Exercises — Chapter 26: Learning, Growth Mindset, and Expertise

The irony of studying learning: the least effective study strategies are the most common. These exercises are designed with the research in mind — they are effortful, active, and metacognitive.

Part 1: Mindset Inventory

Exercise 26.1 — Fixed vs. Growth Mindset Mapping

(a) Rate your implicit beliefs about each domain below (1 = strongly fixed: "I either have this ability or I don't"; 10 = strongly growth: "this ability is completely developable with the right effort and approach"):

(b) In which domain is your mindset most fixed? How does this show up in your behavior — do you avoid challenge in this domain? Accept failure as evidence of limitation?

(c) Identify a specific belief underlying your most fixed-mindset domain: "People are either _ or they're not." Now generate an alternative: "People can develop ___ through..."

(d) Has your fixed mindset in any domain been challenged by evidence? Have you ever believed you couldn't develop something and then developed it?

Exercise 26.2 — Mindset in Response to Failure

Think about a recent failure or significant setback.

(a) What was your immediate internal response? Finish these sentences as you actually responded (not as you wish you had responded): - "This means I am..." - "I should..." - "Next time..."

(b) Classify your response on the fixed/growth continuum. Was the primary interpretation about what the failure reveals about your fixed ability (fixed) or about what the failure suggests you should do differently (growth)?

(c) Rewrite your response from a full growth mindset orientation: what would a genuinely growth-oriented interpretation of the same failure look like?

(d) The chapter notes that growth mindset involves curiosity about failure rather than shame. What is one genuine question this failure raises about what you could do differently?

Exercise 26.3 — Praise Pattern Audit

Think about how you typically praise or recognize others (direct reports, children, students, peers).

(a) Record the last three instances where you praised someone for something they did well. Write your actual words.

(b) Classify each: was the praise directed at the person ("you're so smart/talented/creative") or the process ("that strategy was effective / the effort you put in / the approach you took")?

(c) If person-praise predominates: write three alternative process-praise versions of your most common praise statements.

(d) For the next two weeks, consciously practice process praise. Notice whether it changes how people respond to difficulty after receiving it.

Part 2: Learning Strategies

Exercise 26.4 — Retrieval Practice

Choose a topic you are currently studying or a domain you want to understand better.

Step 1: Without looking at any materials, write down everything you know about the topic. (This is itself a retrieval practice exercise.)

Step 2: Review your materials. Identify the gaps between what you recalled and what is actually there.

Step 3: Without looking at the materials again, attempt to recall the material you just read — particularly the parts you missed in Step 1.

Step 4: Space: repeat Step 3 in three days. Then again in one week. Then again in two weeks.

(a) After completing Step 1 and Step 2: how accurate was your self-assessment of what you knew? Did you have an illusion of knowing — believing you understood more than you actually did?

(b) Apply this practice to one area of professional or personal learning for the next month. Note how retention changes with each spaced retrieval session.

Exercise 26.5 — The Study Strategy Audit

Assess your current learning practices:

(a) List the five study/learning strategies you use most frequently.

(b) Using the chapter's evidence (Dunlosky et al.), classify each as high, moderate, or low utility:

(c) Is there a gap between the strategies you use most and the strategies with the strongest evidence? What drives your strategy choices if not evidence?

(d) Choose one high-utility strategy you currently underuse and implement it in your learning this week. Notice what changes.

Exercise 26.6 — Spaced Repetition Experiment

Design a four-week spaced repetition practice for a specific set of information you want to retain (vocabulary, concepts, names, historical events, technical knowledge).

(a) Identify 20–30 specific pieces of information.

(b) Create a review schedule with increasing intervals: - Week 1: review on Day 1, Day 3, Day 6 - Week 2: review on Day 10 - Week 3: review on Day 17 - Week 4: review on Day 24

(c) At the end of four weeks: test retention without looking at the material. Compare to your retention after an equivalent amount of time studying by re-reading.

(d) Did the spacing feel inefficient while you were doing it? (It usually does.) What was the actual retention rate at the end?

Part 3: Deliberate Practice

Exercise 26.7 — Deliberate Practice Design

Identify a skill you are currently developing or want to develop.

(a) Describe your current practice: what do you typically do when you "practice" this skill?

(b) Apply the deliberate practice criteria: - Designed for improvement: is your practice targeting specific weaknesses, or reinforcing existing strengths? - Full cognitive engagement: are you fully focused during practice, or partially distracted? - Immediate feedback: are you receiving feedback specific enough to identify what went wrong and how to correct it? - Operating at the edge of capability: is the practice difficult and inconsistent (at the edge), or fluent and comfortable (below it)? - Repetition with variation: are you trying different approaches to the challenging element, or repeating the same attempt?

(c) Redesign your practice session to meet the deliberate practice criteria. What specifically would change?

(d) What is the hardest part of the skill that you currently avoid or minimize in practice? That is your most important deliberate practice target.

