Limitless Mind: Learn, Lead, and Live Without Barriers

by Jo Boaler

what if the opposite is true, and we can all learn anything? What if the possibilities to change our expertise, to develop in new directions, to form different identities as people are actually endless and continue throughout our lives? What if we wake up every day of our lives with a changed brain? This book will share evidence that our brains—and our lives—are highly adaptable, and that when people fully embrace this knowledge and change their approach to their lives and their learning, incredible outcomes result.

When people give up on math, they also give up on all math-related subjects, such as science, medicine, and technology.

Every year millions of children start school excited about all they will learn, but quickly become disillusioned when they get the idea they are not as “smart” as others. Adults decide not to follow pathways they had hoped to pursue because they decide they are not good enough for them, or they are not as “smart” as other people. Thousands of employees enter meetings in the workplace anxious that they will be found out, and exposed for not “knowing enough.”

as we begin to realize our potential, we unlock parts of ourselves that had been held back and start to live without limiting beliefs; we become able to meet the small and large challenges we are faced with in life and turn them into achievements.

Many children grow up thinking that either you can do math or you can’t. When they struggle, they assume they can’t. From that point on, any struggle is a further reminder of their perceived inadequacies. This affects millions of people. One study found that 48 percent of all young adults in a work-apprentice program had math anxiety;1 other studies have found that approximately 50 percent of students taking introductory math courses in college suffer from math anxiety.

Researchers now know that when people with math anxiety encounter numbers, a fear center in the brain is activated—the same fear center that lights up when people see snakes or spiders.3 As the fear center of the brain becomes activated, activity in the problem-solving centers of the brain is diminished. It is no wonder that so many people underachieve in mathematics—as soon as people become anxious about it, their brains are compromised. Anxiety in any subject area has a negative impact on the functioning of the brain.

It is critical that we change the messages that are given to learners about their ability and rid education and homes of anxiety-inducing teaching practices.

The myth that our brains are fixed and that we simply don’t have the aptitude for certain topics is not only scientifically inaccurate; it is omnipresent and negatively impacts education and many other events in our everyday lives. When we let go of the idea that our brains are fixed, stop believing that our genetics determine our lives’ pathways, and learn that our brains are incredibly adaptable, it is liberating.

neuroplasticity.

This approach illustrates a key takeaway—when you hit a barrier, it is advantageous to develop a new approach and come at the problem from a new perspective.

Those who study remarkable feats performed by seemingly ordinary people find that none of the people have a genetic advantage; instead, they put in a lot of effort and practice.

One of the important studies Dweck and her colleagues conducted took place in mathematics classes at Columbia University.10 The researchers found stereotyping to be alive and well: young women were being given the message that they did not belong in the discipline. They also found that the message hit home only with those who had a fixed mindset. When students with a fixed mindset heard the message that math was not for women, they dropped out. Those with a growth mindset, however, protected by the belief that anyone can learn anything, were able to reject the stereotypical messages and keep going.

It simply said: “I am giving you this feedback because I believe in you.”

One of the ways children—even those as young as three—develop a damaging fixed mindset is from a small, seemingly innocuous word that is used ubiquitously. The word is “smart.”

It is fine to praise children, but always praise what they did and not them as people.

“Everything you’ve ever wanted is on the other side of fear.” Let’s think together now about ways to become limitless and move to the other side of negative beliefs and fear.

Every time we learn, our brains form, strengthen, or connect neural pathways. We need to replace the idea that learning ability is fixed, with the recognition that we are all on a growth journey.

On average, people have to take the test twelve times in order to pass it.

Researchers also found that when black-cab drivers retired from cab driving, the hippocampus shrank back down again—not from age, but from lack of use.

Brains were literally growing new connections and pathways as the adults studied and learned, and when the pathways were no longer needed, they faded away.

We have multiple forms of evidence, from neuroscience and from medicine, that brains are in a constant state of growth and change.

Researchers now know that when we learn something, we grow the brain in three ways. The first is that a new pathway is formed. Initially the pathway is delicate and fine, but the more deeply you learn an idea, the stronger the pathway becomes. The second is that a pathway that is already there is strengthened, and the third is that a connection is formed between two previously unconnected pathways.

the more we struggle, the better the learning and brain growth,

It is the lack of opportunities for important knowledge to get to the people who need it that prompted Cathy Williams and me to start youcubed. This is a Stanford center and website (youcubed.org) dedicated to getting research evidence on learning to the people who need it—especially

the most notable quality of our brains is their adaptability and potential for changing and growing.

The difference was that the students identified as having disabilities had more brain regions lighting up when they worked on a math problem.

It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all—in which case, you fail by default.

