Over the past century, a powerful idea has taken root in the educational landscape. The concept of intelligence as something innate has been supplanted by the idea that intelligence is not fixed, and that, with the right training, we can be the authors of our own cognitive capabilities. Psychologist Alfred Binet, the developer of the first intelligence tests, was one of many 19th-century scientists who held that earlier view and sought to quantify cognitive ability. Then, in the early 20th century, progressive thinkers revolted against the notion that inherent ability is destiny. Instead, educators such as John Dewey argued that every child's intelligence could be developed, given the right environment. 

在过去的一个世纪里，一种强有力的理念在教育领域生根发芽。智力不是固定不变的，只要经过适当的训练，我们就能成为自己认知能力的创造者。心理学家阿尔弗雷德-比奈（Alfred Binet）是第一个智力测验的开发者，他是 19 世纪众多持这种观点并试图量化认知能力的科学家之一。随后，在 20 世纪初，进步思想家们开始反对 “与生俱来的能力就是命运 ”的观点。相反，约翰-杜威（John Dewey）等教育家认为，只要有合适的环境，每个孩子的智力都是可以开发的。

'Growth mindset theory' is a relatively new – and extremely popular – version of this idea. In many schools today you will see hallways covered in motivational posters and hear speeches on the mindset of great sporting heroes who simply believed their way to the top. A major focus of the growth mindset in schools is coaxing students away from seeing failure as an indication of their ability, and towards seeing it as a chance to improve that ability. As educationalist Jeff Howard noted several decades ago: 'Smart is not something that you just are, smart is something that you can get.'

“成长型思维理论 "是这一观点的一个相对较新且极为流行的版本。如今，在许多学校，你会看到走廊里贴满了激励人心的海报，听到关于伟大的体育英雄们的心态的演讲，他们只是相信自己的方式能够达到顶峰。在学校里，成长型思维模式的一个主要重点是哄骗学生不要把失败看作是能力的体现，而要把失败看作是提高能力的机会。正如教育学家杰夫-霍华德（Jeff Howard）在几十年前所指出的那样： 聪明不是你天生的，聪明是你可以得到的。

The idea of the growth mindset is based on the work of psychologist Carol Dweck in California in the 1990s. In one key experiment, Dweck divided a group of 10- to 12-year-olds into two groups. All were told that they had achieved a high score on a test but the first group were praised for their intelligence in achieving this, while the others were praised for their effort. The second group – those who had been instilled with a 'growth mindset' – were subsequently far more likely to put effort into future tasks. Meanwhile, the former took on only those tasks that would not risk their sense of worth. This group had inferred that success or failure is due to innate ability, and this 'fixed mindset' had led them to fear of failure and lack of effort. Praising ability actually made the students perform worse, while praising effort emphasised that change was possible.One of the greatest impediments to successfully implementing a growth mindset, however, is the education system itself: in many parts of the world, the school climate is obsessed with performance in the form of constant testing, analysing and ranking of students – a key characteristic of the fixed mindset. Nor is it unusual for schools to create a certain cognitive dissonance, when they applaud the benefits of a growth mindset but then hand out fixed target grades in lessons based on performance.

成长型思维模式的理念源自心理学家卡罗尔-德韦克（Carol Dweck）20 世纪 90 年代在加利福尼亚州的研究成果。在一个重要的实验中，德韦克把一群 10 到 12 岁的孩子分成两组。所有人都被告知他们在一次考试中取得了高分，但第一组人因他们的聪明才智而受到表扬，而其他组人则因他们的努力而受到表扬。第二组--那些被灌输了 “成长心态 ”的孩子--随后更有可能在未来的任务中付出努力。与此同时，前者只承担那些不会危及其价值感的任务。这组学生推断成败取决于先天能力，这种 “固定思维模式 ”导致他们害怕失败，缺乏努力。然而，成功实施成长型思维模式的最大障碍之一是教育系统本身：在世界许多地方，学校氛围沉迷于不断测试、分析和排名学生的成绩--这是固定型思维模式的主要特征。学校在称赞成长型思维模式的好处时，却在课堂上根据成绩给学生打出固定的目标分数，造成某种认知失调的情况也并不罕见。

Aside from the implementation problem, the original growth mindset research has also received harsh criticism. The statistician Andrew Gelman claims that 'their research designs have enough degrees of freedom that they could take their data to support just about any theory at all'. Professor of Psychology Timothy Bates, who has been trying to replicate Dweck's work, is finding that the results are repeatedly null. He notes that: 'People with a growth mindset don't cope any better with failure … Kids with the growth mindset aren't getting better grades, either before or after our intervention study.'

