Creating Significant Learning Environments
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The Power of A Growth Mindset
See also my blog post about the Learner's Mindset.
In his post, Fixed Vs Growth Mindset = Print Vs Digital Information Age (Harapnik, 2013,) Dr. Harapnuik states:
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If I imagine my primary job as a teacher is to serve information, am I helping solve the current informational problem or make it worse?
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And given the vast complexity of the informational network, if I insist on my centrality, does that establish or harm my credibility as a teacher?
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If assessing information – and the wisdom & experience that requires – is the central challenge of the current informational age, are teachers more or less necessary?
He said he bases his role as an educator on these questions. I think these questions are important because they can help us create the right learning environment for our students. My responses to these questions dictate what my classroom environment will be.
My goal is to have students understand how math works, not find the right answers. They have math solvers and calculators for that. But they need to know if the answers produced by the solvers and calculators are right. If they don’t have a basic understanding of the type of answers they should get, they’ll never know if they have good information or not.
In my second class in my Digital Learning and Leading program at Lamar University, I read Mindset: The new psychology of success by Carol Dweck (Dweck, 2006). This book opened my eyes to what “smarts'' really is and why my students need to focus on learning instead of the grade. They need an environment that supports their learning and the effort they put in instead of just giving a grade based on a correct answer.
I try to model the growth mindset during our daily lessons and during projects. When students find my mistakes I thank them for catching them. I applaud them not only for their observational skills but also for telling me, which can be a scary thing for students. I remind them that everyone makes mistakes and that mistakes are ok. We know we are going to make mistakes which makes communication with others important. They catch what we don’t!
Part of my Innovation Proposal involves students engaging in discourse to deepen their learning. If they don’t find their growth mindset voice, the voice that encourages feedback, these discussions won’t be beneficial to them. The growth mindset is important to my plan because students need to support and communicate with each other to increase their learning.
In my first Growth Mindset Plan, I discussed what I felt would be important to address in my classroom with the knowledge I gained from Dweck’s book and other supplemental materials (see references below). I’ve tried to implement these ideas in my classroom:
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No late penalty for work received after the due date.
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Ability to retest for any test failed.
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Encouraging questions and praising students who ask. Things I often say:
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“If you have a question, someone else does too.”
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“Asking a question isn’t brave, it’s smart.”
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“There are no dumb questions, only unanswered questions.”
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Motivational posters placed where all students (remote and in-person) can see them to remind them of important growth mindset concepts:
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When caught cheating, students have another chance to learn the material and show their learning to receive credit.
The last bullet point may seem a bit too lenient to some. I felt this way too, at first. I describe in my blog post, “How the Growth Mindset Affects Cheating,” a situation with a student I caught cheating. She cheated for the same reasons most students do. Not because they don’t want to learn, but because they get frustrated and don’t feel comfortable doing what it takes to learn: asking questions and putting forth the effort. They’ve experienced this frustration for so long that it is their go-to when they don’t know the answer. For my classes to be an environment of learning, students need to feel comfortable asking questions and making mistakes. By showing that student that I would not punish her for cheating, but I wouldn’t tolerate her not learning, she learned a different lesson -- the learning is more important in my classroom than the grade.
As I model the growth mindset I must watch for students putting in the wrong kind of effort. There’s a misconception that if students put forth an effort, any kind of effort, that is the “grit” growth mindset talks about. In truth, the growth mindset does not ask for just any kind of effort. It must be a focused effort. The focus of the effort should be on the types of problems students got wrong. If they focus on what they missed, pay attention to feedback, and work on how to solve problems correctly, that will make them “smarter.”
My students need an environment where learning and experimentation are encouraged, and grades and rewards are based on their determination to learn and communicate their learning with others. When the pressures of late penalties, and “only one try” are taken out of the equation students can relax and focus on learning.
Sources that influenced my plan:
Change Your Fixed Mindset into a Growth Mindset [Complete Guide]. (2020, June 23). Retrieved October 18, 2020, from https://scottjeffrey.com/change-your-fixed-mindset/
Dweck, C. (2020, April 02). Carol Dweck Revisits the 'Growth Mindset'. Retrieved October 18, 2020, from http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2015/09/23/carol-dweck-revisits-the-growth-mindset.html
Dweck, C. S. (2006). Mindset: The new psychology of success. New York: Ballantine Books.
Harapnuik, Dwayne. (2013, April 05) Fixed Vs Growth Mindset = Print Vs Digital Information Age http://www.harapnuik.org/?p=3627
Hellerich, K. (2020, October 05). Using Retakes to Nurture Growth Mindset. Retrieved October 18, 2020, from https://www.edutopia.org/article/using-retakes-nurture-growth-mindset
The "Mindset" Mindset. (2018, June 08). Retrieved October 18, 2020, from https://www.alfiekohn.org/article/mindset/