I asked the Stanford students I knew to reflect upon their experiences of being labeled as “gifted.”23 The twelve Stanford students who speak in the film give a consistent message—they received advantages, but at some costs. The students talk about feeling that they had a fixed thing inside them, and when they struggled, they thought it had “run out.” They say they learned that they could not ask questions; they could only answer other people’s questions. They say that they tried to hide any struggles, in case people found out that they did not have a “gift.” At the end a student named Julia strikingly says, “If I grew up in a world where no one was labeled as gifted, I would have asked a lot more questions.”

When you are valued for having a brain that you did not develop, one you were just given at birth, you become averse to any form of struggle and start to believe you do not belong in areas where you encounter it.

The first step in living a limitless, unlocked life is to know brains are constantly reorganizing, growing, and changing.

As we start to recognize the huge implications of the adaptability of our brains, we will start to open our minds, and live differently.

The times when we are struggling and making mistakes are the best times for brain growth.

Releasing people from the idea that they must always be correct and not make any mistakes turns out to be transformative.

every time we make mistakes, synapses fire in the brain, indicating brain growth. All

Not only should the work be challenging to foster mistakes; the environment must also be encouraging, so that the students do not experience challenge or struggle as a deterrent. Both components need to work together to create an ideal learning experience.

“talent hotbeds,”

how do we all develop “super-duper pathways”? This occurs when people are working at the edge of their understanding, making mistake after mistake in difficult circumstances, correcting mistakes, moving on and making more mistakes—constantly pushing themselves with difficult material.

Japan has always scored well in mathematics—it has always finished in one of the top-five TIMSS positions—and was one of the countries visited in the study. The researchers found that Japanese students spent 44 percent of their time “inventing, thinking, and struggling with underlying concepts,” whereas students in the US engaged in this kind of behavior less than 1 percent of the time.

A much more helpful way of reviewing material is to test yourself, so that you keep having to recall the material—and hopefully make mistakes and correct them along the way.

What makes Ellie’s experience so compelling? Ellie was the most improved of all of the students in camp, moving from one of the lowest scores on the pretest at the start of camp to one of the highest scores eighteen days later. She started in seventy-third position but ended in an impressive thirteenth position, moving up sixty places in the process—and improving her score by 450 percent! Ellie was working in Coyle’s “zone of accelerated learning”13—pushing at the edge of her understanding, making mistakes and correcting them, and developing her understanding at an accelerated rate.

this sort of persistence is missing in the students they teach. One of the most common complaints I hear from teachers is that students don’t want to struggle; they want to be told what to do. To the teachers it seems as though students just can’t be bothered with struggling, which is probably what it looks like. The truth is, however, that when students don’t want to struggle, it is because they have a fixed mindset; at some point in their lives they have been given the idea that they cannot be successful and that struggle is an indication that they are not doing well.

When Jennifer first started to encourage struggle with students, she used the metaphor of steps. She now places the image of the steps on Post-it notes all around her classroom.

Jennifer tells her students that these are the steps of struggle, and they don’t have to be the “smug person” on the top step, but they should also not be the “sad person” on the bottom step. They simply need to get onto the steps of struggle, as that is a really important place to be.

“#TheLearningPit,” from James Nottingham, The Learning Challenge: How to Guide Your Students Through the Learning Pit to Achieve Deeper Understanding

She told me that students sometimes get frustrated and say to her: “Ms. Schaefer, I am really in the pit!” And she answers, “Excellent! What classroom tools do you need?” There are two important features of this answer. First, Jennifer celebrates the fact that the student is in the pit, saying, “Excellent!” Second, she does not structure the work for them, breaking it down into manageable pieces; she simply asks what resources would help them. This is a teacher who understands that struggle is a really important place to be and that students should be celebrated for being in a place of struggle, not saved from it. Leah Haworth,

It is nearly impossible to keep going as an academic without viewing “failure” as an opportunity to improve. A wise professor named Paul Black, my PhD advisor, once said to me: “Whenever you send a paper to a journal, have in mind the next journal you will send it to when the paper is rejected.” I have used his advice a number of times.

It is easy to feel open and free when things are going well; it is when things are going badly and challenges or aggression stand in our way that it is most important to be limitless.

position as a learning specialist, but she had only been there for four months when she was unexpectedly and inexplicably fired. The school where she was working was apparently not ready for the cutting-edge and important ideas she was promoting. Many people would crumble in this situation, but Kate had, over many years, become unlocked and was able to reframe her situation, seeing it not as a failure but as an opportunity. After the initial shock, Kate decided to regard her job ending as a new chance for renewal and creativity. Instead of looking for another job, Kate created her own and now works as an education facilitator connecting schools and families.

when we believe different things about ourselves, our brains—and our bodies—function differently.

When we change our beliefs, our bodies and our brains physically change as well.