I originally created my growth mindset plan in the summer of 2019 during my first DL&L course at Lamar University. While I took a break from the program to plan a wedding, I can easily look back at this plan and see how positively it has impacted my learning as an educator, and as a result, how it positively impacted my students’ learning. Now as I work towards fostering an environment that allows for significant learning, I am revisiting the idea of a growth mindset and how to successfully implement it in my classroom with my students.
The Four Steps outlined in Dweck’s Mindset: The new psychology of success are still valuable to keep in mind while developing a growth mindset. However, after revisiting my growth mindset plan, I recognized that I need to make sure our students have a model of someone with a growth mindset. As a teacher, I need to regularly discuss my struggles, failures, and successes regarding my passions. Students love to connect to their teachers by learning about them and their lives.
I think it would really benefit students for teachers to share their personal growth mindset plans with students. Students would love to see the importance of struggle and perseverance modeled and the power of “yet” be evident in their teachers’ personal lives. I think since our students sometimes feel like the teacher knows everything and they also might feel disconnected from their teachers, they may not truly be able to buy-into the growth mindset until they feel that we are in this with them.
Growth Mindset In the Classroom
I currently have a “growth mindset” bulletin board that has examples of phrases and thoughts that are commonly thought in the math classroom, and it offers alternative ways to think of those thoughts with a growth mindset. I frequently have to help coach kids through the “growth mindset way” of looking at grades and struggles. In a private, competitive, catholic middle school, students are frequently on-edge regarding their grades and test scores.
Many schools and teachers know that a growth mindset is good for them, however, many do not effectively follow through with providing a growth mindset plan for their students. Through creating a significant learning environment and being intentional with organizing the curriculum through Fink’s 3 column table and Understanding by Design (UbD), we can interlace and incorporate the growth mindset throughout all of the learning done in the classroom.
If there’s anything I have learned from this program, it’s that it pays off to be intentional and to reflect on practices. My students can also benefit from reflecting on their mindset periodically after completing the problem-based lessons and projects from the units in our classes.
Our school really struggles with students who cheat, especially while we are hybrid. If students truly encompassed a growth mindset, their perspective on tests would be different and they would want to see how much they have pushed and grown themselves in learning. I think cheating and whether or not it is rampant is a great indicator of the growth mindset levels within a school. Sadly, my school has a way to grow. We’re not there… yet! But we certainly can be.
The Ultimate Goal
While a growth mindset is something valuable and helpful, we must not stop and leave the growth mindset ideal as the ultimate goal. In fact, Alfie Kohn, describes how important it is for our students to link their personal passions, while working towards something purposeful. If students do not see a link between the growth mindset, their passions, and what they are learning and working towards, we are not going to see 21st-century learning successfully implemented in the classroom. While it is valuable to model a growth mindset for students, we also need to value fostering a significant learning environment that supports students by providing choice, and as a result providing students with the ownership, voice, and authenticity necessary to connect their passions to the learning.
My students deserve a learning environment that promotes a growth mindset, as students complete meaningful tasks that the students, themselves, are passionate about. Creating a significant learning environment goes along with and supports my students within the blended learning innovation plan.
References
Dweck, C. S. (2006). Mindset: The new psychology of success. New York, NY, US: Random House.
Kohn, A. (2015, August 16). The “mindset” mindset: What we miss by focusing on kids’ attitudes. Retrieved from https://www.alfiekohn.org/article/mindset/
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