THE LIMITS OF “NATURAL” TALENT: YOU DON’T NEED TO BE A GENIUS TO BECOME MATHEMATICIAN.

Sylvia Serfaty is a prominent French mathematician working on quantum vortexes and Ginzburg-Landau theory. She won the EMS Prize in 2004 and Henri Poincare Prize in 2014. In this video she “explains why you don’t have to be a genius to become a mathematician.”

The Wired Magazine has a more extensive interview with Dr. Serfaty.

Terence Tao, a recipient of Fields Medal and Breakthrough Prize in Mathematics, offers similar insights in his essay “Does one have to be a genius to do maths?” Dr. Tao writes:

Does one have to be a genius to do mathematics? The answer is an emphatic NO.  In order to make good and useful contributions to mathematics, one does need to work hard, learn one’s field well, learn other fields and tools, ask questions, talk to other mathematicians, and think about the “big picture.” And yes, a reasonable amount of intelligence, patience, and maturity is also required. But one does not need some sort of magic “genius gene” that spontaneously generates ex nihilo deep insights, unexpected solutions to problems, or other supernatural abilities.

GROWTH MINDSET INTERVENTIONS

Recent reports suggest that social-psychological interventions (even brief and conducted on-line) can alter the way students think about learning. A good summary of interventions affecting identity and community,  passion and purpose,  grit and growth, and learning strategies can be found here.

Broadly speaking, these interventions embrace the principle that teaching students certain attitudes, beliefs, and skills, such as

• believing that intelligence is malleable 
• taking pride in belonging to their learning community 
• seeing the connection between school and future goals 
• developing metacognitive learning skills

improves their intrinsic motivation, in turn resulting in more effective persistence and stronger academic performance. More importantly this approach equips students with the ability to internalize setbacks as learning opportunities.  As Dweck writes in Mindset

“the passion for stretching yourself and sticking to it, even (or especially) when it’s not going well, is the hallmark of the growth mindset. This is the mindset that allows people to thrive during some of the most challenging times in their lives.”

Stanford University recently launched “THE RESILIENCE PROJECT” that “combines personal storytelling, events, programs, and academic skills coaching to motivate and support students as they experience the setbacks that are a normal part of a rigorous education.” The website has several short videos that might be utilized in our teaching and advising:

• A Quick Look at Stories of Resilience 
• "Stanford, I Screwed Up!" Promo 
• Learning from Criticism 
• Switching from Premed to Philosophy 
• Coming from Hanger 
• On Asking Questions in Class 
• On Struggling with Math

GROWTH MINDSET - RESOURCES FOR STUDENTS

There are many on-line resources for students on how to establish and sustain growth mindset. The TRAIN UGLY website has a full growth mindset lesson. Some additional resources are embedded below.

INTRODUCTION TO GROWTH MINDSET VS. FIXED MINDSET

BRAIN PLASTICITY

WHY IS STRUGGLE IMPORTANT IN LEARNING ?

FOCUS ON IMPROVEMENT – LEARNING FROM MISTAKES

USING GROWTH MINDSET TO MOTIVATE STUDENTS

Thomas Westenholz, the founder of Positive Edge Program, authored a short article on how to use growth mindset to motivate students, including a list of five easy ways to use growth mindset in improving students’ motivation.

Here, I linked each of Westenholz' five “easy ways” to various related on-line resources. Many of these resources would be great to show to your students.

1. Introduce growth mindset in your classes: TED Talk by Eduardo Briceno, and Carol Dweck speaks at Stanford University.


2. Use mistakes as a learning opportunity: Celebrate Mistakes, an on-line lesson for teachers


3. Administer positive praise: A Study on Positive Praise and Mindsets
   Disclaimer: while growth mindset emphasizes “process over product,” praising effort alone or telling students "you can do anything" does not improve performance. Please see an excellent Edutopia article on “false growth mindset.”


4. Show students examples of past failures: Famous Failures


5. Help students find value in learning: Trevor Ragan's The Learning Machine