Here’s a link to, what I personally think is a revolutionary concept presented by Prof Carol Dweck.
In a nutshell, a Growth mindset, as apposed to Fixed mindset is essential to ever allowing your kid to be in the front of learning – to ever challenge his comfort zone – and constantly expend.
By understanding that the brain is ever evolving and hence intelligence is a dynamic term that one has full control over, our kids are motivated to try and expand.
In a more fundamental ego related level, by dis-identifying with themselves (as Dweck implies by praising the action and not the person) a linkage is created between action and result which again fuels the motivation to learn.
The results Dweck’s ideas has created along with the differences in brain’s activity between a kid with a Growth mindset to a kid with a Fixed one are mind blowing!