Devloping a Growth Mindset in Yourself and Your Learners

What is a growth mindset? This latest trend word in education is actually nothing new- it is based on decades of research on achievement and success by Carol Dweck, Professor of Psychology. It may not be 'new', but it is 'ground-breaking'.

"Mindset is a simple idea discovered by world-renowned Stanford University psychologist Carol Dweck- a simple idea that makes all the difference.

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 and talent instead of developing them. They also believe that talent alone creates success- without effort. They're wrong.

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.

Teaching a growth mindset creates motivation and productivity in the worlds of business, EDUCATION, and sports. It enhances relationships."  (www.mindsetonline.com)

So, in a fixed mindset intelligence is static. Ina growth mindset intelligence can be developed. It seems so obvious why we would want to develop this mindset not only in our learners, but in ourselves also. We want our learners to believe in themselves- what better way to develop this? We get sad as teachers when our learners think they can't do something when we know they can if only they believe and try- enter growth mindset. If we are teaching this mindset, modelling it, and using the appropriate language, we will naturally develop more confident and resilient learners.

One simple way to change our thinking and develop a growth mindset in ourselves and our learners, is to change the way we talk about learning;

Instead of Saying...	Try saying...
-I’m not good at this	-What am I missing?
-I’m awesome at this	-I’m on the right track
-I give up	-I’ll use some of the strategies we’ve learned
-This is too hard	-This may take some time and effort
-I can’t make this any better	-I can always improve so I’ll keep trying
-I just can’t do maths	-I’m going to train my brain in maths
-I made a mistake	-Mistakes help me to learn better
-She’s so smart, I will never be that smart	-I’m going to figure out how she does it so I can try!
-It’s good enough	-Is it really my best work?

Because I am busy working on the development of my own growth mindset (because my intelligence/ learning is not static!) this blog post is to be continued.....