除了实施问题，最初的成长型思维模式研究也受到了严厉的批评。统计学家安德鲁-盖尔曼（Andrew Gelman）声称，“他们的研究设计有足够的自由度，可以让他们的数据支持几乎任何理论”。心理学教授蒂莫西-贝茨（Timothy Bates）一直试图复制德韦克的研究成果，但他发现研究结果屡屡无效。他指出 拥有成长型思维模式的人并不能更好地应对失败......无论是在我们的干预研究之前还是之后，拥有成长型思维模式的孩子都没有取得更好的成绩。

Much of this criticism is not lost on Dweck, and she deserves great credit for responding to it and adapting her work accordingly. In fact, she argues that her work has been misunderstood and misapplied in a range of ways. She has also expressed concerns that her theories are being misappropriated in schools by being conflated with the self-esteem movement: 'For me the growth mindset is a tool for learning and improvement. It's not just a vehicle for making children feel good.'

德韦克并没有忽视这些批评，她对这些批评做出了回应，并相应地调整了自己的工作，这一点值得高度赞扬。事实上，她认为自己的研究成果在很多方面被误解和误用。她还担心自己的理论在学校中被滥用，与自尊运动混为一谈："对我来说，成长型思维模式是一种学习和进步的工具。它不仅仅是让孩子们感觉良好的工具。

But there is another factor at work here. The failure to translate the growth mindset into the classroom might reflect a misunderstanding of the nature of teaching and learning itself. Growth mindset supporters David Yeager and Gregory Walton claim that interventions should be delivered in a subtle way to maximise their effectiveness. They say that if adolescents perceive a teacher's intervention as conveying that they are in need of help, this could undo its intended effects.

但还有另一个因素在起作用。未能将成长型思维模式转化为课堂教学，可能反映了对教学本质本身的误解。成长型思维模式的支持者大卫-耶格尔（David Yeager）和格雷戈里-沃尔顿（Gregory Walton）声称，应该以一种微妙的方式进行干预，以最大限度地发挥其效果。他们说，如果青少年认为教师的干预是在传达他们需要帮助的信息，这可能会破坏干预的预期效果。

A lot of what drives students is their innate beliefs and how they perceive themselves. There is a strong correlation between self-perception and achievement, but there is evidence to suggest that the actual effect of achievement on self-perception is stronger than the other way round. To stand up in a classroom and successfully deliver a good speech is a genuine achievement, and that is likely to be more powerfully motivating than vague notions of 'motivation' itself.

驱使学生学习的很大一部分原因是他们与生俱来的信念以及他们对自己的看法。自我认知与学习成绩之间有着密切的联系，但有证据表明，学习成绩对自我认知的实际影响要比反向影响大。站在教室里成功地做一次精彩的演讲是一种真正的成就，这可能比模糊的 “动机 ”概念本身更能激发学生的动力。

Recent evidence would suggest that growth mindset interventions are not the elixir of student learning that its proponents claim it to be. The growth mindset appears to be a viable construct in the lab, which, when administered in the classroom via targeted interventions, doesn't seem to work. It is hard to dispute that having faith in the capacity to change is a good attribute for students. Paradoxically, however, that aspiration is not well served by direct interventions that try to instil it. 

最近的证据表明，成长型思维干预并非其支持者所宣称的学生学习的灵丹妙药。在实验室里，成长型思维模式似乎是一个可行的概念，但在课堂上通过有针对性的干预措施来实施时，似乎并不奏效。相信自己有能力改变，这对学生来说是一个很好的特质，这一点很难质疑。然而，矛盾的是，试图灌输这种愿望的直接干预并不能很好地实现这种愿望。

Motivational posters and talks are often a waste of time, and might well give students a deluded notion of what success actually means. Teaching concrete skills such as how to write an effective introduction to an essay then praising students' effort in getting there is probably a far better way of improving confidence than telling them how unique they are, or indeed how capable they are of changing their own brains. Perhaps growth mindset works best as a philosophy and not an intervention.

激励性的海报和讲座往往是在浪费时间，很可能让学生对成功的实际意义产生错觉。教给学生具体的技能，比如如何写出一篇有效的文章开头，然后表扬他们在这方面所做的努力，可能比告诉他们自己有多么独特，或者他们有多么有能力改变自己的大脑，更能增强他们的自信心。或许，成长型思维作为一种理念，而不是一种干预措施，效果会更好。