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Growth Mindset Elgin Academy. What is Growth Mindset?. "In a fixed mindset students believe their basic abilities, their intelligence, their talents, are just fixed traits. They have a certain amount and that's that, and then their goal becomes to look smart all the time and never look dumb.
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What is Growth Mindset? • "In a fixed mindset students believe their basic abilities, their intelligence, their talents, are just fixed traits. They have a certain amount and that's that, and then their goal becomes to look smart all the time and never look dumb. • In a growth mindset students understand that their talents and abilities can be developed through effort, good teaching and persistence. They don't necessarily think everyone's the same or anyone can be Einstein, but they believe everyone can get smarter if they work at it.” Carol Dweck, Mindset
Ability cannot change. Look smart and talented at all costs. New challenges may make you look thick if you are not good automatically so stay clear of them. “The main thing I want when I do my school work is to show how good I am at it.” Mistakes = lack of ability. So, don’t be seen making mistakes. Ability can change and grow. Learn, learn, learn. Take on new challenges to let your ability grow. “It’s much more important for me to learn things in my classes than it is to get the best grades. The grades will come as a result”. Mistakes = a chance to learn how to get better next time. Feedback helps me grow Grow from within; “I can do that”. Rather than needing the teacher telling pupils, “you can do that” Fixed Vs Growth We can start breaking the cycle of dependency on Teacher which many pupils have.
Why a Growth Mindset? • From a practical point of view, staff would recognise pupils with a fixed mindset who are scared to contribute to class discussion for fear of looking stupid; who take one bad test result of a sign that they cannot do the subject, are going to fail and therefore give up; who will not try anything new for fear of getting it wrong; who will persevere with the same approach to their learning even when it is not working rather than being creative and finding a different solution.
Why a Growth Mindset? • In Scotland, we have a considerable dropout rate from Further Education and in 2010 the figure reached a staggering 28%. • A recurring theme for youngsters who leave school having only known success in exams is they suddenly find University a challenge and begin to fail for the first time in their academic career – “Sir” or “Miss” are not there to help them pass the exam. • Many fixed mindset students give up and believe they are incapable of turning things around. For many Growth mindset youngsters there will still be challenges and some will also drop out but the mindset to grow and learn from the hard times statistically helps them pull through.
Why a Growth Mindset? • “Teachers and schools spend an ever increasing amount of effort trying to directly motivate students from the outside. A more effective approach is to motivate from the inside by using students' positive states to draw them into learning.” Alan McLean, The Motivated School
How to create a Growth Mindset? • The school will be taking the following approaches to develop a Growth Mindset with youngsters: • Being very open and frank about the approach. i.e. making everyone aware of what they can achieve by adopting such a mindset. • Using feedback and praise designed to promote and highlight Growth mindset. • Praising effort, commitment and learning from mistakes to reach goals rather than short term praise for doing well. • “Praise the journey not the destination” • Showing pupils that their brain and body can physically achieve more through training and effort. • This will be sessions to highlight the biology of learning. • Giving clear and inspirational examples of others who have used their Growth Mindset to great effect. • The opportunity for pupils to think about, discuss and write about how adopting a growth mindset has helped them achieve.
Can we help promote a Growth Mindset at home? • Yes. • We’re not trying to tell people how to bring up their children. • I hate it when my mother-in-law gives “advice” on bringing up my son let alone a stranger telling me. • However, if the methods being used in school can be echoed at home, it helps youngsters to hear a recurring theme and start to believe in their ability to grow.
Chris Hoy Up till 2004, Hoy had won two World Championships, one Commonwealth gold and one Olympic Gold in his speciality race – the 1 kilometer time trial. In 2005 the Olympic Committee removed the “kilo” from the Olympic programme and people said he wouldn’t win again due to his style of cycling. Hoy didn’t give up, he reinvented himself. With hard work and determination he won 5 Olympic Golds, 4 World Championships and one Commonwealth Gold in events he was supposedly not capable of doing. Maybe because they were so gifted and won so easily, they didn‘t really have the desire to work hard when they had to, and they also didn’t like the feeling of losing when it happened.” Chris Hoy on why he surpassed the more “talented” kids:
Scott Forstall Scott Forstall, senior vice president of Apple in charge of iphone software, talks about his experience of putting together the iPhone development team. He identified a number of the highest flying superstars within various departments at Apple and asked them for a chat. At the start of each interview he warned the recruit that he couldn’t reveal details of the project but promised the opportunity, “to make mistakes and struggle, but eventually we may do something that we’ll remember the rest of our lives.” Only people who immediately jumped at the challenge ended up on the team. He wanted people who valued stretching themselves over those obsessed with being the best all the time yet being scared to try something new.
Katherine Grainger • Katherine won Olympic Silver at the Sydney, Athens and Beijing games. • Many people would have been delighted at this… Catherine wasn’t. • Some suggested that she may be too old (37) to compete at the next Olympics. • She believed she could still grow her ability, worked hard for a further 4 years, took on board constructive criticism and set her goals. • She won Gold at London 2012!
Growth Mindset Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard. http://www.centreforconfidence.co.uk/ http://mindsetonline.com/ http://www.mindsetworks.com/ Dr Carol Dweck’s, “Mindset: How you can fulfil your potential” is available in most book shops and online. Chapters 1, 2, 7 and 8 are most suited to youngsters. video
