Action Research:The Growth Mindset

Topic, Purpose and Research Question:

The topic of the action research plan is focused on the growth mindset. Interest of the growth mindset stems from the book “Mindset the New Psychology of Success: How We Can Learn to Fulfill Our Potential” by Carol Dweck. In Carol Dweck’s book, she states that the growth mindset compared to the fixed mindset will have an influence on individual success in parenting, school, business and relationships. The growth mindset is a mindset that has been researched upon in the education field the last 15 years. The growth mindset has been described as a mindset that can impact student performance (Dweck, 2016). I teach CTE: business and technology courses where growth mindset will be important for students to develop because these fields are always changing. “Therefore, we need to constantly adapt and learn new things. What we’ve learned today will be out of date in two- or three-years’ time.”- (Marr, 2019).

The researcher will be utilizing the Action Research: Improving Schools and Empowering Educators by Craig Mertler book as they engage with the action research plan development. The purpose of the study stems from the 5 whys outline I conducted from the problem: students do not practice or have a belief in the growth mindset in the classroom. I felt this would be essential because having a growth mindset will be important during the Covid-19 pandemic and uncertainty about how school will be conducted (Sparks, Growth mindset in a pandemic: teachers talk about building resilience in students , 2020). The action research plan is developed prior to the knowledge if school will be face to face, virtual or mixed instruction setting during the Covid-19 pandemic. Therefore, it is essential the researcher/educator remain adaptable and create/utilize measurements that can be analyzed in a face to face, virtual or mixed instruction setting. The research question developed for the action research plan asks: what is the relationship between a students’ growth mindset and academic performance in a CTE classroom?

5 Whys Outline (Mertler, 2020)

Define the Problem:

Students do not practice or have a belief in the growth mindset in the classroom

1) Why?

Students do not have an established growth mindset

2) Why?

Students are not given opportunities to engage in conversation or do activities that practice self-evaluation of their mindset

3) Why?

Teacher/researcher has not created the opportunities and built this into the classroom culture with TEKS curriculum

4) Why?

Teacher/researcher has not investigated the TEKS or set up lessons to include growth mindset practice

5) Why?

Teacher/researcher did not set this up as part of their Student Growth Goals

Action Research Topic:

The researcher will examine and describe the growth mindset in an education setting and how to incorporate it into the curriculum to study for the action research plan.

References

Dweck, C. S. (2016). Mindset: the new psychology of success. New York City : Random House Inc.

Marr, B. (2019, Nov 4). Forbes. The 5 most important job skills for the future, pp. https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2019/11/04/the-5-most-important-job-skills-for-the-future/#201578e51e5d.

Mertler, C. A. (2020). Action research: improving schools and empowering educators (sixth ed.). Thousand Oaks: SAGE.

Sparks, S. D. (2019, May 28). Building growth mindset in the classroom: assignments from Carol Dweck. Retrieved from Education Week: https://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/inside-school-research/2019/05/building_growth_mindset_in_the_classroom.html

Sparks, S. D. (2020, May 29). Growth mindset in a pandemic: teachers talk about building resilience in students . Retrieved from Education Week : https://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/inside-school-research/2020/05/growth_mindset_in_a_pandemic_teachers_talk_resilience.html