Mindsets, Education and Teachers
Prologue:
Well, it has been a while since I have blogged but it is time to start up again. I fear the discipline of putting words to page is not an easy task for me, but I realize that blogging as an act act is not something I do for an audience, but an opportunity to clarify my own thinking. As I am approaching the most challenging writing assignment of my life soon – the dissertation (duh-duh-duh duhhhhh) I need to get to putting ideas down to get my thinking explicit. This has come up a lot in the research class ETEC 705B which is designed to help guide our work towards prospectus, selection of a committee, preparation for compulsories, and then on to designing and implementing a project. One of the roadblocks for people is the challenge putting ideas and summaries to paper, so this will hopefully be one of the ways I can just get idea on paper, even if only peripherally related to my my thrust of my work (another topic for another day)…
Premise:
One of the wonderful books I have been reading (caveat – I have not finished yet) is Carol Dweck’s marvelous “Mindset”
For those not familiar with her work, here is a quick review to set the body of my writing:
There are two kids of people – those with fixed mindsets and those with growth mindsets. She has designed a simple questionnaire can identify which of these two groups people fall into – try this sample yourself (full quiz available here):
You have a certain amount of intelligence, and you can’t really do much to change it.
Strongly Agree Agree Mostly Agree Mostly Disagree Disagree Strongly Disagree
Your intelligence is something about you that you can’t change very much.
Strongly Agree Agree Mostly Agree Mostly Disagree Disagree Strongly Disagree
No matter who you are, you can significantly change your intelligence level.
Strongly Agree Agree Mostly Agree Mostly Disagree Disagree Strongly Disagree
To be honest, you can’t really change how intelligent you are.
Strongly Agree Agree Mostly Agree Mostly Disagree Disagree Strongly Disagree
So what is the difference between growth mindset people and fixed mindset? A tremendous amount – growth mindset people believe hard work and taking risks are powerful ways to improve yourself. Fixed mindset people tend to believe you have what you got so avoid risks or new challenges, since it would be limited by their fixed abilities.
This in itself is a huge thing to know, as it tells you a lot about yourself and others around you and why they behave they way they do. She gives lots of case studies in her book from her research – from 4 year olds to adults and they provide amazing context and contrast between the two groups.
Some of this may sound familiar as locus of control issue (it does to me) – growth mindset people believe when things don’t work for them, it is in their control to fix the problem (work harder, change initial conditions, etc). Fixed mindset people will believe that external forces are the root of their problems – poor performance or results are due to lack of talent, outside forces (the coach doesn’t like me) and will not try to address the problem as something they can do within themselves.
The second part of her work shows that it is possible to change your mindset, and in doing so it can dramatically change your life. Once a person really takes to heart that they CAN affect change in their life by taking on challenge, working hard and taking risks, they live dramatically different lives because they are able and willing to do the things they need to grow and attain goals. This is abbreviated explanation doesn’t do the book justice – buy it! It does however lay the foundation for my thinking…
How important is understanding this in education? I believe it is critical. She advocates teaching all children this – both that people are usually one or the other and more importantly that they CAN change by adopting some new thinking about their own intellect and talents.
Rumination:
Here is where it matters for this blog – think about how important this is as a teacher. If a teacher has a fixed mindset, it doesn’t just color their thinking on their own abilities, but also how they view their children in their class. A teacher with a growth mindset will believe that every child in their class has the ability to achieve and will set up the conditions for success for all students. This won’t just be an artificial attempt – it will be deep and thoughtful – looking at research, addressing learning styles, understanding their students, etc. More importantly, when students don’t do well, the teacher will not play the “some kids have talent for this and some don’t” card, but will look at what they are doing and adjust because they will have the same mindset they believe their students have.
This is reminiscent of the great movie “Stand and Deliver” and the success Jaime Escalante had with his students. There is a scene in the movie that shows this kind of mindset in operation:
Jaime Escalante: [to his students] … There will be no free rides, no excuses. You already have two strikes against you: your name and your complexion. Because of those two strikes, there are some people in this world who will assume that you know less than you do. *Math* is the great equalizer… When you go for a job, the person giving you that job will not want to hear your problems; ergo, neither do I. You’re going to work harder here than you’ve ever worked anywhere else. And the only thing I ask from you is *ganas.* *Desire.*
[Passing one boy, he ruffles up the student’s hair]
Jaime Escalante: And maybe a haircut.
[Everyone laughs]
Jaime Escalante: If you don’t have the *ganas,* I will give it to you because I’m an expert.
Note that he both believes that his students CAN do this and he has the ability to help them succeed. Well done.
Let’s contrast that to a fixed mindset teacher – they will not only believe that they have limited abilities, but will assume the same is true of their students – it is their paradigm. This means they will see the class as more of a sorting operation – need to determine who gets the A’s, B’s, F’s etc. For this teacher, the bell curve is a natural outcome from the distributions of abilities and talents in their class. Their students will get this as well (students as a whole are marvelous at picking up on class culture and teacher expectations). As the old saying goes “If you think some of your students cannot do do the work, you are probably right”.
We had a debate a few year ago on our campus about whether we should eliminate letter grades of C or D. Not as a means of grade inflation, but to require students to do the work needed to attain a grade of at least B. The idea was too radical for the group at the time and died a slow death, but in a recent article in the for Educational Leadership here, Carol Dweck lists some school districts that have adopted a grade scale of A, B and not yet. This is not a case of grade inflation, it is a view that all students can and SHOULD be expected to do the work. “I am not good at math” just won’t cut it when the options you have are to either pass or keep working until you do pass.
Recently Sir Ken Robinson was the keynote at our Hawaii Schools of the Future conference, and he was asked how he would create a school from the ground up. After some thought he basically said he would start with teachers who really understood and cared about kids. From that, the other things (schedule, assessment, curriculum, buildings, resources) would come. It made me think that as we look towards hiring new teachers, do we really make sure they they have a growth mindset? Imagine if you gave all the teachers at your school the Mindset quiz tomorrow – what do you think you would find? What if half of your teachers felt intelligence and talent are fixed quantities? How would you shape professional development to start to change their mindset. Will anything else you do matter if you don’t?