What is a Growth Mindset?
Why would you use it? How can it be utilized?
- Attention Staff! -
Teachers and faculty, the abilities of our students have begun to diminish ever since we began using grades as a way to measure a students ability, and effort. Today I am presenting to you a new way to not only increase the ability of the students, but to make them want the knowledge, and not the grade.
- how is this achieved? -
So how can this effect be rendered? The answer is an educational theory, but it makes sense. Carol Dweck and Lisa Blackwell have been studying the concept of mindsets, two in specific. Growth and fixed mindsets can affect your ability to learn, but not only learning is affected. Common goals and things that require effort need a growth mindset. Not only to be successful but to become those who are "master-oriented." to put it simply it means becoming more focused on goals and the learning, rather than the final result.
- The Importance -
Why are the effects of a Growth Mindset profound? When the going gets rough and students are being faced with a challenge, the fixed mindset students grades begin to drop significantly. However, when compared to their opposite, the students that have a growth mindset will swim against the tide and prevail. This is most shown with adolescents grades that have already began to lower. Thanks to a growth mindset they were able to bounce back from their declining grades and it shows that those students became more motivated and wanted to complete their achievements.
- What happens if this is not adopted? -
So then the question arises, "what happens if we don't use this new theory to our advantage? Students with a fixed mindset will crumble in the face of adversity. When harder work is presented in middle school, high school, and college, they tend to give up easier. This in turn results in failure. Even when failure occurs, they do not choose to grow and develop from the experience that they received. Instead they begin to believe that they are inferior to other students, and render themselves unable to complete tasks of this magnitude. This means that the students moral will lower, and will not allow the RAS system in the brain to let information to flow. This means that the students grades will lower, and this cycle will continue. However, you can break this cycle by implementing a growth mindset in the students heads.
- Carol Dweck and Lisa Blackwell -
Carol Dweck and Lisa Blackwell have shown that this theory shows results. But not only results, but statistics and studies. In one study conducted by Lisa Blackwell, they did research on whether mindsets affect your motivation. They separated two groups of students and taught them two different concepts, control and growth. The gap between the students was astounding. The students who were taught about growth had an amazing rebound on their grades, the students who were taught control, showed no growth, and their grades continued to decline.
Never allow students to say "We Can't!"
When you adopt this theory, you must keep in mind the red flag phrases or words. Things like, "we can't" or "That is impossible", all show that the student is a fixed mindset worker. You have to begin encouraging them and tell them to...
Add a yet at the end of fixed phrases!
When your students say that they can not do this, be sure to tell them to add a "yet" at the end of those fixed mind phrases! So things like, "I am not smart enough" will turn into, "I am not smart enough, yet." This will place the mindset that makes it so you believe anything can grow, hence the term, growth mindset.
Examples include...
Saying things like "I love the amount of effort you are putting into this!" or "you mean, you can't do this yet?". However, it doesnt stop there. You can include many classroom activities! Things like taking a categorizing test on if the child is a growth or fixed mindset. Or an activity when the child has to identify the fixed and growth mindset quotes out of a word bank.
-Statistics-
The statistics show that the students grades that have a growth mindset grades improved. Unlike the students that were taught a fixed mindset. Almost 40 percent of the intelligence-praised children elevated their scores, whereas only 12 or 13 percent of children who had the fixed mindset grew.
-Citations-
"The Science : Growth Mindset." Mindset Works. Mindset Works Inc. Web. 18 Jan. 2016.
Gary Hopkins. "How Can Teachers Develop Students' Motivation -- and Success?" Education World. Education World. Web. 18 Jan. 2016.
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