Growth Mindset

I reflected more on the growth mindset around the time that we were covering it early in the course, but it has had an effect on the way I approach teaching and conversing with students. For those of you unfamiliar, growth mindset, as opposed to fixed mindset is having the inclination that you are capable of learning and applying new knowledge. Through work, strategies and help, not luck and innate ability, you can improve your lot! Believing this and acting as such can help with motivation and empowerment (Dweck, 2006). This concept especially rings true in education. In the last couple of decades, with the advent of technologies such as Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) has lead to an explosion in understanding of how the brain works and it appears now that human brain are growing, developing and refining themselves until at least a person reaches their 30’s. This point in particular is why it is important to stop students from saying “ah well I always was poor at Math!” or some equivalent statement (Snowman& McCown, 2015).

I remember doing an exercise on motivation factors at a workshop on dealing with troublesome students a few years ago and I put self-perception right at the bottom of the list I was making. I could not have been more wrong! At least I am learning from it and I am increasingly aware of how I deal with students in classroom settings. Note I am not saying I am “good” at it though, but improvement should be the goal, as I often tell my students!

In class I have spent more time this year working on a broader or more holistic style of teaching. I have used more group work and am having students give feedback to each other much more. I think it will be important for students to analyze the work of others and learn from it. I think also it will push them to think about their own work also. I intend to increase the amount of emphasis that is put on work completed after feedback and have students keep their work so that at various points we can as a class review the changes and improvements that have happened over time. I hope this will motivate students to think more deeply about their first draft with an aim to getting to a point that they can prepare the work in such a way that the first draft requires little modification. If we use the portfolio like element and review work over a couple of months, we should be able to see the gains and development, hopefully engendering the growth mindset and leading to better motivation and success.

I am working on note taking, study skills, and having students think about their goals and methods of learning. I have been using more affective techniques to have students analyze their likes and dislikes and reflect on the reasons for them. In using these tools in conjunction with the feedback and portfolios review I think the students will get to see what works for them and see that not all paths are equal. If they also learn the benefit of working together and cherry picking the bits of advice which works for them they will be learning the tools for progress. I have a simple mantra we say often in class. “We are not trying to work harder, we are trying to work smarter!” That likely applies to everyone!

I have used more affective assessment this year to complement the other strategies and have students think about what they are doing and how they are doing it. My action research asked students questions about their perceived ability in class, the way the approach their study and if they feel the work they are putting in is reflected in their grades. Parents were also involved in the quizzes and the results should give me further understanding of issues. I spent a class at the start of the year with the students in groups making lists on an A4 sheet under the headings of first, Respect, and then Winning. I want student to think about these two words and often reference the “posters’ which are still on the back wall of the room. I am trying to get students to see that how they treat themselves and other sis important and deserves thought. Also, and maybe more importantly I want them to think about what their goals are, and what a “win” will be for them. I stress that some of the wins are constant and others require playing a long game, which may involve some losses along the way, but it’s still the stated win which is important.

I suppose a big thing for me is that none of the changes I have implemented are content based, rather they are skills and outlook oriented, and that certainly is a new mindset!

Thanks

References

Dweck, C. (2006). Mindset; The New Psychology of Success. Ballantine Books

McCown, R. & Snowman, J. (2015). Psychology Applied to Teaching (14th ed.). Stamford, Connecticut: Cengage Learning