Growth Mindset x Significant Learning Environments
In the book “Mindset: The New Psychology of Success” Dweck outlines the difference between a growth mindset and a fixed mindset. After completing a study she found that students who accepted and were excited to receive challenges were more aligned with the growth mindset. Students with a fixed mindset believe that you should have a certain amount of intelligence and that’s all you have which makes learners afraid to look dumb. On the contrary, learners who adopt or embody the growth mindset believe that you achieve success through effort, dedication, learning, and mentorship through others. Naturally, many learners come to school with fixed mindsets. They want to look smart at all times and avoid any task or discussion that may showcase their lack of intelligence. As educators, we must help bridge the gap between learners with a fixed mindset and transition them over to learners with a growth mindset.
Feedback plays an important role in transitioning a child from a fixed mindset to a growth mindset. If we are highlighting students deficits to them and in front of their peers it continues to diminish their confidence in learning at school. Therefore, feedback and the way you deliver feedback can help a learner adopt the growth mindset or choose to remain in a fixed mindset. In my self-contained fourth-grade classroom, I spent a lot of time this year focusing on the way I delivered feedback to students and making sure it was meaningful to clear up any misconceptions to allow them to continue to move forward and allow them to understand that our classroom is about making mistakes, trying again and learning from them. It doesn't mean that it’ll always be positive feedback, however, it will always consist of constructive feedback in ways that will make them better each day. Building this solid foundation within my students this year showed a massive switch in their mindsets from “It’s hard” and “I can’t do this” to “So I just need to fix ___, and then I’ll be okay?”. Many of their attitudes have been molded into the understanding that everything I teach isn’t going to come easy. Sometimes it will take hard work and persistence to persevere as Duckworth stated in her TED Talk.
When we focus on the ability to expand their minds and water that idea of a growth mindset into our learners, we can take away the obsession with what grade they made and translate it into working our hardest to achieve all that we can and become better learners to enjoy our learning experience. This makes a direct correlation to understanding the importance of creating significant learning environments. Placing importance on the growth mindset in all areas of learning will allow students to see through my project-based learning proposal in my innovation plan. Students will understand the value of having grit (passion and perseverance) which also ties into the power of “YET”. Having learners who dedicate themselves to a goal and work towards that goal each day builds character. The students that actively partake in this understand that we don’t always have the right answers initially or “YET” but with hard work and grit, we can accomplish anything we set our minds out on. It is time we delve into the responsibility of building learners through the growth mindset, the power of “YET”, and grit. All three of these will increase students' academic readiness, confidence, willingness to collaborate, and receive constructive and meaningful feedback while gaining most of all problem-solving skills. Educators have a duty. The duty is to equip the twenty-first-century learners will all the tools and skills they need to be successful academically, socially, and emotionally to create life-long learning in significant learning environments.
References
Dweck, C. S. (2006). Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. Random House.
Dweck, C. S. (2014). The Power of Believing That You Can Improve. TED Talks. Youtube.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_X0mgOOSpLU
Duckworth, A. (2013). Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H14bBuluwB8
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