The Mindset Journey by Greg Furlich

Sometimes in the field of education we are really quick to latch on to the latest trend. We read about the trend, immerse ourselves in it for a while, think we understand, and then quickly move on to the next train that’s pulling into the station. At times, I feel this is the case with the growth mindset work of Carol Dweck. After all her book, Growth Mindset has been out for ten years now. Many of us have read it, recommended it to staff members and tried to incorporate its key tenets in our schools. And, maybe here is where some of the danger lies. I had the opportunity to see Carol Dweck in person last month and take in an entire conference dedicated to mindsets and brain research. One of my biggest take-aways is that maybe just a surface level understanding of her theories can do as much harm as good. In her keynote address, Ms. Dweck addressed some of these same fears herself.

The thing, Dweck stated, that keeps her up at night is that the mindset movement may end up just perpetuating the old self-esteem movement. Effort is important, but it’s not the ultimate value; learning and improvement are. Growth mindset is a tool to help students learn. It’s not a way to make kids feel good about not learning! Consider the message we may be actually sending with some of the following statements:

·       “You would have done better if you’d tried harder.” Maybe, but maybe not.

·       “Keep trying and you’ll get.” Well, how are they going to feel if they don’t get it? Inept?

·       “You worked hard, that’s wonderful.” Suppose they didn’t really work hard, didn’t make progress or didn’t learn anything?

By this point in the keynote I was feeling frustrated. If what I had thought about praise and effort related to growth mindset was off base what are we, as educators, supposed to be doing to help students? Of course, Dweck had some answers, and they helped me to better understand exactly what we should be doing for kids. These included:

·       Aiming for clear conceptual understanding, clear feedback, and a chance to resubmit work

·       Sitting with a child who is stuck and saying, “Show me what you’ve done and let’s figure out what you can try next.”

·       Treating failures as beneficial to learning

·       Focusing on a child’s process and tying it to learning

Ultimately, Dweck pointed out, we are all a mixture of fixed and growth mindset and we probably always will be. What we can do is to be on the lookout for fixed mindset triggers like feeling defeated or anxious, looking for excuses and becoming defensive in the face of criticism. If we can begin to identify these tendencies in ourselves, then we can recognize them when they arise in our students and help them work through them. Turns out we’re all on a growth mindset journey.