What is neuroplasticity and how it benefits people
Neuroplasticity is the brain’s ability to reorganize itself by modifying/changing neural connections in the brain which allows our brain to make new neural connections through our lives. In simpler words, our brain is malleable (like plastic) and the more you practice something, the stronger the connections are.
The old belief is that our intelligence is predetermined when we are born. If you’re bad at maths, you’ll always be bad and there’s no way for you to improve. However, understanding neuroplasticity and how it works is beneficial because it helps us change the way we think about learning. It’s great motivation for people to know that you can get better by practicing something over and over again - ‘practice makes perfect’.
How I will use the principles of neuroplasticity to benefit my learning
Ways to increase neuroplasticity:
What is a Growth Mindset and why is it relevant?
Imagine if you are learning a new skill and you’ve hit a roadblock – what are the thoughts that go through your mind? Is it something like: ”This is too hard, I’m not going to get it, I give up!” or, are you thinking something along lines of: ” I don’t understand this yet but if I spend more time on it, I’ll get there!”? If you are the latter, it means you have a growth mindset!
A growth mindset is having the understanding that your intelligence and abilities can be developed through persistence and practice. The opposite of this is a fixed mindset where you believe that your intelligence and abilities are fixed; i.e you can only do so much and that’s it, you cannot do anymore because you’ve reached the limit of your intelligence.
Developing a growth mindset is relevant to this course because we’re all here to learn and having that outlook on our learning will help with learning process. For me, a lot of the content is new and so having a growth mindset will help me power through the content. It’s like having a positive mindset that you’ll get it eventually, when if you don’t understand it right now.
Did anything surprise me during this exploration?
I was previously a teacher and so growth mindset is something I am familiar with because it was taught in our classrooms. I know that for myself, I am still on a journey to develop my own growth mindset. It’s so easy to fall into negative self-talk so reading about it through this course is a great reminder.
How will I integrate growth mindset into my learning journey
After reading about neuroplasticity and the growth mindset, I believe the ideas behind them align with my current learning plan and strategy. I will continue to take regular breaks to give myself a break and time to reset if I am getting frustrated with anything. I am regularly reminding myself that it’s ok if I don’t understand or get things right away, it takes time and practise.