Growth Mindset: Embracing the Challenge

The lower school faculty began the year learning a bit more about the concept of “growth mindsets” and how as teachers they can help positively influence and develop student mindsets. Mindset is an idea championed, researched and written about by Stanford University professor Carol Dweck.

Dweck found that there are two basic types of mindset, fixed and growth. In a fixed mindset, people believe that basic qualities like intelligence and talent are set traits, and that talent alone creates success. In a growth mindset, people believe that these qualities are just a starting point, and that most abilities can be improved and developed through focused hard work and dedication. A growth mindset fosters more resilience in students and a love of learning and problem solving. Dweck found that virtually all people who’ve accomplished great things demonstrate a growth mindset. It’s also been shown that students with a growth mindset are happier in school and enjoy school more.

Many researchers have noted that most students enter kindergarten with a growth mindset. Kindergartners love to learn and try new things and every day seems full of “ah-ha” moments. Most kindergartners will tell you they are good at everything- art, music, math, reading. However, often by about second grade, they verbalize a different idea about their abilities, “I’m not good at math” or “She’s the best reader." These labels, or fixed mindsets, negatively affect their ability to improve and learn. In the lower school, teachers are trying to actively teach a growth mindset to stop this phenomenon from occurring.

At the beginning of the year, teachers learned about the power of language and feedback to encourage growth mindsets. They taught students about the power of the word “yet” as in “you are not there yet”. They reminded students of when they were younger and didn’t know how to do something that they know how to do now, like riding a bike. Teachers talked about the importance of making a mistake, explaining how mistakes are an opportunity to learn. They shared examples of famous people who failed many times over before succeeding (Walt Disney- fired for lack of imagination, Thomas Edison- 1,000 failed attempts at creating a light bulb). They learned to coach students with words like “this will be challenging to learn, but all of us can reach the goal” or “If it were easy, you wouldn’t be learning anything!” And they learned to praise effort, not intelligence or results, as an important part of fostering growth mindsets.

February seemed like an ideal time to focus once again on encouraging growth mindsets. Report cards went home at the end of January, and some students were a bit discouraged if they didn’t receive top marks in every subject. Lower School  teachers were asked to read Mindsets in the Classroom by Mary Cay Ricci, which has a lot of practical strategies for teachers to use with students. Each teacher was then challenged to share at least one strategy they used with students on the school learning management system, Schoology, during the month of February.

The sharing of lessons has been impressive, and students and teachers alike are abuzz with new knowledge about the brain and growth mindsets. Many students used the book Your Fantastic Elastic Brain by JoAnn Deak as a starting point. Lessons focused on the student’s power to be a “neurosculptor” who can make the brain stretch and grow by learning new things. Teachers used barbells to illustrate making the brain stronger.

Another teacher did a lesson using varying widths and strengths of string and yarn, demonstrating that the students can build stronger neural pathways through processing new information. The rope represented the stronger neural connections. These visual lessons really connected with students. One second grader, proud he remembered a daily task he usually forgot, remarked “ I remembered, Mrs. Dorr, my neurons are getting stronger!”

Teachers also used a number of videos aimed at students to teacher them about their brain. “Ned the Neuron” videos were popular in kindergarten. After watching one of the videos, the teachers were using chopsticks to eat a celebratory meal and one of the teachers commented that she wasn’t very good at using chopsticks (which is another strategy- adults sharing what is difficult for them to master). A kindergarten student said, “That’s okay, it’s a chance for your neurons to get stronger.” Teachers also showed the failure scene from the movie “Meet the Robinsons”, where Lewis creates an invention that fails and the adults sing, “in failure, we learn…in success, not so much”. The kindergartners then learned the story of the Toll House cookie, invented after a “failure,” complete with homemade cookies! We are hoping that they will always link cookies with a growth mindset!

We hope to continue the growth mindset momentum in lower school, so that all Mayfield students know that intelligence can be developed, learn to embrace challenges, develop their strengths and weaknesses, and see the value of focused effort.