Learning as an “Art”: The Journey of a Chess and Tai Chi Champion

As part of the requirements for my Introduction to Gifted Education course, I have my preservice and inservice teachers watch five movies from a list of several dozen. While watching the movies, they are asked to use the Kingore Observation Inventory to determine ways in which the characters may be gifted. After watching Searching for Bobby Fisher, I was interested in finding out what had become of Josh, the main character of this movie. Josh Waitzkin was a chess prodigy, and Searching for Bobby Fisher was his father’s attempt to describe the journey from young boy to chess champion.

Josh Waitzkin is a gifted person with multipotentiality. Not only did he display giftedness through chess, he later became a Tai Chi champion. I learned from his website that he had written a book, The Art of Learning, and as a professor in teacher education, I was immediately drawn to the title. Several months later, at the National Association for Gifted Children’s Annual Conference in fall 2008, each participant was given a copy of Waitzkin’s book in preparation for his keynote address in fall 2009. Having previously purchased the book but not having read it, I had another reason to read this book.

I sponsor a gifted education book club selection three times per year, and The Art of Learning is my choice for summer 2009. Many of the participants will already have seen Searching for Bobby Fisher, and this book will be a great way for them to learn what became of Josh, as well as to read about the art of learning from the perspective of a gifted learner.

This book speaks to Josh’s ability to maximize his learning through passion, focus, automaticity through practice, intuition, reining in impulsivity, remaining open to continuous learning through a growth mindset, and preparation. While reading this book, I was reminded of others whose ideas have inspired me including: Coach John Wooden (The Pyramid of Success), Carol Dweck (Mindset), Jane Piirto (The Pyramid of Talent Development), and Art Costa and Bena Kallick (Habits of Mind).

Moving Toward a Growth Mindset

More than a month has gone by since I have had both the time and inspiration to create a new post. My latest inspiration is Carol Dweck’s book Mindset: The New Psychology of Success.

My colleague Mark Szymanski and I have created a visual representation of the Positive Identity Development Process of gifted people (you can find it on our website: teachwithintention.net). At the first level, we begin with four of the commonly misunderstood innate aspects of many gifted people: the amplified ways of being. This includes sensitivity, introversion/extroversion, perfectionism, and curiosity. The next level of this model focuses on the Habits of Mind as proposed by Art Costa and Bena Kallik. And the final portion of our model includes three aspects of a life-long learner: information seeking, problem solving, and creative producing.

While reading Dweck’s book, it became obvious that in my workshops, I needed to add her concepts of the fixed mindset and growth mindset prior to talking about the Habits of Mind. As parents and teachers, we need to be aware of our own mindsets and the model we are providing for children. Dweck proposes that the growth mindset enables children and adults to fulfill their potential while the fixed mindset can cause people to plateau and never realize that potential. Some key findings of her research include:

Fixed Mindset: Intelligence is static. This might cause a gifted child to put little effort into their school work because that effort would make them seem as though they aren’t really gifted. After all, if they are that smart, why should they have to work hard?

Growth Mindset: Intelligence can be developed. Gifted children with this mindset are fortunate because they have a great desire to learn, and they see that their effort impacts their ability.

I appreciate that Dweck shows us examples of her own aspects of a fixed mindset and how she works hard to move her thinking to a growth mindset. For parents and teachers of gifted students, Dweck’s research in the area of praise is particularly important. She cautions us to praise effort rather than intelligence if we want to prevent fixed mindsets.

This book is a MUST for any parent or teacher, but it is vital for those of us who live with or teach children who are bright, sensitive, and intense. Our children deserve adults who can model a desire to learn, a willingness to embrace challenges, and an ability to be persistent in the face of obstacles. There is a greater chance that these wonderful children will develop positive identities if they are encouraged to embrace a growth mindset.