Growth Mindset and Grit
Communicating a Growth Mindset to students is a Restorative Practice, in the way of community building and honing in on language that is socially and emotionally healthy & productive.
The word choices you use with students to describe them and their work are a constant source of feedback to them.
Because our students' brains our so malleable, the ways that we communicate to them and about them will literally impact their brain development!
How we embrace a culture of safe failure, learn from mistakes, model vulnerability, and communicate that there is no such thing as a "smart kid" or a "dumb kid" will be integral to the way our students seem themselves as learners, for the rest of their lives at school.
Growth Mindset was termed by Carol Dweck
Here she explains how mindset impacts the way we learn, the way we see ourselves, and the way our brains work, every day.
Growth Mindset vs Fixed Mindset
Growth Mindset includes looking at mistakes or failure as a safe and positive experience, which will yield more learning and growth.
When you separate a child's behavior and their academic productivity from WHO they ARE, they will start to do that also. Instead of praising how a child is SMART in a concrete way, praise how hard he or she is trying, how they aren't giving up, and how they are learning from the constructive feedback you've given them. THEN, they will be much less likely to give up because they feel they aren't smart anyway and will take many more risks in their learning.
Growth Mindset Praise
These are examples of growth-mindset feedback to students that are also trauma-informed and restorative.
Feedback to Students
Everything that you say to the students is CRUCIAL to their development. These are examples of moving away from generic comments that aren't impactful on student behavior to comments that are meaningful and communicative for the students hearing them.
Think about - what are you go to phrases or comments in school?
What about GRIT?
Angela Duckworth, after delving into Carol Dweck's work, coined the term GRIT, meaning the process of persevering passonately through challenges.
We want our students to be GRITTY! Our feedback and restorative practices will help them become more comfortable persevering when things are hard, as they develop empathy and take ownership.
Talking to our students about GRIT will cultivate GRIT, and is a preventative restorative practice, as you are arming them with tools for future difficulties.
Grit Article.pdf