Growth Mindset

What's going on everybody? I hope this finds you striving and thriving and doing absolutely amazing. A growth mindset, the belief that everyone can develop their own abilities. It's something that's been widely discussed in the teaching world. It's something that personally, I'm a big fan of. But what if those of us who are teaching a growth mindset are getting it a little bit wrong? What if instead of creating a growth mindset, we were actually creating a false growth mindset. My name is Brian Martin. I'm a second grade teacher and host of the teaching champions podcast. Now recently, I spoke at a local conference. And in preparation for my session, I dove back into one of the classic books, a Growth Mindset by Carol Dweck. Now, I'm big on mindset. And I'm a big believer in Carol Dweck and her teachings. And as I'm sure you found, that if you ever go back and you reread a book, there's so many new nuggets that you find or so many thoughts that you forgot about? Well, this was the case when I was reading this book. And one of the things that jumped right out at me was when Carol Dweck talked about a false growth mindset. You see, she talked about her fear was that teachers and parents will believe it was all in just effort. And in the book, she drops a few misconceptions that people may have about mindset. Now, as I listen to the audio version of the story, it made me really step back. It made me really think about my own practices, how I talk about mindset, what I praise in the class, and it made me think about the adjustments that I need to make. Now Carol Dweck says, The first misconception is that many people take what they think about themselves. And they say that they have a growth mindset, such as they see themselves as being flexible. They see themselves as being open to new things. And they think that's a growth mindset. by Carol Dweck says, there's a difference between being flexible, and growing talent. And she says that if people confuse these, they may never actually work at cultivating their own abilities, or that other students, because being flexible, is not the same as having a growth mindset. The second misconception, and this is the one that really jumped out the most to me. Dweck says that people believe a growth mindset is all about effort, especially praising effort. But she says it's important to know that the process of having growth mindset is a lot more than just going out there and praising the effort. That hard work, it should be appreciated. But part of having a growth mindset is understanding and recognizing when something isn't working, goes along with this saying that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. Carol Dweck says that a big piece of growth mindset is for the student to recognize when they need to switch up a strategy, that it's not just to keep trying harder, that students should know when they have to go out. And they have to ask for input from others. So we're really looking to plant that seed of having a growth mindset with our students. It's important that we remember that is not just praising that hard work and praising that effort. It's also planting those seeds of when the switch strategies up if things aren't working. It's planting those seeds of seeking input and help from others to help find solutions. The third misconception that Professor Dweck has found is praising effort in the process. When the effort truly wasn't there. She says that one of her biggest fears is that the growth mindset concept is going to be used to make students feel good when they're not learning and think about how damaging that can be if we're praising students for their effort, but they're really not putting in the effort. Now, the MIS conception, number four, is praising the process, not the outcome. She says that we want to praise the process, we want to praise that hard work, we want to praise that effort, we want to praise them using new strategies. But it's also extremely important that we tie it to the outcome, that we tie it to that learning to that progress to that achievement. Because she says that children, they need to understand that engaging in that process, help them learn. So this was just a little crash course, on the misconceptions about growth mindset. And the big takeaways for me, is to remember that it's not just about praising effort. It's about teaching students that growth mindset is about recognizing when to change course, when to try new strategies. It's about recognizing when you need to reach out and learn from others. It's about making it visible for students, the idea that their effort is linked to their success. Now think about your own class. How are you encouraging students to have a growth mindset? Is there any changes anything that you need to do differently? After hearing about the false growth mindset? We've been blessed with another sunrise. Have an awesome day.