Are you familiar with a growth mindset? What does that mean to you? Think about penguins. Can we teach them to fly? I know the scenario appears ridiculous, but let’s use this framework for a minute. It’s not a lack of a positive attitude, or even effort and training, that prevents penguins from flying. They can’t fly because they are not built for flying. Now, let’s think about our students. Are they in an education system that values only academic rigor and achievement? What happens when the student is trying as hard as he or she can and yet they still can't reach the prescribed outcomes?
Back to the penguin analogy. If a penguin tries and tries and tries to flap harder to fly, yet can’t get off the ground, regardless of the effort, the penguin has still failed to fly. If a student tries, and tries, and tries - and still struggles, is effort the problem? Carol Dweck’s broad theory of growth mindset places students into two categories: students who attribute their outcomes to external / unchangeable factors such as intelligence or ability, and those who believe outcomes are related to internal, changeable factors such as effort and perseverance. Dweck believes the second group of students are the students that are most likely to succeed. Now, think about the student who continues to try and puts a great deal of effort in learning. Are they being told the only reason they have failed is because they don’t have a growth mindset and reason they’ve failed is because they’re not trying hard enough?
So, where does ability meet effort? Should we focus on breath of knowledge and help students build a wide range of skills? And what are the ‘real’ skills students need to develop to be successful? Finally, how should the growth mindset be applied in the classroom?
I look forward to the discussion.
Sincerely,
Kathy
Comments
While the penguin analogy is thought-provoking, it misses the mark. All penguins are unable to fly. All humans are able to learn, even those with special learning needs.
The problem I see too often is adult learnes have been told they can't fly so often that they have come to believe it. Helping them develop a growth mindset is important because, whatever the limits of their capabilities, they will never reach their potential if they don't believe they can do so.
Lessons should be driven by standards, but also by students' goals. It's our job to have a growth mindset ourselves and find creative ways to help students arrive at the benchmarks. Not everyone learns the same way or at the same speed, so we, as educators, have to be willing to try new techniques, get outside the "education box" and figure out, with our students, what is going to help them reach their goals.
If a student is putting forth his/her best effort and fails, I tell the student that it is my failure. FAIL = First Attempt In Learning And we will try again and SAIL (Subsequent Attempt in Learning) until we get there.
Glenda
I can't remember which speaker used it, but his analogy was that all dogs can swim, but dachsunds have to work a *lot* harder at it.
Still, your point is painfully true. In my opinion, it's the subtle silent ways students get informed that "they can't" that are most damaging. When they can successfully disappear and be passed along, they learn fascinating "strategies" for survival. Think of the ones who are most excellent at the affect of "I got it now!" and then going for that calculator because they don't. Often their efforts to make me happy interfere with actual learning :(
Still, my goal is to provide chances to succeed and to own that success. One thing that *really* helps in this tutoring lab is the folks who are down here struggling, but struggling to learn -- modeling that learning isn't a gift that's given to the select few. (This semester I have two folks coming in who are in MAT 124 -- College Algebra -- modeling that success even happens :))
I am finding Linda Nathan's book fascinating. Her premise is that the American educational culture is based on 5 assumptions. They are:
1. Money isn't an obstacle.
2. Race doesn’t matter.
3. Just work harder.
4. Everyone can go to college
5. If you believe, your dreams will come true.
Her focus is the external forces that impact student sucess and that it is not all about a student's grit or mindset. While certainly, resiliency is an important factor, it's not the only factor.
Kathy
The idea that cultivating growth mindset merely means saying "keep trying" has lead to what Carol Dweck calls "false growth mindset." She discusses this idea here. One of the highlights of the interview is this statement by Dweck: "Effective teachers who actually have classrooms full of children with a growth mindset are always supporting children’s learning strategies and showing how strategies created that success. Students need to know that if they’re stuck, they don’t need just effort. You don’t want them redoubling their efforts with the same ineffective strategies. You want them to know when to ask for help and when to use resources that are available. All of this is part of the process that needs to be taught and tied to learning."
The point here is that "you tried really hard" does not help students learn from their mistakes, which is the advantage of a growth mindset in the first place. The "growth" part refers to seeing the possibility for growth, typically by evaluating past performance (successful or not) and looking for ways to improve. Telling people to just try harder is not usually a productive approach unless they're trying to start a motor with a pull cord (and even then, it's frustrating...).
Glenda's comment about trying a new method is perfectly appropriate here. Either the teacher or the student needs to start the discussion that looks for mistakes, examines what happened, and tries again--either in a different way or with more knowledge. Many of our students, because of the environmental issues Kathy brought up, are not prepared to do this on their own at first. But, they can learn. Admitting that you did something wrong can be hard, and examining how/why/when/where the problem occured can be difficult, but it's something that people can learn to do. That's the message behind growth mindset: you can change the way you look at mistakes, errors, and obstacles. You can look for new strategies.
So, maybe, if your penguin wants to fly, jumping off rocks and flapping her wings is not going to cut it. Maybe she needs to learn about airplanes.
Yes, the understanding of connecting effort to strategies versus simple praise is critical. Dweck's newest addition of her book on growth mindset discusses the false growth mindset. The idea of moving students forward by connecting teaching strategies to learn, assessing, and showing the growth through the assessment is so important. And I love the solution of penguins in airplanes. It's a perfect ending to an analogy - if a student is struggling with reaching a specific goal - then we provide the student with the strategies and skills to reach that same goal -but they may reach it differently.
Kathy
Thanks, Rachel, for this insightful post. I am glad you brought up Dweck's concern. When visiting classrooms, Dweck had noticed that some teachers did not fully understand how to apply the growth mindset theory. These teachers were insisting that students just needed to keep trying harder--i.e., that effort alone would be enough-- instead of understanding where understanding was breaking down and trying something different. It is our job as teachers to listen to learners' problem solving strategies and be ready with ideas for alternatives.
Thanks for the humor, too, Rachel!
Cheers, Susan Finn Miller
Moderator, Assessment CoP