\u2019? What does it mean to have a growth mindset? Do you already have a growth mindset?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Having a growth mindset is not the same as thinking positively or being an optimist. It is a term coined by psychologist Dr Carol Dweck and her research team. Their research involved giving two groups of school-aged children tasks to complete, then providing each group with different types of feedback. One group was given positive feedback based on their intelligence and innate abilities – you did so well, you are obviously very clever!<\/em> The second group was provided with effort-based feedback, meaning they were praised for their perseverance, effort, and ability to learn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After giving both groups a second round of more difficult tasks to complete, the researchers found that the first group – praised for their innate intelligence – consistently performed worse, were more likely to exaggerate their results and chose less challenging tasks compared to the second group, who had been praised for their ability to learn. This led the research team to develop the theory of \u2018fixed mindset vs growth mindset\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With a fixed mindset, you believe your ability to perform a task (for example, solving mathematical equations) is set – like your eye colour – and you can\u2019t change it and are therefore less likely to try to improve. Whereas, with a growth mindset, you believe you can develop the skills needed to improve your abilities (like building larger muscles by working out) and are then motivated to improve your performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now naturally we humans are complex creatures, and it\u2019s unlikely that we are ‘all fixed\u2019 or ‘all growth\u2019 mindset. Instead we tend to swing between the two depending on the topic or the day! But if you find yourself often thinking ‘I\u2019m just not good at that’ or ‘there\u2019s no point in trying, I won\u2019t be able to do it’ \u2013 you\u2019re probably approaching life with a fixed mindset. This can be detrimental to your experience, performance and ultimately your success, whatever you define that to be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The good news is that you can have a growth mindset about developing a growth mindset! That means that cultivating a growth mindset is a skill and it is in your power to develop and build on that skill. How to develop a growth mindset: 10 strategies to success<\/a> is a great article to get you started. <\/p>\n\n\n\n There are also some fantastic TED talks and podcasts available that help explain this concept and how to enhance it even further, including:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Finally, I\u2019ll leave you with one of my favourite growth mindset quotes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Imposter syndrome: “I don\u2019t know what I\u2019m doing. It\u2019s only a matter of time until everyone finds out. Adam Grant, occupational psychologist<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n This article was written by Career Development Consultant, Rindala Hadzic.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" What does it mean to have a growth mindset, and how do you develop one?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4442,"featured_media":22329,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_oasis_is_in_workflow":0,"_oasis_original":0,"_oasis_task_priority":"","_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"5678,589,5001,7384,4552,7546","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","wds_primary_oasis-categories":0,"footnotes":""},"oasis-categories":[131],"class_list":["post-22651","oasis-news","type-oasis-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","oasis-categories-careers"],"acf":{"post_options":{"":null,"banner":{"image":false}},"post_components":false},"featured_image":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/SchoolLockerClosure-OASISNews-1000x500.jpg","author_meta":{"display_name":"Erica Stewart"},"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-14 03:57:47","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"oasis-categories","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/oasis-news\/22651","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/oasis-news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/oasis-news"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4442"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/oasis-news\/22651\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"oasis-categories","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/oasis-categories?post=22651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
Growth mindset: “I don\u2019t know what I\u2019m doing yet. It\u2019s only a matter of time until I figure it out.\u201d
The highest form of self-confidence is believing in your ability to learn.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n