Which term describes a person who sees abilities as unchangeable?

• A. Differentiated instruction
• B. Social and emotional learning (SEL)
• C. Fixed mindset
• D. Information processing theory

Answer: (C)

Beliefs about how abilities develop are at play here. A person who sees abilities as unchangeable holds a fixed mindset, the view that traits like intelligence or talent are static and cannot be significantly developed. This tends to lead to avoiding challenges, giving up after difficulty, and interpreting effort as fruitless, because effort and struggle are seen as indicators that one’s abilities are limited. The term fixed mindset best captures this stance. In contrast, differentiated instruction is about tailoring teaching to learners’ needs, social and emotional learning focuses on developing interpersonal and intrapersonal skills, and information processing theory explains how people attend to, encode, and retrieve information. These other concepts describe instructional strategies or cognitive processes, not beliefs about whether abilities can grow.