Growth Mindset

Platte River Elementary teaching staff participated in our fifth day of Professional Development of the 13-14 school year on Friday, Valentines Day, at Lake Ann Elementary.  Before beginning our discussion about the topic of the session, Instructional and Observational Rounds, facilitator Cathy Meyer-Looze took a few minutes to lead us in a discussion about the power and benefits of possessing a growth mindset.

A growth mindset is holding onto the belief that we all, through persistence, are capable of learning and developing intelligence in limitless ways as we go through our lives.  A person with a fixed mindset believes the opposite: that people are born with a fixed set of abilities, with little or no chance to become "smarter."  Someone with a fixed mindset tries to appear smart, avoids challenges, and ignores criticism.  A great litmus test on our own belief is in our response to failure.  It can reveal our mindset.  Do you fear failure, set up defenses, or give up easily?  Or do you expect and then accept challenges, persist, and carry on in your efforts again and again until you experience success?

The truth is, we are all capable of much more than we ever give ourselves credit for.  Brain research is finding that simply teaching kids about the Growth Mindset will set them on a path of success:

In 2007, researchers from Stanford University divided students into two groups for a workshop on the brain and study skills. Half of them, the control group, were taught about the stages of memory; the other half received training in the growth mindset (how the brain grows with learning to make you smarter) and how to apply this idea to their schoolwork. Three times as many students in the growth mindset group showed an increase in effort and engagement compared with the control group. After the training, the control group continued to show declining grades, but the growth-mindset group showed a clear rebound in their grades. Click here to read the full journal article from Stanford University

These concepts are based on the work by researcher and author Carol Dweck.  In her book, Mindset, she writes, "The View you adopt for yourself profoundly affects the way you lead your life.  It can determine whether you become the person you want to be and whether you accomplish the things you value."

The Growth Mindset is about approaching failure as a place of learning instead of viewing it as sticking point or as an end. We simply must, in our profession of education, believe that intelligence can be developed, changing constantly in life.  We must cultivate a growth mindset within ourselves and within our students.

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2014 Bridge Report - Bridge Magazine
Benzie Central is among the Top 3 Rural Public School Districts, getting more out of our students than comparable schools across the entire state of Michigan.

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