Developing a Growth Mindset with Carol Dweck
Carol Dweck
has long been a hero of mine and the opportunity to see her speak today was
something I’ve long been looking forward to. Alongside that is my growing
discomfort around messages students receive through ability grouping and the
barriers they get presented through course prerequisites through the secondary
system. I personally know I’d rather have a student prepared to apply
themselves in my Year 12 Chemistry class, a student who will work on problems,
nut them out, seek clarification, take account of feedback, persevere despite
setbacks and be determined to succeed. However, sometimes these students might
not get there as they’d previously been placed into a lower band class and now
do not have the required prerequisites deemed necessary for success in my course.
What do we need to be doing differently to enable students to move through a
banding or streaming structure and not be pigeonholed into a fixed pathway?
Carol Dweck
today presented a range of solutions, stemming largely from an overwhelming
need for students, teachers and institutions to develop a growth mindset of
intelligence (seeing intelligence can be developed) rather than a fixed mindset
(seeing intelligence as a fixed trait). Developing growth mindset means: 1.
students focus on learning, rather than on focusing on how they look (smart, or
at least not dumb) 2. Students work hard and recognize effort is the key to
success rather than expecting success should come naturally due to innate
ability or intelligence 3. Students confront mistakes and deficiencies and
embrace these as opportunities to learn rather than hide from mistakes and
deficiencies seeing these instead as failures.
It seems
praise plays an important part in the development of these mindsets – from both
parents and teachers. Rather than praise being about ability “You’re so smart”,
“How clever are you?” praise should focus on processes – for example, embracing
the struggle. Praising the fact that students are prepared to persevere, or
adopt a different strategy, or put in extra effort and time into solving a
problem. This is one of the key things we need to be doing to develop a growth
mindset and it is never too late. As a teacher, a parent, within our
institution we need to confront our own fixed mindsets – where do they exist, how
are they perpetuated? If we have these fixed mindsets, what do we need to do
about it? We need to be communicating to students within our schools they are
in a growth mindset school where they can be aspirational and not feel we’ve
placed in a box with a predetermined set of outcomes for them.
So where
does this leave streaming, or it our case broad banding? On a pragmatic level,
at least within Year 11 – 13, students are at different levels of readiness for
specific courses and achievement standards used to assess them. This is a
result of the many years of schooling they’ve had to get them to this point and
all the many and varied factors that contribute to their understanding at this
point in time. This has necessitated the need for different courses to cater
for where students are at. However, at the very least, students need to be
allowed the freedom to be able to apply themselves, put in the necessary effort
and be able to move across these unseen barriers that currently exist between
these courses. Described by Carol as permeable streaming (or permeable banding)
the knowledge of this ability to move from one place to the next at least
offers students the chance to develop a growth mindset in an institution where
this can result in differing outcomes and more positive outcomes for them. In
my mind though, this is just one small practical application to a wider need
for development of a growth mindset in students, staff, parents, institutions
and our community.
