Throughout ENVS 220 I have began to cultivate more of a sense of a growth mindset. Scholar Robert Sternberg describes that in a growth mindset, “people believe that their most basic abilities can be developed through dedication and hard work—brains and talent are just the starting point.”
A growth mindset has been shown through the many challenges I have come across in work in labs, on this website, and in figuring out a concentration. Not only have these been challenges I have struggled with, but there are also several instances of failure as well. I have failed to embed images and charts correctly, to correctly collect some data points in the RVNA lab, and for a long while, I failed to figure out my concentration. Luckily, I can document my growth through this website. I can show myself and others the improvement over time Not only that, but this website also allows me to edit things that I failed at and turn them into successes. Also, the several drafts of my concentration proposal allow for improvement as well with each new iteration.
For example, in the second lab report our group did, we included blurry screenshots of data tables directly taken from the SSPS program. This was both unprofessional looking and included way more data than we discussed or explained. However, because this wasn’t like a regular lab report we would turn in, we were able to edit our post. We looked to other examples of the lab report by other students and made new charts to better represent our data and make a more aesthetically pleasing post. Similarly, if I find a problem in this post, it is easy to edit.
Because of all these opportunities for improvement, I can keep working on my failures until I feel comfortable with them and can be comfortable in not making some the same mistakes again. Another example of this is working through my failures using ArcGIS by asking for help and putting in extra thought and effort to improve my GIS skills. I talk about that process in this post. By making me more comfortable with my shortcomings and giving ample opportunities for improvement, this course has been instrumental in cultivating a growth mindset.