Growth Mindset

I have spent my summer holidays reading about Blogging and Growth Mindset. (I can hear Darren groaning as I’m writing and calling me sad!) I have to say, I am far happier with re-learning and looking at ways of implementing Growth Mindset than trying to Blog, but here goes…

According to Dr. Carol Dweck, there are two Mindsets – Fixed and Growth. I bet we all know the one we want to be before we read anymore! However, let’s carry on…

The good news is, that many of us have elements of both – phew! The not so good news is that it is believed that all people are born with a love of learning, but the Fixed Mindset can undo it. Now that is a pretty damning thought, isn’t it?

Let’s have a look at a few examples and perhaps you can see where you as parents, and you as children fit in:

Are you jumping up and down with a smile on your face or are you feeling a bit depressed? I have to say, when I looked at this I could see myself in both columns, depending on what I was thinking about and the context it was in. As Dr. Carol Dweck points out, ‘Mindsets are an important part of your personality…but you CAN change them.’

I think the most important message in the whole book for me was about how we praise a child, as this can move a child from a Growth Mindset to a Fixed Mindset very quickly. Every word and action from a parent or teacher to a child sends a message. Now that’s a frightening thought isn’t it, particularly if your word or action is taking a Growth Mindset child into a Fixed Mindset position! Soon we’ll be afraid to say anything to our children.

But here’s the answer. Take a moment to read on very carefully:

Ability praise pushes students into the Fixed Mindset. They reject challenging what that they could learn from because they don’t want to expose their flaws, which in turn could call into question their talent.

Instead of praising ability, praise effort. In tests, 90% of pupils praised for effort wanted to try more challenging tasks.

Praising ability lowers IQ scores while praising effort raises them.

So how do we do it? Here are some examples that I will be sharing with our tutors over the next few weeks, to ensure that we always push pupils to a Growth Mindset. Don’t forget to look out for the Growth Mindset posters around the room.

See if you can ensure that you praise the effort rather than the attainment and let us know how you get on. You never know, between the two of us, we may be able to see some amazing changes in effort, confidence, determination, and perseverance, four of our core values. Good luck.

If you are interested in learning more, I suggest you read Growth Mindset by Dr. Carol Dweck.