Parents‟ Briefing Workshop
What we will cover today: What are Mindsets? How do different Mindsets develop? How can we identify them? Why are they important? How to promote a Growth Mindset University of Portsmouth’s work with our school What you can do at home to support children develop a Growth Mindset End and opportunity for questions
Just a few quick questions first...
1. You have a certain amount of intelligence, and you really can‟t do much to change it. 2. Your intelligence is something about you that you can‟t change very much. 3. You can learn new things, but you can‟t really change your basic intelligence. Strongly Somewhat Somewhat Strongly Disagree Agree disagree disagree agree agree 1 2 3 4 5 6
“I don‟t divide the world into the weak and the strong, or the successes and the failures... (or the high and low ability) I divide the world into the learners and non learners. ” Benjamin Barber
Professor Carol Dweck: We all have different implicit theories of intelligence (mindsets) Fixed Mindset Growth Mindset
What are Mindsets? Growth Mindset • Belief that intelligence can be increased • Takes effort and persistence, • Learning from mistakes and challenges. Fixed Mindset • Belief that intelligence is something you are born with. • C an’t change it much.
Identifying Behaviours Fixed Mindset Growth Mindset Focus on performance Focus on learning Failure and/or effort perceived as Not threatened by hard work, being sign of low ability failure or challenge. Choose easy activities to maximise Seek new challenges for learning performance (so feel clever) and development. Don’t recover well from setbacks, Mistakes are seen as a good thing – aid learning challenge or failure Self protection (to repair self- View effort and persistence as a esteem) : Decrease efforts, avoidance necessary part of success (passive/active), deny value of work, consider cheating… Helplessness orientation Mastery orientation
We aren’t all born the same, but ... We can all change our ability EVERYONE has to work hard to be successful
Exploring the Evidence
Evidence from the US Research studies have shown that Growth Mindsets: • Increase attainment • Improve motivation • Reduce classroom problem behaviours • Suppress stereotype effects • Improve reports of life-satisfaction We can change children‟s Mindsets
What about in the UK? Our work so far… • Developing the American work into a programme to support UK schools • 3 funded projects: • Education Endowment Foundation • National College of Teaching & Leadership Intervention evaluation (Closing the Gap) • Higher Education Innovation Funding Product development • Worked with over 250 schools "Empowering for • Positive responses from teachers… children"
How can you help at home? 1. High Expectations 2. Building Resilience 3. Celebrate Mistakes 4. Praise (Growth Feedback)
Set High Expectations Lowering expectations does not raise self-esteem or attainment Beliefs about child • Pymalion in the classroom (Rosenthal & Jacobson, 1968) Actions Child’s towards outcomes • Implicit signals have a big child impact on the brain (Barry- Kauffman) Child’s Child’s actions beliefs
Expectations shouldn‟t just focus on outcomes • Focus expectations on: • Effort • Improvements • Resilience • Experimentation • Persistence • Not just outcomes • Focus on learning goals (rather than performance goals) Expect children to develop a Growth Mindset!
Building Resilience • The key is being willing to try and not giving up • If children believe they have control over their learning, they are more likely to persevere despite challenges • Requires the ability to overcome negative feelings when finding a task difficult • Talk about negative feelings – helps to off-load anxiety so mental resources can focus on task in hand • Help them to link positive feelings to a hard task “This is exciting but challenging!” “This is exciting and challenging!”
Celebrating Mistakes • The fear of making mistakes can stop children from trying • Discourage blaming others for mistakes – instead try to encourage celebrating mistakes! – A normal part of learning process for everyone • Create space to make, discuss and learn from mistakes Mistakes board • Use role models: when you have good examples of success, explore the process, effort and mistakes
Language/Praise We may encourage fixed mindsets without realising it “Let‟s try an easier one” “Never mind you are good at other things” “Maths just isn‟t one of your talents, you‟re more creative” “You are so clever” “You are such a natural at maths” “This is definitely a gift of yours” “You seem to be able to turn your hand to anything”
This type of person/ability focused feedback causes... … Temporary high self-esteem if performed well but longer term implications: • Children don’t know how to recover and instead re - evaluate their ability next time challenged or fail • Creates low-self esteem • Avoidance of task in future • Drop in attainment over time http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGTk6yeh9qE
Growth Feedback Give „process praise‟ • Effort • Strategy • Interpret setbacks as lack of effort, persistence or result of inappropriate strategies Use „task praise‟ • What is better/worse than the last attempt? • What is/is not good, realistic, neat, correct etc. about the product?
When praised this way... We have coping strategies • Know what to do when challenged or fail: • Increase effort • Try again • Try a different strategy • Can be resilient, and no longer need to re-evaluate ability • Self-esteem remains stable • Do not need to avoid challenge or tasks that we have failed in the past
Growth Focused Praise… “You tried really hard and it‟s even better than the last one.” “That is the best one that you have done yet!” “That was a good way to do it.” “You have learned so much.” “This is so good that I think you should do the harder questions next time.” “You are getting better and better every time you do this.” “Try different ways until you find the right one for you.” “Try to do even better next time.” “Why not take some more time to improve this bit.” “Everyone has to work at it.” “I know that you can do better than this with a little more focus.” “You could have been clearer in the way you expressed that” “That approach might not be the best for you.” “You can try harder than you did that time.” “ There is a mistake here, but what can you do to put that right, how can you avoid it next time?”
Mueller & Dweck (1998) 6.5 Number of Problems solved 6 Effort Praise 5.5 Control Praise Intelligence Praise 5 4.5 Trial 1 Trial 3 Carol Dweck talking about praise http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTXrV0_3UjY
Effect of Praise Early praise has long term impacts (Gunderson et al., 2013) • Investigated the effect of different types of praise on children’s motivation • Amount of process praise used by parents was found to significantly predict children’s motivation 5 years later • Children were: – more likely to believe that traits were malleable – more likely to prefer challenging tasks – More likely to attribute success and failure to effort – More likely to generate strategies for improvement
Supporting change R esearch shows Mindsets can change quickly… …But it won’t necessarily happen quickly for all children Mindset message means different things for different groups • Poor achievers vs high achievers Consistency and reinforcement are key! • Challenge your own cognitions and feelings • Model the behaviour you want and don’t describe yourself with fixed language • Slip- ups… “Yet…But I am working on it.” • Manage expectations and take a step at a time
“There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work and learning from failure ” Colin Powell (US Secretary of State 2001-2005) When I was young, I observed that nine out of ten things I did were failures . So I did ten times more work” George Bernard Shaw (Playwright) Henry Ford - early businesses failed and left him broke 5 times before founded the Ford Motor Company. Albert Einstein - did not speak until he four and did not read until was seven, teachers and parents thought he was mentally handicapped. Expelled from school and failed to get a place at the Zurich Polytechnic School.
How is this taught in school? • In Reception there is a focus on the characteristics of effective learning: – Creating and Thinking critically (thinking) – Playing and Exploring (engagement) – Active Learning (Motivation)
EYFS learning zoo
In the rest of the school… • Before half term, children in year 1 – 6 will complete a learning questionnaire • Teachers will use the results of this questionnaire to target behaviours and children • Year 6 are taking part in the pilot intervention from Portsmouth University • Staff and pupils to work on what makes a “St Dunstan’s learner” – this will be shared with parents • Spring and Summer term – we will use the intervention in years 3 -5 • Keep an eye out for up dates and more information in the upcoming newsletters.
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