Yidan Prize winner Carol Dweck urges against cramming culture of the kind Hong Kong has become known for
Stanford professor in the city to receive world’s biggest education prize, as government mulls continuation of exam derided as encouraging high-pressure rote learning
Children’s learning should be joyful and focused on understanding and inquiry – rather than the drilling that Hong Kong schools have become known for – a renowned psychologist, recently in the city to receive the world’s biggest education prize, has said.
Professor Carol Dweck’s remarks come as the city’s government prepares to announce whether a standard test often associated with high-pressure rote learning will continue next year.
Dweck, from Stanford University in the US, was in Hong Kong last week to collect the inaugural Yidan Prize for Education Research, for her groundbreaking research on the power of the “growth mindset”, based on the belief that intelligence is not fixed and can be developed over time, given the right approach.
Dweck, 71, said her research, which goes back about 40 years, was prompted by her interest in why only some children fulfil their potential.
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