st arnold on innovation

"the lord challenges our faith to do something new." -- st. arnold janssen 

st. arnold janssen

(as quoted by fr. randy flores, svd in divinewordseminary.blogspot.com)

growth mindset: a double-blind experiment

POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY / EDUCATION

Re: Growth Mindset

Fr: Maxwell, J. (1991). Developing the leader within you. In Addington, T., Graves, J., & Womeck (2000). The life@work book. Nashville, TN: Word Publishing, pp. 126-127 (headings, caps & underscore mine).

“Psychology 101 taught me that we see what we are prepared to see.

A.   Anecdote

A suburbanite, unable to find his best saw, suspected his neighbor’s son, who was always tinkering around with woodworking, had stolen it. During the next week everything the teenager did looked suspicious – the way he walked, the tone of his voice, his gestures. But when the older man found the saw behind his own workbench, where he had accidentally knocked it, he could no longer see anything at all suspicious in his neighbor’s son. Flip Wilson taught me that what you see is what you get.

B.   Experiment

“Nell Mohney, in her book Beliefs Can Influence Attitudes, pointedly illustrates this truth. Mohney tells of a double-blind [126/127] experiment conducted in the San Francisco Bay area. The principal of a school called three professors together and said, ‘Because you three teachers are the FINEST in the system and you have the GREATEST EXPERTISE, we’re going to give you ninety HIGH-IQ students. We’re going to let you move these students through this next year at their own pace and see how much they can learn.’

“Everyone was delighted – faculty and students alike.

“Over the next year the professors and the students thoroughly enjoyed themselves. The professors were teaching the BRIGHTEST students; the students were benefitting from the close attention and instruction of HIGHLY SKILLED teachers.

By the end of the experiment, the students had achieved 20 TO 30 PERCENT more than the other students in the whole area.

“The principal called the teachers in and told them, ‘I have a confession to make. I have to confess that you did not have ninety of the most intellectually prominent students. They were run-of-the-mill students. We took ninety students at random from the system and gave them to you.’

“The teachers said, ‘This means that we are exceptional teachers.’

“The principal continued, ‘I have another confession. You’re not the brightest of the teachers. Your names were the first three names drawn out of a hat.’

“The teachers asked, ‘What made the difference? Why did ninety students perform at such an exceptional level for a whole year?’

“The difference, of course, was the teachers’ EXPECTATIONS. Our expectations have a great deal to do with our attitudes. And these expectations may be totally false, but they will determine our attitude.”