Keys to Student Success Workshops

Attendance at the following "Keys to College Success" workshops will be available for extra credit, two points per workshop.

This spring, the Learning Center is piloting a series of three Keys to College Success Workshops. These workshops are based on the growth mindset interventions developed by Stanford psychologist Carol Dweck.

Dweck has spent her entire career studying motivation and why some people persist through setbacks and others do not. After years of research, she now believes that the foundation of motivation can be traced to people’s mindsets. Dweck has coined the term "growth mindset" to describe the viewpoint of people who see intelligence and all abilities as skills that can be developed through hard work, effort, and good strategies, and the "fixed mindset" to describe the viewpoint of people who believe intelligence and other abilities are fixed at birth and cannot be changed.

Not surprisingly, Dweck has found that people with a growth mindset are more likely to persevere in facing challenges and setbacks, and people with a fixed mindset are more likely to give up when faced with difficulties. Dweck has also found, however, that mindsets are malleable and that teaching students to cultivate a growth mindset - in part by teaching them some basic principles of neuroscience such as that when we learn, we can "grow" our brains - dramatically improves their chances of facing and overcoming obstacles in their education.

Now, with funding from GCC's Basic Skills Committee, The Learning Center is able to offer students growth mindset interventions through the Keys to College Success Workshops.

The schedule for the workshops is as follows:

Wednesdays, 12:30 to 1:30 on March 4 (#1), March 11 (#2), and March 18 (#3)

Tuesdays, 12:30 to 1:30 on March 10 (#1), March 17 (#2), and March 24 (#3)

Thursdays, 5:30 to 6:30, March 19 (#1), March 26 (#2), and April 2 (#3)

While the workshops have been developed as a series of three, each workshop functions independently of the others, so students can benefit from attending any one or two or all three. In addition, students do not need to take the workshops in order and can take them in any combination of days and times that fits with their schedules.

Signups are through MyGCC at the following link: http://secure.glendale.edu/lcwrkshp/allworkshops.asp

Here are some of the comments made by GCC students who learned about how to develop a growth mindset last fall when asked about how the interventions affected them:

"I am more willing to ask for help and listen more and learn from people. I spend more time trying to understand things than before.”

"I know now that intelligence grows, so all I need is some practice and effort."

"I believe I have a growth mindset because I try to welcome challenges. If people are doing better than me, I make them my inspiration."

"I know now to just ask questions no matter how dumb the question sounds because at the end of the day, you are improving your knowledge by asking questions.”

“I am more willing to ask for help than ever before. I text people in my classes to create study groups and I ask tutors for help all the time.”

"I am more open about going to my professor’s office."

Best,

Elizabeth Bryer (English), Shant Shahoian (Learning Center), and Jan Young (Basic Skills Coordinator)