My Growth Mindset Plan
It’s the end of week two of my first masters class in a very long time and I’ve been tasked with developing a plan to introduce Dr. Dweck’s concepts of mindset not only to support my own brain growth, but also for others. I’d say simply by being here in week two, I am already taking active steps to grow my brain. I graduated from college in 1999 and nearly 20 years later, here I am in school again. I’m here because I chose it and according to Daniel Pink’s video Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us (2010), the autonomy factor is one of the three key ingredients to improve performance. I have been teaching science in the middle and high school setting and although I do learn from my students all the time, I wanted to be in charge of the direction of my learning. When I was in college, the teacher certification plan took five years at the University of Oklahoma. Once I graduated, to finish up the requirements for recommendation to the state of Oklahoma for my teaching certificate, I had to enroll in graduate school to finish some coursework and my student teaching. A year into grad school, I had 17 hours of the 36 hour program requirements, a valid teaching certificate and $18,000 in student loan debt. I got married, crossed the Red River and began my teaching career in Richardson, TX. Eighteen years after that moment, I am back in school because I felt the need to grow. I know I have a fixed mindset in many areas of my life, but I’m realizing that a growth mindset has taken root as far as my professional life is concerned and now that I am studying the details, I’m more able to explain and understand the neuroplasticity of my own brain.
While being introduced to the concept of mindsets in the book Mindset:The New Psychology of Success (Dweck, 2006), I know several of my classmates and I thought “is it really that easy?” In Alfie Kohn’s (2015) article, “The “Mindset” Mindset”, he is “critical of growth mindset without also taking into consideration the curriculum (what) and the pedagogy (how).” So, even though I found myself nodding, agreeing and having a-ha moments while reading Dr. Dweck’s book, I also had Kohn’s thoughts nagging me in the back of my brain. Dr. Dweck has since published blogs and articles addressing some of Kohn’s concerns and the notion the of the false growth mindset. False growth mindset absolutely ignores learning (Dweck, 2016). Praise and effort without learning won’t get anyone anywhere. However, praise for changing the kind of effort when the first, second or more strategies don’t work recognizes the process of learning.
The Universal Design for Learning (Bray, 2012) recognizes three brain networks: the recognition (what) network, the strategic (how) network and the affective (why) network. Daniel Pink’s video seems to line up right along with the UDL. He says the three factors needed to improve performance are autonomy (the what), mastery (the how) and purpose (the why). There are lots public educational structures in place today that ignore student choice and therefore the purpose behind our future generation’s goals and aspirations. Structures such a specified graduations plans and standardized tests can result in students who know the what and how, but don’t really have any grasp of their why. As students use the growth mindset to understand the prescribed curriculum and how to work through the struggle to get smarter, they will gain the tools they need to be successful when given the autonomy to choose an area of study or work driven by their passion.
My school district, Allen ISD in Allen, TX is implementing a Connections class period at our freshman campus this fall. The physical building will be brand new this year and the upperclassmen from the high school will visit the campus and help freshman students develop relationships and connections with the building and student body across the street. The high school students will share their own strategies for success and be mentors to the younger class. My friend and neighbor happens to be one of the teachers developing the program for the Connections course at the freshman center. In addressing my organization, I’ve decided to focus primarily on the incoming freshman class. I’ve put together a web based interactive that could be utilized during the Connections course and have attached the link. My hope is that it can be used full class to help facilitate discussions, in small groups and/or be embedded into our LMS for students to always have and use as a resource. Ideally, we would begin with teachers working their way through the interactive in preparation for sharing it with students and then it would be revisited over the course of the year. My goal would be that teachers collaborate, read, research or even do a Google/Pinterest search for additional activities to help reinforce the growth mindset during the year. I’d love to see a mindset specific activity at least once per quarter in addition to teachers and staff actively trying to model the growth mindset in their classrooms throughout the year.
I learned some new skills (Canva.com, downloading .png’s, formatting in Google Slides and APA citations) while working on my presentation. There were plenty of moments when I was ready to throw things at my computer screen, but I paused, asked for help and worked through the struggle. That was my own growth mindset in action. I appreciated the Edgeek article “Dr. Dweck Revisits the “Growth Mindset”” (2015) in which she said “we are all a mixtures of fixed and growth mindsets and probably always will be.” Let’s not ignore our fixed mindset, but recognize it and address it when it holds us back from our goal. Incorporating my plan in the freshman Connections course could help students with that very sentiment.
References
Bray, B. (2012). UDL and personalized learning. Rethink Learning. Retrieved from http://barbarabray.net/2012/01/20/udl-and-personalized-learning/
Dweck, C. (2006). Mindset. Retrieved from http://mindsetonline.com
Dweck, C. (2006). Mindset: The new psychology of success. New York, NY: Random House.
Dweck, C. (2015). Carol Dweck revisits the growth mindset. Education Week. Retrieved from
https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2015/09/23/carol-dweck-revisits-the-growth-mindset.html
Dweck, C. (2016). Recognizing and overcoming false growth mindset. Edutopia. Retrieved from
https://www.edutopia.org/blog/recognizing-overcoming-false-growth-mindset-carol-dweck
Khan Academy (Producer). (2014, Aug. 19). Growing your mind. [Video file]. Retrieved from
Khan Academy. (2014). Letter to a future student. In Growth mindset lesson plan. Retrieved from
https://s3.amazonaws.com/KA-share/Toolkit-photos/FINAL+Growth+Mindset+Lesson+Plan.pdf
Khan Academy (Producer). (2014, Aug. 19). The growth mindset. [Video file]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/wh0OS4MrN3E
Khan Academy (Producer). (2014, Aug. 19). You can learn anything. [Video file]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/JC82Il2cjqA
Kohn, A. (2015). The “mindset” mindset: What we miss by focusing on kids’ attitudes. Salon. Retrieved from https://www.alfiekohn.org/article/mindset/
Perts. (2016). Activity: Crumpled paper. Retrieved from https://www.mindsetkit.org/practices/sOMwSRdLzTictvnb
RSA Animate (Producer). (2010, April. 1). Drive: The surprising truth about what motivates us. [Video file]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/u6XAPnuFjJc
Stanford Alumni (Producer). (2014, Oct. 9). Carol Dweck, Developing a growth mindset. [Video file]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/hiiEeMN7vbQ