Eclectic Technology

Carol Dweck has been studying mindset for many years, and this post shares information from her work. There is a discussion on growth mindset and fixed mindset as well as a discussion on how a growth mindset can help one learn (which also shares information from some of her research).

This is followed by a list of 25 ways to help students develop a growth mindset. Five are listed below.

* Acknowledge and embrace imperfections.

* View challenges as opportunities.

* Follow the research on brain plasticity.

* Value the process over the end result.

* Provide regular opportunities for reflection.

What would happen if your class or your school chose one suggestion a week and had it become a part of the school culture? Would students learn more about growth mindset and be more willing to take risks? To understand that everyone fails at different points in their life, but they have the ability to move on (and potentially share information about people who have failed and led a successful life)?  What are your thoughts on this subject?

And remember to click through to the post to see all 25 suggestions (as well as links to additional resources).

How can we help nurture a growth mindset? New research has been published shows that providing as little as "30-minute online intervention can spur academic gains for many students, particularly those with poor grades."

Learn more about the programs that were offered and about the gains that struggling students made based on the online intervention.

Carol Dweck is known for her research on growth mindset and this post provides up-to-date information that may make you consider creating a short presentation and discussion with students about the value of hard work and effort as well as various study techniques. It is important to remember that students of all ages need to be educated that they are able to learn.

What do you think? Do your students come to you with a fixed mindset? Is there future pre-determined by birth? Is intelligence static? Or do you students come in with a growth mindset, with the knowledge that learning takes effort and time, the ability to try and fail, and try again (and again...)? Can intelligence be developed?

Gleeson provides an overview of the two mindsets and explores the infographic and the five categories within in it by asking each as a question. Below is one example...but you will find questins for each category in the post (challenges, obstacles, effort, criticism, success of others).

Quoting from the post:

OBSTACLES: Do we allow our children/ourselves to give up when learning becomes too difficult and stay in a growth- limiting ‘comfort zone’? OR Do we expect our childen/ourselves to persist until we overcome those obstacles and celebrate the achievement of success against all odds?And if you would like to watch a short video that discusses fixed mindset check out this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhLJPhxuvGM.

Finding great educational videos takes time...so I am always excited when I find a list of suggested video. Jackie Gerstein shares her top 11. They range from just over three minutes to about seventeen minutes. Below is  a list of the videos.

* Malala Yousuf Nobel Prize Speech

* Carol Dweck: The Power of Believing You Can Improve

* Sir Ken Robinson: Can Creativity Be Taught

* President Obama on the Whitehouse Maker Faire

* Toxic Culture of Education: Joshua Katz

* The necessity of the student voice | Catherine Zhang

* Rethinking Learning in the Digital Age – Mitchel Resnick

* If I Knew Then: A Letter to Me on My First Day Teaching

This chart looks at the difference between a fixed mindset and a growth mindset by looking at eight areas:

* Desire

* Evaluation of situations

* Dealing with setbacks

* Challenges

* Effort

* Criticism

* Success of others

* Result...

You may want to share this with students or other teachers at your school.