Expected, Inspected, & Respected.
"We do not learn from experience … we learn from reflecting on experience."
-John Dewey |
"We do not learn from experience … we learn from reflecting on experience."
-John Dewey |
“Our business in life is not to get ahead of each other, but to get ahead of ourselves.” - E. Joseph Cossman I use the above quote at the end of my emails as a reminder to myself that life and education are about growth and improvement. Carol Dweck, well known for her work on fixed and growth mindsets explains: “In a fixed mindset, people believe their basic qualities, like their intelligence or talent, are simply fixed traits. They spend their time documenting their intelligence or talent instead of developing them. They also believe that talent alone creates success – without effort. They’re wrong. In a growth mindset, people believe that their most basic abilities can be developed through dedication and hard work – brains and talent are just the starting point. This view creates a love of learning and a resilience that is essential for great accomplishment” (Dweck 381). Dweck’s work resonates with me because I feel that, up until the end of my first degree, I had a fixed mindset; I never pushed myself in school because I was fairly bright, and with minimal effort, my grades were always good enough. Returning to my studies after a 15 years hiatus, I value personal growth more than ever, and I feel this motivation to improve has given rise to more authentic learning. I am convinced that classroom practices that promote a growth mindset are the ones I need to focus on as a teacher, so that my students won’t have to wait until they are in their thirties before they can know the joys of learning. Jo Boaler builds on Carol Dweck’s growth mindset research and applies it to the mathematics classroom in her book, Mathematical Mindsets. As I intend to specialize in mathematics instruction, I am excited to implement the following classroom practices: 1)Everyone can learn math to the highest levels.There is no such thing as a “math person”. This message counteracts the problematic idea that math abilities are fixed from birth. 2) Mistakes are valuable.Growth happens when you struggle and make mistakes. This might be difficult to teach, but Boaler has various methods for doing so: - Share the brain research with students. - Display posters made by students with messages such as, “The biggest mistake you can make is being afraid to make ones.” - Apologize to students if their work is too easy as it robs them of potential learning opportunities. Easy is a waste of time - productive struggle is where the learning happens. - Applaud students who share misconceptions with the class so that everyone can benefit from each other’s mistakes. 3) Questions are really important.Encourage students to ask them. Celebrate good questions by writing them on chart paper and posting them in the room. 4) Math is about creativity and making sense.5) Math is about connections and communicating.6) Depth is much more important than speed.7) Math class is about learning, not performing.Assessment often delivers a fixed mindset message to students and Boaler has some great advice for how to combat this: - Allow students to resubmit any work or test for a higher grade. - Grade and test less. - Share diagnostic feedback with students but not grades. - Give grades not just for getting correct answers but for learning behaviours such as asking questions, explaining work to others, making connections, etc. - Don’t include homework, if given, as any part of grading. (Boaler 269-277) In the spirit of a growth mindset, I sought out opinions that might contradict the growth mindset mania that has swept through academia. Alfie Kohn, an educational thought leader I highly respect, warns of the dangers of a shallow implementation of the growth mindset. In his Salon article, “The Perils of ‘Growth Mindset’ Education: Why we’re trying to fix our kids when we should be fixing the system”, he says, “...books, articles, TED talks, and teacher-training sessions devoted to the wonders of adopting a growth mindset rarely bother to ask whether the curriculum is meaningful, whether the pedagogy is thoughtful, or whether the assessment of students’ learning is authentic (as opposed to defining success merely as higher scores on dreadful standardized tests)” (Kohn). Fortunately, Boaler avoids the pitfalls of a misguided and superficial growth mindset program by filling her book with meaningful mathematic curriculum, thoughtful pedagogy, and authentic assessment techniques. Kohn also criticizes the use of praise to encourage a growth mindset. While Dweck and others commonly recommend praising children’s effort rather than their intelligence, he says that praising children as a pedagogical tool is not a worthwhile practice. It may be true that praising effort is better than praising intelligence, but Kohn posits that when we use rewards to manipulate children into behaving as we would like them to, “kids typically end up less interested in whatever they were rewarded or praised for doing, because now their goal is just to get the reward or praise” (Kohn). He believes that non-judgemental feedback is more conducive to intrinsically motivated learning.
By implementing the core philosophies and practices recommended by Dweck, Boaler, and Kohn in my classroom, I hope that my students will be able to shed their potential fixed mindsets and embrace one of growth. Through an intentional pedagogy where mistakes are valued, praise is non-manipulative, and assessment is used as productive feedback rather than judgement, students will know joyful, authentic learning.
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David Wiebe
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