“If you have a choice between something safe and a challenge. Take the challenge.” (Dweck, Talks at Google, 2015) This quote has invigorated me to create a significant learning environment for student success. As I’ve grown in my job as a video specialist, I see tomorrow’s questions will require a different way of thinking than today.

 

After reading the book Mindset by Carol Dweck (2006) I learned want to promote and support a growth mindset. Having that mindset  that responds to challenges leads to greater understanding.

 

Dweck has plenty of data and evidence that if you encourage a mind to take risks you’ll see growth. If you discourage a mind to take risks you won’t see as much growth. Dweck argues that the factors we think are true sometimes are. Putting a girl in a class with majority boys will hurt her tests scores because she doesn’t want to look bad. Something as simple as checking a box before a test that identifies your race, gender, or economic status hurts that student’s scores. (Dweck, 2006)

 

I joined a roller hockey team in college to do something new. It was a great environment. After a year I realized I hadn’t scored a goal, hadn’t gotten an assist, and I had no desire to change that. I played on that team all four years. I loved those guys and girls on my team. After reading Mindset I’ve come to realize that I had a fixed mindset. Because I hadn’t played hockey all my life, my skill level was at a certain level and all I couldn’t change it. I see now what my future students will see. They’ll love me as a teacher because I always like to do new things. I need to take these lessons of growth and apply them to my innovation plan. This will guide me in my next big endeavor that just because you do something new, doesn’t means it leads to understanding.

 

My next big challenge is implementing my innovation plan of Klein ISD teachers creating videos in their blended learning environment. Luckily for my plan we have growth minded teachers in Klein ISD, they’re passionate about their student’s learning potential. They’re used to professional development so I can conquer my fear of teaching adults. I’ve never taught professional development course. I’ve sat in dozens of training sessions myself so I know what strategies will get a teacher engaged. Some of the strategies will be project based learning with peer review. Another strategy I’ll use is creating discussion groups so students can put into words and explain in their own terms what I just taught.

 

If they sign up and come into my classroom it shows me they want to learn how to make a video for their classroom. My innovation plan doesn’t link with any certification so the teachers who sign up for my class would demonstrate a growth mindset just by entering my room. It’s my job to capture and expand that mindset, then strengthen that attitude of a growth mindset.

 

Video creation isn’t hard. Just like public speaking isn’t hard. We can close their skills gap which will lead to confidence. It starts with a mindset that “I haven’t learned it yet.” I’ll provide them a simple framework to start from, then open my students’ minds to new levels of understanding.

 

If my learners have trouble and start having doubt I’ll start praising through the word “Yet.” Dweck argues that we should praise the process. Praising intelligence makes them vulnerable. Reward the “Yet.” Through her math game Brain Points they reward the use of effort, strategy, and progress. At work I keep getting praised for my ability to make videos. I try to explain that it took two decades of experience starting in the late 90s. I went to school to make videos and all my jobs strengthen my skill set. It didn’t just start out with these skills.

 

Having that growth mindset creates better confidence and persistence (Dweck, 2006). The teachers who I will train how to make videos will find their learning pits; there will be too much information, other people will make a better video, etc. All of us know the feeling of inadequacy. That’s why if I teach my students the power of the word “yet” they’ll see that a little progress is better than no progress at all. Like Dweck says “When it comes to skill areas, it looks like a growth mindset helps.” (Talks at Google, 2015)

 

One issue I run into when I explain my innovation plan of instructing teachers to make videos is “Which app will do the work for me?” The teacher thinks they found a secret way by getting software to do the work for them or they try to find a youtube video to teach the kids for them. I want to make clear that no video or software can be a teacher. I want my students to have a growth mindset so they can accept my feedback.

 

Having a healthy growth mindset will help my teacher learners focus on their student’s objectives. A educational video has to have a purpose otherwise it’ll distract a student. Dweck’s research of junior high students found that having a growth mindset held many other positive attitudes including they valued learning as a goal, efficacy of effort, and showed grit to not giving up (Dweck, 2006). Dweck found this true for all levels of ability. Believe in growth leads to growth. It’s important that we teach our students to have a growth mindset to the things they have a fixed mindset toward.

