I was thrilled to read Stephanie Erickson’s column about the importance of a growth (“not yet”) process in education.1 I wish to share my own perspectives as well as some techniques to implement a growth mindset based on my undergraduate astronomy courses for both science majors/minors and nonscientists.
My motivation stems from personal experiences in both academics and athletics and from the thought-provoking words of Robert Yager.2 In athletics, “failure” is common and encouraged, while striving to reach high standards. For example, a good batting average is “0.300”; i.e., the athlete fails 70% of the time. Yet, that athlete is rewarded with an eight-figure salary. In practice, science is also a process of growth, involving repeated failures but also learning from those failures and improving towards mastery or discovery.
It is common to read about the importance of “failure” (e.g., Refs. 3, 4) in society. Unfortunately, our...