WILMINGTON, MA – Wilmington School Superintendent Mary DeLai published her weekly blog post on Sunday, explaining the concept of “growth mindset” and some steps parents can take to help their children develop one. Read DeLai’s blog post HERE or below:
Last weekend, I had the good fortune to attend the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development’s Annual Conference. On Sunday, one of the keynote speakers was well known Stanford University researcher Carol Dweck, author of “Mindset: The New Psychology of Success” and “Mindset: How You Can Fulfill Your Potential.” Over the past several years, educators have taken an increasing interest in this concept of mindset. Research indicates that if we can help our students develop a growth mindset, they are likely to be more successful academically, socially, and emotionally.
Mindset is essentially our perception of our abilities. Dweck and others differentiate a fixed mindset from a growth mindset. With a fixed mindset, we perceive our abilities and talents to be fixed – we resolve ourselves to the notion that what we were born with is what we possess. Those with a growth mindset believe that their potential is unlimited. Talents and abilities can be developed through study and effort. A growth mindset leads to a passion for learning and an innate belief in one’s ability to be resilient.
While the research has been subject to some debate (mostly related to the question of how one measures a person’s mindset and the statistical significance of the increase in achievement scores when compared to control groups), it does seem clear that students with a growth mindset appear to be more motivated and achieve better grades and higher test scores.
So how do you distinguish a growth mindset from a fixed mindset? The graphic below compares some of the characteristics of each.
Can someone with a fixed mindset develop a growth mindset? The answer, according to Dweck and others is, yes, absolutely. A growth mindset can be taught.
So how do we help children develop a growth mindset?
“If parents want to give their children a gift, the best thing they can do is to teach their children to love challenges, be intrigued by mistakes, enjoy effort, and keep on learning.” – Carol Dweck
One thing we can do is to explain to children that our brains are flexible and pliable – that talents and abilities can be developed and personality can be changed. It’s called neuroplasticity. Brain scans have demonstrated that learning actually changes our brains.
Encouraging children to talk about their learning also helps. Many parents are frustrated when they ask their children, “what did you learn today?” and they hear the words, “nothing” or “not much.” Add some specificity to your questions. Ask them to share something about their day that was challenging. Ask them what they learned about themselves when confronted with a difficult situation.
Praise children for taking risks and making mistakes. Allow children to struggle through difficult situations. Address their struggles with compassion but resist the urge to jump in and solve the problem for them. Let children sit with the upset or the sadness and help them work through it. Remind them of some of your own failures and how they helped you to grow and learn. Share with them some of the failures of famous people like Michael Jordan who was cut from his high school basketball team or Walt Disney who was fired from a newspaper due to lack of creativity.
When it comes time to praising your child, highlight the strategies they used, their persistence, their effort, their willingness to take a risk rather than their personal abilities like intelligence or speed. Research shows that praising ability can lead to a loss of confidence in children. When something doesn’t go well, they will conclude it is because of a lack of ability rather than a lack of knowledge, strategy, or effort.
Finally, encourage your child to engage in positive self talk and model this for your children. Too often, we find ourselves falling into negative self talk when things don’t go well. Be conscious of this and work to alter the internal conversation. For example, when a child says, “this is too hard” encourage them to instead think, “this is going to take some time and effort.”
Recently, I stumbled upon the poem below in the blog post of a teacher named Loddi Micucci. I leave you with these poignant words and the hope that we can all work to develop a growth mindset within our children and ourselves.
Sources: http://www.dyslexicadvantage.com; http://loddymicucci.com/practical-steps-for-your-self-talk-positive-mindset/; http://imaginationsoup.net/2014/09/17/help-child-unmotivated-growth-fixed-mindset/.
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