Interest = Ability, Ability = Interest

I am writing to you from Indianapolis. In a few hours Chris Trottier and I will be presenting at the Project Lead the Way (PLTW) National Conference. We are also joined by Deanna Brunlinger and Jerry Iserloth, two high school PLTW teachers. The conference has been exceptional to this point, and it has provided us with excellent networking opportunities and learning experiences. The opening night of the conference I had the good fortune of listening to Dr. William Bennett, the former Secretary of Education, share why he is an advocate of PLTW. His speech was apolitical, relevant, and it resonated with my experience and involvement in PLTW. He stated very eloquently that his support of PLTW is directly related to its ability to engage and interest students.

Dr. Bennett went on to explain that a reciprocal relationships exists between interest and ability. When we create a interest for young children, it results in them having ability in that area. This makes sense and aligns with much of Malcolm Gladwell’s research related to the need for for someone to spend 10,000 hours working on something to truly master it. If someone has interest in a concept, topic, subject area, then they are likely to have the motivation necessary to put the time into developing the ability. As we grow and develop, this reciprocal relationship can become very strong and convert to what we have an ability in, we are interested in. For example, you may have heard a student say, “I like math because I am good at it.” At this point ability and capacity are now influencing interest. Knowing this reciprocal relationship exists, we can consciously impact a student's ability by controlling the interest level. Take a moment to think about how do you interest your students?

This leads me to why I have been a strong supporter of PLTW since first introduced to it eight years ago. It isn’t just about the need for us to provide a strong STEM background for our students, which we do, but it is also because I have seen how the PLTW curriculum ignites student interest and excitement in STEM. This high interest level leads to students taking a greater interest in subject areas that many tend to struggle with over time, in particular science and math. This interest then leads to time on task, which in return develops their ability. When the curriculum is introduced at the earlier ages, I have also seen it have a tremendous positive impact on our girls and children of lower socioeconomics, as their interest in the math and sciences are ignited. This interest eventually demonstrates the reciprocal relationship of Ability=Interest.

By the end of this school year we will become one of two districts in the country to offer at least one Project lead the way unit to each one of our students in grades K-8, and have all three areas of study available at the high school level (engineering, biomedical science, and computer science). We have made a big commitment to integrating this curriculum, and I know that it has and will require a significant time commitment from many of you. However, I know that this commitment of time and resources will lead to increased interest for all our students, resulting in greater ability. I want to thank you for the commitment that many of you are making, and let you know that I appreciate it, both as an educational leader, but even more so as a parent. Together we will have a significant impact on the lives of our students. Thank you for all you do! If you ever have any questions related to PLTW, do not hesitate to ask, I would be happy to discuss it with you.

How to Get Our Students to Not Give Up

As an educator I have always strived to help students believe in their potential and to cultivate an understanding that hard work will equate to increased knowledge and achievement. For this reason I ask that we focus on growth, rather than achievement. This is not to imply that achievement is not important, to the contrary, having all students reach the highest level of achievement they possibly can is our ultimate goal. I just don’t feel that focusing on where a student is already at is the secret to success, but rather focusing on the direction and speed they are headed, will yield the end result we desire.  While this focus on growth is at the heart of what I do as an educator, I recently read an article, “Why Some Kids Try Harder and Some Kids Give Up” - Tracy Cutchlow,  that made me reflect on my actions as a parent and an educator. I also believe the article has powerful insights regarding student resilience, and how we can help develop a growth mentality. Please be sure to take a moment to read the entire article.

Students come to us with two basic mindsets, these are referred to as a fixed mindset or a growth mindset. Tracy describes the fixed mindset children in the following manner:

“Kids with a fixed mindset believe that you are stuck with however much intelligence you're born with. They would agree with this statement: "If you have to work hard, you don't have ability. If you have ability, things come naturally to you." When they fail, these kids feel trapped. They start thinking they must not be as talented or smart as everyone's been telling them. They avoid challenges, fearful that they won't look smart.”

Those with a growth mindset are described as follows:

“Kids with a growth mindset believe that intelligence can be cultivated: the more learning you do, the smarter you become. These kids understand that even geniuses must work hard. When they suffer a setback, they believe they can improve by putting in more time and effort. They value learning over looking smart. They persevere through difficult tasks.What creates these beliefs in our kids? The type of praise we give them -- even starting at age 1.”

The ahah moment for me was the fact that students are coming to us with one of these two mindsets. We obviously want to assure that our students have a growth mindset. This means that for many of our students we need to help them overcome their pre-established, “fixed mindset” notions and help focus them on developing characteristics of a growth mindset. The key to this is how we phrase our praise.

“Kids praised for their effort tended to take the challenging task, knowing they could learn more. They were more likely to continue feeling motivated to learn and to retain their confidence as problems got harder.

Kids praised for their intelligence requested the easier task, knowing there was a higher chance of success. They lost their confidence as problems got harder, and they were much more likely to inflate their test scores when recounting them.”

We need to reflect on how we praise students, and focus our praise on their efforts, rather than what I am often guilty of as a parent, “Wow, you’re so smart!” As a parent of a couple of fixed mindset students I know I have some work to do.

As a side note the Author’s in-laws live right here in Elkhorn, small world!