Exercise 26.8 — The Expert Feedback Problem

Deliberate practice requires feedback specific enough to identify errors and guide correction.

(a) For your most important current skill development: who in your life has the expertise to give you this quality of feedback?

(b) How often do you receive this feedback? How often do you request it?

(c) If adequate expert feedback is unavailable: what proxies could you use? - Video recording your own performance and reviewing it - Comparison to high-quality exemplars (recordings, texts, work samples) - Performance data or metrics that reveal gaps

(d) Design one specific feedback-seeking action you will take in the next two weeks: "I will ask [person] for feedback specifically on [aspect of skill] by [date]."

Exercise 26.9 — Plateau Recognition

(a) In your primary professional or creative domain, honestly assess: have you plateaued? Is your performance in the past two years qualitatively different from your performance three years ago?

(b) If you have plateaued: identify the specific capability you have been reinforcing with routine practice rather than developing through deliberate practice. What is the skill dimension you have been avoiding working on?

(c) What would deliberate practice targeting this specific weakness look like? What would a deliberate practice session on this specific skill look like tomorrow?

(d) The chapter notes that many professionals have "one year of deliberate practice, repeated." Is this true in your case? If so, what would breaking the pattern require?

Part 4: Metacognition

Exercise 26.10 — Calibration Self-Assessment

(a) Choose a domain where you consider yourself knowledgeable (your profession, a hobby, an academic subject).

(b) Identify 10 specific claims you believe to be true in this domain. Rate your confidence in each (60%, 75%, 90%, 99%).

(c) For each claim: how would you verify whether it is actually correct? What is the source of your knowledge?

(d) For any claim where you couldn't immediately identify how to verify it: what does that tell you about the quality of your confidence?

(e) The Dunning-Kruger effect suggests that low competence produces overestimated competence. In which domains are you most likely to be overconfident? What evidence suggests this?

Exercise 26.11 — The Learning Journal Practice

Begin a learning journal — not a note-taking system, but a reflective practice.

Each day for two weeks, spend 10 minutes writing: - What did I encounter today that I didn't understand or that surprised me? - What did I think I understood and then discover I didn't? - What question am I carrying that I haven't answered? - What connection am I making between something new and something I already know?

After two weeks: (a) What recurring themes appear in the questions you're carrying? (b) How has the practice of naming what you don't know changed your relationship to learning in this period? (c) Has the practice revealed any illusions of knowing — things you thought you understood that you actually hadn't?

Part 5: Learning Mindset in Practice

Exercise 26.12 — The Beginner's Mind Practice

Choose an area where you are an expert or have significant experience.

Spend 30 minutes approaching it with genuine beginner's mind: - Ask questions you would never ask in your expert role (the "obvious" questions, the "dumb" questions) - Notice what you take for granted that a newcomer would find non-obvious - Identify what you would explain differently to a complete novice than you would to a peer

(a) What did you discover that surprised you? (b) Did approaching your area of expertise with beginner's mind reveal any assumptions you hadn't examined? (c) How does beginner's mind change the way you engage with the domain?

Exercise 26.13 — Failure Debrief Protocol

For the next three significant mistakes or setbacks you experience:

Apply this debrief structure: 1. What happened? (Factual description, not interpretation) 2. What were my expectations, and how did reality differ? 3. What does this tell me about my understanding that I can correct? 4. What would I do differently with this information? 5. What is the one most useful thing I learned from this?

After three debrief cycles: (a) How does the structured debrief change your emotional relationship to the failures? (b) How much useful information do you extract from mistakes compared to your pre-debrief approach? (c) Is there a pattern in what produces your most common failures?

Part 6: Building the Learning Environment

Exercise 26.14 — Intelligent Failure Audit

Think about the organizational or family culture you're part of.

(a) Are the following types of failure treated differently or equivalently? - Negligence/inattention (blameworthy) - Complex failure in novel situations (learning event) - Intelligent failure from sound reasoning in new territory (valuable)

(b) What actually happens when someone fails in your environment? Is there a formal or informal accountability process? Does it distinguish between failure types?

(c) If your culture treats all failures equivalently: what are the behavioral consequences? Does it produce risk avoidance, information hiding, or both?

(d) What would changing one aspect of how your culture treats intelligent failure look like?

Exercise 26.15 — Your Learning Development Plan

Design a 90-day deliberate learning plan for the skill area most important to your current goals.

(a) Skill target: What specifically are you trying to develop?

(b) Current level: On a 1–10 scale, where are you now? What specifically defines "10" in this domain?

(c) Key weakness: What is the most important specific gap between where you are and where you want to be?

(d) Deliberate practice design: What specifically will you do to address the key weakness? - What is the practice activity? - How often, for how long? - What feedback will you receive, from whom? - How will you know if you're making progress?

(e) 90-day checkpoint: What specific, observable capability will you have at day 90 if the practice works?

(f) Accountability: Who will you share this plan with?