Growth Mindset

1. Growth Mindset What is it and how can parents help?

2. What is growth mindset? • Every so often a truly ground-breaking idea comes along. This is one. Mindset explains: • Why brains and talent don’t bring success • How they can stand in the way of it • Why praising brains and talent doesn’t foster self-esteem and accomplishment, but jeopardizes them • How teaching a simple idea about the brain raises grades and productivity • What all great CEOs, parents, teachers, athletes know

3. Mindset • Mindsets are beliefs—beliefs about yourself and your most basic qualities. Think about your intelligence, your talents, your personality. Are these qualities simply fixed traits, carved in stone and that’s that? Or are they things you can cultivate throughout your life? • Michael Jordan Growth Mindset • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbzEiAj02ks • Thumbs Up for Rock and Roll! (great for primary students) • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaIvk1cSyG8&list=PLwsNolJ_H05bJIPwJTl6k33ziaZyuIYCV

4. Mindset and Dr. Carol Dweck • Mindset is a simple idea discovered by world-renowned Stanford University psychologist Carol Dweck in decades of research on achievement and success—a simple idea that makes all the difference.

5. fixed mindset • In a fixed mindset, people believe their basic qualities, like their intelligence or talent, are simply fixed traits. They spend their time documenting their intelligence or talent instead of developing them. They also believe that talent alone creates success—without effort. They’re wrong. • People with a fixed mindset believe that their traits are just givens. They have a certain amount of brains and talent and nothing can change that. If they have a lot, they’re all set, but if they don’t... So people in this mindset worry about their traits and how adequate they are. They have something to prove to themselves and others

6. Growth Mindset • In a growth mindset, people believe that their most basic abilities can be developed through dedication and hard work—brains and talent are just the starting point. This view creates a love of learning and a resilience that is essential for great accomplishment. Virtually all great people have had these qualities. • People with a growth mindset, on the other hand, see their qualities as things that can be developed through their dedication and effort. Sure they’re happy if they’re brainy or talented, but that’s just the starting point. They understand that no one has ever accomplished great things—not Mozart, Darwin, or Michael Jordan—without years of passionate practice and learning.

7. Why Growth Mindset is so important • Growth vs Fixed Mindset: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8JycfeoVzg • Teaching a growth mindset creates motivation and productivity in the worlds of business, education, and sports. It enhances relationships. When you read Mindset, you’ll see how. • A great description of the potential of growth mindset is this Ted Talk video by Eduardo Briceno • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pN34FNbOKXc

8. Growth Mindset sounds different • Here’s an example of how dialogue sounds different at school. I would like you to imagine for a moment what you think the teacher would say to the class next. • A grade 7 teacher gives out the science resource for “Structures." He indicates that they are going to develop a learning goal and success criteria for the unit. He directs the students to the table of contents and asks them to suggest individual success criteria for the broad learning goal of understanding structures. After several minutes he feels the class is becoming fidgety and off task. He prompts with some questions, but gets little response.

9. Growth Mindset response • Growth mindset response: New material is an opportunity to "stretch." Today's lesson will probably be new to almost everyone, so all of us will have an opportunity to stretch here. Today your brain will grow stronger - I really want us to stretch out of our comfort zone on this one. I don't expect any of you to know this already and I know this is really challenging material, so I am here to help you. I'd like everyone to share one thing that is really confusing right now with their partners. We're in the learning zone today. Mistakes are our friends.

10. What parents need to know • Here’s another scenario a little closer to home. Can you imagine the conversation you might have with your child in this case? • The student has come home with some admittedly very difficult math homework. The teacher has already reviewed the concept in class and they have done some problem solving around it. The student asks the parent for help. The parent refers the student to the classroom homework site. The student moves forward in the solution, but is still not confident and asks the parent for further input. The parent suggests that the student go to the Ministry Math homework site. The student gets tutoring advice and goes on to finish his homework. What might the parent feedback and encouragement look like in a growth mindset scenario?

11. Effort vs intelligence • The Praise a Child Should Never Hear (excerpt): http://blogs.wsj.com/informedreader/2007/02/13/the-praise-a-child-should-never-hear/ • Mr. Bronson highlights a study of 400 fifth-graders conducted by psychologist Carol Dweck and a team at Columbia University in which the children took three tests. The second test purposely was made difficult enough that every child failed. What the scientists found was that kids who had been praised for their effort recovered from that failure by the third test to achieve scores 30% higher than on their first test. Meanwhile, the students who were praised for their intelligence had scores that were 20% lower. Ms. Dweck’s conclusion: You should praise children for qualities they can control, like effort. Those praised for their innate brainpower might develop the sense that hard work isn’t necessary.

12. Advice for Parents • How Not To Talk to Your Kids: http://nymag.com/news/features/27840/ • Excerpt: Life Sciences is a health-science magnet school with high aspirations but 700 students whose main attributes are being predominantly minority and low achieving. Blackwell split her kids into two groups for an eight-session workshop. The control group was taught study skills, and the others got study skills and a special module on how intelligence is not innate. These students took turns reading aloud an essay on how the brain grows new neurons when challenged. They saw slides of the brain and acted out skits. “Even as I was teaching these ideas,” Blackwell noted, “I would hear the students joking, calling one another ‘dummy’ or ‘stupid.’ ” After the module was concluded, Blackwell tracked her students’ grades to see if it had any effect.It didn’t take long. The teachers—who hadn’t known which students had been assigned to which workshop—could pick out the students who had been taught that intelligence can be developed. They improved their study habits and grades. In a single semester, Blackwell reversed the students’ longtime trend of decreasing math grades.

13. What does it look like? • The only difference between the control group and the test group were two lessons, a total of 50 minutes spent teaching not math but a single idea: that the brain is a muscle. Giving it a harder workout makes you smarter. That alone improved their math scores. • Here is a handout of the learning materials that Carol Dweck’s researchers used in the intermediate classrooms. Kids always prefer video, so here is a resource that we are using in our TAG groups • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgLYkV689s4

14. What does Calvin say? • ATLAS 7 class chose to investigate what motivates students to learn at Calvin. • They surveyed grade 7 students across all programs and asked questions pertaining to student engagement (what helps them learn best) and distractors. • They presented their findings to intermediate educators at the Education Centre in November. • At the end of the presentation they were faced with very challenging questions from the educators. “You have a whole room full of teachers here. What would you like to tell them?”

15. The importance of feedback • The message was clear that students had internalized the learning around growth mindset. For example: they articulated that they don’t just want teachers to say, “Good job!” They want to hear specifically what to do to make improvements for next time and that teachers shouldn’t be putting marks on everything – but rather giving meaningful feedback about what they did really well and what they need to do in the future to improve. • 21:16 on ATLAS 7 presentation.

16. Changing our Mindset • How to develop a growth mindset: • Learn how your brain works – like any muscle it needs regular exercise • Change the way you talk to yourself and this will change how you feel • DESIRE: Stretch myself, take risks and learn Bring on the challenges! • EVALUATION: Will this allow me to grow? Will this help me overcome some of my challenges? • SETBACKS: I failed this time but I’ll try harder next time • CHALLENGES: Embrace challenges, persist in the face of setbacks • EFFORT: Know that growth and learning require effort. • CRITICISM: Learn from criticism. How can I improve? • SUCCES of OTHERS: Find lessons and inspiration in other’s success • RESULT: Reach ever-higher levels of achievement