Reflection Essay on The Effort Effect

The author Marina Krakovsky wrote an article called “The Effort Effect”. In this reading, she talked about this phycology professor who was exploring fixed mindsets and growth mindsets. In her studies, she showed that a lot of kids who were taught growth mindset aspects showed improvement, while the other kids in experiments did not show any improvement. In school, I had a growth mindset for certain things like Math, Science, and Tech School, while in other classes like ELA and Social Studies I would have a fixed mindset. After Highschool, I started to realize I needed to change and have more of a growth mindset.

In school, I always noticed that I was better in some classes than in other classes. I would say that in ELA I struggle with writing and reading. I was put into Wilson classes in elementary school and then dumb down ELA classes in high school. I have trouble reading and comprehending which made me struggle a lot, especially on book tests because I would read at night and forget almost everything. I should have done something earlier like re-reading the chapter/s which would have helped my grades in class exponentially. Any class that had to deal with heavy amounts of reading or writing because I disliked doing that. I would not reject help if a teacher asked to help me because I know I needed to but my friends or family I would not ask or reject their help. If I allowed them to help and not just the teacher I may have gotten better at ELA and other subjects that I was struggling in. In the article “The Effort Effect” Marina Krakovsky Shows how a fixed mindset can halt someone from succeeding and used many examples of education. With the experience I had with a fixed mindset I hope to never go down that road because you just struggle.

My mindset started to change towards my senior year in high school and my first year in college, I knew I needed good grades to get into college and stay in it. When I started to realize this, it was sadly my senior year towards the end. Which was not too bad since I really did not have bad grades, my bad grades were always in the classes that I struggled in like ELA. I had an amazing teacher senior year which helped me through and helped me achieve better ELA and writing grades. I saw an improvement in my grade I forgot my exact grade, but I know it was higher than I have had before. That single class with Mr. Roccanova changed me in many ways, we had to write a story and present it in front of the class, I wrote my story about Russia and presented it in front of the whole class with a Russian accent. In school, I was always the quiet one and only really talked to my friends. That act had a lot of people astonished including the teacher, I got a 100 for the presentation but I messed up with some grammar issues. All in all, the article “The Effort Effect” had similarities to the way Mr. Roccanova taught me. Prof. Dweck Stated, “Through a series of exercises, the experimenters trained half the students to chalk up their errors to insufficient effort, and encouraged them to keep going.” (Krakovsky) That is what he helped me with I would get caught up on little things which would hold me back and he would say skip it come back to it, it's not a big deal.

Carol Dweck a phycology professor was exploring the different mindsets within different kid groups some of her findings had similarities. My fixed mindset in reading, writing, and social studies really held me back through the years. Until my senior year came around and Mr. Roccanova was my teacher and guided me to slightly better myself as a person. Sometimes you need help and cannot see it until someone helps you out and you also see it so you improve. 

Works Cited

Krakovsky, Marina. “The Effort Effect.” STANFORD Magazine, Apr. 2007, https://stanfordmag.org/contents/the-effort-effect.