Growth Mindset
DSS Manager Meeting 12.4.15
Discussion Questions
Quiet Reflection: 5 minutes
Are you reluctant to meet with a particular teacher or school team? Could your reluctance possibly be that the teacher and/or team has a fixed mind set about students, parents, the building, or district?
Make a plan:1. What are the opportunities for learning and growth for this teacher and/or team?
2. What opportunity will I focus on first?
3. How will I bring my plan to life?
4. What do I need to do to maintain growth of this teacher and/or team?
Revisiting the "Growth Mindset"
Please take a few minutes to read a recent article by Carol Dweck, in which she examines how her ideas on the growth mindset are being implemented nine years after the book's original publication.
Discussion
Dr. Dweck says that "we're all a mixture of fixed and growth mindsets," and "we will probably always be." Do you think that this contradicts the message in the book?
We have just completed the second of four Learning Team sessions that focus on encouraging a growth mindset in our staff and students. Does this revisiting of the original book change the focus at all? Can and should we incorporate ideas from this article into the next sessions?
Our own journey towards a growth mindset...
If we want to encourage and develop a growth mindset in the students and teachers we work with, we must be honest and face our own challenges. Think about a "trigger" for you. Is there an area in your own life to which you react with a fixed mindset? It could be a challenging work situation, a relationship, or a family issue.
Once you identify an area in which you struggle to have a growth mindset, come up with two or three specific actions you can take to begin to overcome this challenge.