Mindset and Learning

I am an eighth grade English teacher. In the past year, I attended two different conferences on two different subjects in which the presenter recommended the book Mindset by Carol Dweck. It was available at my local library, so I thought I’d give it a try.

I started reading with an educator’s eye, but the further I got, the more my mind started drawing comparisons to my interest in improvisation. The author explains that there are two basic mindsets—fixed and growth. If you have a fixed mindset, you see your skills and intelligence as things you can’t change. If you have a growth mindset, you believe you can improve your skills and intelligence, and you see criticism is an opportunity to better yourself.

How does this apply to improv? I completed a four-course improvisational theater program through The Torch Theatre in Phoenix. After graduation I joined several troupes, with whom I rehearse and perform regularly. I’ve had some awful shows and some great ones, but I feel that ever since I took my final Torch class my skills have steadily declined. I need feedback to know that I am learning and growing as an improviser.

Will there ever be a point at which I can’t learn anything more from an improv class? Maybe, but I have a growth mindset, so the more classes I take and the more feedback I get, the more I learn about life. Taking these classes improved my acting, public speaking, and job skills; how can I ever have too much of that?

My suggestions to you are: One, read this book. Two, take an(other) improv class. At the very least, you’ll learn some things about yourself. At the most, you’ll fall in love with it and become a life-long student of improv.