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!
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