2017 Dragon Magazine Winter

f positivity
certain amount of brains and talent and nothing can
change that. People with a growth mindset, on the
other hand, see their qualities as things that can be
developed through their dedication and effort.
Trujillo and his Math Department colleagues attended
a conference a couple of years ago, where Dweck’s
theory about how mindset can affect success was
discussed. It resonated with him. “I’ve always been a
growth mindset person – even when I didn’t know the
vocabulary,” he said. “I taught myself a lot of things
– like how to play the piano – because I believed I
could learn and I persisted.”
So Trujillo decided to put the growth mindset theory
into practice in O’Dowd Math classes. “I wanted to
completely dismiss the fixed mindset idea that people
either ‘can’ or ‘can’t’ do Math,” he said. “Everyone
can do Math. It just takes persistence and sustained
effort.”
In fact, Trujillo would argue that Math anxiety is
fostered by a fixed mindset. And it doesn’t just affect
struggling Math students. “Many AP Calculus students
are stressed out because they worry that in an
advanced class it will be discovered that they really
aren’t perfect, or they won’t get that ‘A’ so easily anymore,”
he said.
“We need to completely dismiss this
black and white idea that you either
can or can’t do Math,” Trujillo continued.
“Students have to focus on learning
and the learning process – which
can be messy at times. You may not
do well on a quiz or test. The question
is how do you react to that? You have
to persevere and focus on the learning
and not the grade.”
With the goal of fostering a culture of positivity in all
Math classes, Trujillo and his colleagues have been
emphasizing the growth mindset in all the department’s
courses. “We stress to students that they have
to believe they can learn, and that the learning is
accomplished through effort, hard work, and being
OK with making mistakes along the way because
mistakes are a part of the learning process,” he said.
Sophia Yau-Weeks ’17 said the growth mindset has
helped her in AP Calculus. “It has shown me that intelligence
is not fixed but rather fluid. Your intellect
can grow with practice and persistence. Approaching
things with the goal of continuous improvement
helps you focus on understanding the material, rather
than memorizing it. It is best to learn to understand
because then when you are faced with problems that
seem ‘hard,’ you can recognize that there is no ‘hard’
or ‘easy’ in calculus, but just more or less steps,” she
said.
Putting the mindset into practice requires conscious
effort, Trujillo says. “Students need explicit instruction.
We take 10 minutes a couple of times a week to
have conversations about growth mindset, and even
show some videos about it. We stress that people
with a fixed mindset achieve much less than they are
capable of,” he said.
“We are teaching students a certain attitude and a
skill set that will help them succeed in mathematics,
but this belief system transcends the subject and will
help them become successful in any aspect of their
lives,” Trujillo added.
Learn more about fixed and growth mindsets, and
test your mindset at
www.mindsetonline.com/whatisit/about
Winter Magazine 2017 // 11