Khan Academy Launches Inspiring Movement to Change Minds about Learning: "You Can Learn Anything"

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Aug. 19, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- As millions of students head back to school, today Khan Academy is launching a new movement to change people's minds about learning, encouraging people that they can learn anything if they adopt the right mindset. For eight years Khan Academy has helped to change access to world-class educational content: and now wants to start a conversation about how we as a society think about learning. Too many people believe that their ability to develop their intelligence is limited. In new research released today by Edelman Berland, 79% of Americans are generally very optimistic about their innate ability to learn, but only 46% believe that they can change their intelligence.

Join the movement, visit: www.khanacademy.org/YouCanLearnAnything

The "You Can Learn Anything" movement is designed to encourage students of all ages and circumstances to understand that their intelligence is malleable; that it's a quality that can be developed throughout their whole lives and that struggle is a valuable part of the growth process. This idea is grounded in research pioneered by Dr. Carol Dweck of Stanford University that explores how adopting what she calls a "growth mindset" deeply affects motivation, the capacity to learn, and ultimately, success in life.

Khan Academy wants to stage an epic intervention in how people think about learning. A new site containing a short film introducing learners to the celebration of struggling and learning moments is one of the first components of the campaign. It is coupled with a new site-wide learning dashboard on Khan Academy which allows students to see their progress across different subjects and see a variety of subtle 'growth-mindset interventions' like videos, email and messages. Khan Academy is also launching new educational resources and features for parents and teachers, such as videos about the science behind how your brain grows, discussion guides and stories from celebrities such as John Legend about their own personal struggles and growth.

"Researchers have shown over the past few decades that even relatively short 'growth mindset interventions' can measurably change a learner's attitude. These have been studies with thousands of people. Given that, we thought 'would it be possible to do a growth-mindset intervention for millions of people, for the entire country or even world?' That is what the "You Can Learn Anything" movement is about," said Khan Academy founder Salman Khan. "At Khan Academy, we really want to change not only how people learn but how they think about learning. We want to help people see challenges as growth opportunities and understand that anyone's ability is primarily built through effort and perseverance rather than innate gifts."

Visit www.khanacademy.org/YouCanLearnAnything for more information on joining the movement, sharing the content, and telling experiences of learning to inspire and encourage others.  

About Khan Academy
Khan Academy is a 501(c)3 non-profit with a mission of providing a free world-class education for anyone, anywhere. Khan Academy provides free online educational experiences that support personalized education for users of all ages in a scalable way. Students can learn and practice skills through a personalized dashboard that tailors content based on grade level and subject area. To date, the organization has delivered over 2 billion problem questions and has over 15 million registered users. In addition to content from prestigious institutions such as MIT, NASA, The British Museum and MoMA, Khan Academy covers subjects areas such as computer science, math, art history, economics, physics, biology, chemistry and more.

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SOURCE Khan Academy