 

One challenge I had is overcoming the criticisms of the theory set by the book Mindset. Jesse Singal (2017) argues there is criticism coming from all sides on the theory. “Some statisticians and psychologists are increasingly worried that mindset theory is not all it claims to be.” That we should be more skeptical. I agree, it’s a learning theory.  Humans are incredibly adaptable to many situations. It’s the power of “Not Yet” that drives me to want to be a great teacher for my learners.

 

Author Alfie Kohn (2015) argues the mindset theory attitude doesn’t trump quality curriculum and quality teaching. We need encouraging teachers, but Kohn says we’ve had that for decades. Kohn says we still have a system in place making kids cram forgettable facts into short-term memory. And the kids aren’t consulted about what they’re doing. He goes further and says praising effort can communicate to students they aren’t very capable. “If you’re complimenting me for just trying hard, I must really be a loser.”

 

Grit can be misused as it could trump the qualities curiosity or self-confidence (Kohn, 2014). Kohn looked at positive research on grit and his takeaway was that the research didn’t look to see if the problem was even worth it. Sometimes everything is worth doing, let alone for extended periods. A nonproductive persistence where success could’ve been easily surpassed by alternative courses of action (2014). Something like crime, criminals should give up a life of crime.

 

I’m going to see this in my class to teach teachers how to make videos. I believe anyone can make a video as demonstrated that people upload 300 hours worth of video to Youtube every day (Statistic Brain, 2016). The barrier to video creation is the lowest it’s ever been. Teachers still think that it takes a special person to make videos.

 

Knowing what can hold back the growth mindset we can help model the four steps for students to change from a fixed mindset to a growth mindset. (Dweck, 2010)

 

Step 1: Learn to hear your fixed mindset “voice.”

 

Step 2: Recognize that you have a choice.

 

Step 3: Talk back to it with a growth mindset voice.

 

Step 4: Take the growth mindset action.

 

This four simple steps will guide you from staying in a fixed mindset, going to a growth mindset and releasing your potential for learning.

 

The theory of grit is how a fixed mindset teacher applies the growth mindset approach. That fixed mindset teacher will think that making their course more rigorous, forcing kids to apply grit to the problem, and focusing on grades is how we get student achievement. Even Dweck is forced to use testing grades to prove her theory, but grades are a reflection of a growth mindset not a precursor. A student who moves from an F grade to a D grade could be showing a growth or fixed mindset. We’ll have to ask them how they approach the problem to really determine.

 

From my personal research I can teach an elementary aged child to shoot and edit a video in less than an hour. They love the concept of seeing themselves. The time to teach an adult how to shoot and edit a video varies from less than an hour to their entire lives. It’s a life long process but thanks to technology today the barrier to entry has never been lower.

 

We must prevent the growth mindset from just becoming a fad or improperly implemented. When people attack the growth mindset theory they’re giving publicity to the cause, which will attract more research, which I believe will lead to greater understanding of the mindset theory.

 

When people ignore the growth mindset theory they’re holding back a valuable learning strategy. Our students are our most precious resources. Let’s give students ownership of their learning. Let’s create significant learning environments that constructs meaningful connections. It starts with us, passionate educators who adapt to new challenges and keep saying “I’m not there yet.”

 

References

 

Dweck, C. S. (2006). Mindset: The new psychology of success. New York, NY: Random House.

 

Dwek, C. (2010). How can you change from a fixed mindset to a growth mindset? Retrieved from Mindset website: http://mindsetonline.com/changeyourmindset/firststeps/index.html

 

Dweck, C. (2014, October 9) Developing a growth mindset [YouTube]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hiiEeMN7vbQ

 

Dweck, C. (2015) Carol Dweck: The growth mindset talks at google [YouTube]. Retrieved, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-71zdXCMU6A&t=2490s

 

Kohn, A. (2015, August 16) The “mindset” mindset. What we miss by focusing on kids’ attitudes. Retrieved from http://www.alfiekohn.org/article/mindset/

 

Kohn, A. (2014) Grit: a skeptical look at the latest educational fad. Retrieved from http://www.alfiekohn.org/article/grit/

 

Statistic Brain (2016). YouTube company statistics. Retrieved, from http://www.statisticbrain.com/youtube-statistics/

 

Singal, J. (2017, January 18). Is mindset theory, a wildly popular idea in education, really in trouble? Science of Us. Retrieved from http://nymag.com/scienceofus/2017/01/mindset-theory-a-popular-idea-in-education-may-be-trouble.html