The message of YET is so powerful. Using this word allows us the ability to develop a
growth mindset in ourselves, our students, and the people around us. If we live our lives with a growth mindset, the possibilities for learning something new and challenging are endless. The key to achieving our goals/success is having a growth mindset (Briceño, 2012).
How can I help my students develop a growth mindset? Praise the PROCESS and their EFFORT (Dweck, 2014). When Carol Dweck mentioned this, I had an Aha moment. It made me think about when I used to teach 4th grade Math a few years ago. Many times, my students would make the simplest mistake on an assignment and when I'd ask them to explain how they got their answer, they'd realize their mistake. If I saw that the effort was there and that they could explain the process to me, I'd count the question right. I now realize that I was helping develop a growth mindset in my students. At first, they were surprised that even though they made mistakes, they got a pretty good grade. Learning from their mistakes was all that mattered.
Another way to help students develop a growth mindset is to make certain that we are modeling a growth mindset behavior. We cannot teach this to students with the expectations that they'll follow suit if we ourselves are not walking the walk. One way we can do this is by owning our mistakes and showing our students that mistakes are common and that we learn from them. If we fail, fail forward.
As far as feedback and feedforward, I have to admit that I used to be the kind of person who would get defensive with feedback. I always felt judged rather than taking it as a learning opportunity. In all honesty, I still feel like this in my relationship, so that is something I need to work on, however, in my education and career, I've learned to learn from setbacks and criticism. I use them to make necessary changes for improvement.
I love the Mindset graphic! It's a great reminder to myself of where I'm at and where I used
to be. After studying the graphic, I realized that I had a fixed mindset about life up until about 8 months ago when I decided to take the Graduate School plunge. I was really comfortable where I was at and wasn't looking to make any drastic changes. One day, something clicked. My director made me into a team leader and my first thought was, "What do I have to bring to the table?" I thought and I thought...TECH! But I still had so much to learn. That's when I decided to begin Grad school and as challenging as it is, it's the best decision I've ever made! Instead of avoiding challenges, I decided to start embracing them. Learning is fun...and so rewarding.
References
Briceno, E. (2012, November 18). The power of belief -- mindset and Success: Eduardo
Briceno: Tedxmanhattanbeach. YouTube. Retrieved January 20, 2022, from
Dweck, C. (2014, October 9). Developing a growth mindset with Carol Dweck. YouTube.
Retrieved January 20, 2022, from https://youtu.be/hiiEeMN7vbQ
Dweck, C. S. (2016). Mindset the new psychology of success. Ballantine Books.
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