Growth Mindset Teachers

       Have you heard about Mindsets?  In my school district, I am hard-pressed to meet a supervisor or a principal or a teacher who hasn't heard about it.  Here's a quick video that defines Growth and Fixed mindsets:

       Teachers who understand the Growth Mindset are able to help their students to understand that effort yields results and mistakes are the building blocks of true learning.  These teachers don't encourage their students to get good grades, they encourage questioning and curiousity.

       Students with a growth mindset believe that their is nothing that they can't do.  They don't mind making mistakes because they don't view them as mistakes.  Instead they view mistakes as an important part of the journey toward learning and true understanding.

       Teachers can help students to develop a growth mindset by praising their thinking and their effort, rather than praising that they simply got the right answer.  In fact, if students are constantly told that they are smart, research tells us that they tend to avoid making mistakes and they will hide the things that they can't do because they fear that they will lose the label of "being smart".

       This is (yet) another reason why we have to end this school culture of over-valuing grades.  School is supposed to be about learning and we want our students to understand that learning requires effort.  Effort requires trying new things and taking chances and not getting it right the first time.  This is not only "OK", it is necessary for true learning to take place.

       We love our growth mindset teachers that produce our growth mindset students.  Learning can be hard work.  We want our students to value this hard work and to recognize that there is always a prize waiting to reward them for this hard work.