Carol Dweck to speak in Palo Alto Oct. 4

OSHMAN FAMILY JCC PRESENTS
WORLD-RENOWNED PSYCHOLOGIST CAROL DWECK, PH.D.
FOR AN EVENING OF DISCUSSION ENTITLED
“MINDSET: Helping Children (and Adults) Fulfill their Potential”
October 4, 2015

Can praise actually harm children? Oshman Family JCC presents acclaimed author Carol Dweck, Ph.D. for an evening of discussion entitled, “MINDSET: Helping Children (and Adults) Fulfill their Potential.” During this provocative evening, Dr. Carol Dweck will dive deeper in to her research on how society can promote achievement in education and innovation in business. She argues that praise for intelligence can actually undermine performance and will share some other common pitfalls to help achieve a growth mindset. Says Dweck, “No parent thinks ‘I wonder what I can do today to undermine my children, subvert their effort, turn them off learning, and limit their achievement.’ Of course not. They think ‘I would do anything, give anything, to make my children successful.’ Yet many of the things they do boomerang. Their helpful judgments, their lessons, their motivating techniques often send the wrong message.”

In her most recent book, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, Dweck explores two ideologies that measure achievement. A “fixed mindset” assumes that one’s character, intelligence, and creative ability are static givens which one cannot change in any meaningful way, and success is the affirmation of that inherent intelligence. A “growth mindset,” on the other hand, thrives on challenge and sees failure not as evidence of unintelligence, but as a heartening springboard for growth and for stretching one’s existing abilities. Dweck argues, “Every word and action sends a message. It tells children – or students or athletes – how to think about themselves. It can be a fixed mindset message that says: ‘You have permanent traits and I’m judging them.’ Or it can be a growth mindset message that says: ‘You are a developing person and I am interested in your development.’”

Carol Dweck, Ph.D. is one of the world’s leading researchers in the field of motivation and is the Lewis and Virginia Eaton Professor of Psychology at Stanford University. Her research has focused on why people succeed and how to foster success. She has held professorships at Columbia and Harvard Universities, has lectured all over the world, and has been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Her scholarly book Self-Theories: Their Role in Motivation, Personality, and Development, was named Book of the Year by the World Education Federation. Her work has been featured in such publications as The New Yorker, Time Magazine, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Boston Globe, and she has appeared on Today and 20/20.

WHERE: Oshman Family JCC- Schultz Cultural Arts Hall
3921 Fabian Way, Palo Alto

WHEN: Sunday, October 4, 2015 at 5pm

TICKETS: For tickets ($10-$17) visit http://paloaltojcc.org/Events/author-carol-dweck-phd or call (650) 223-8649.