Mindset by Carol Dweck

1. Mindsetby Carol Dweck A Parent Workshop Adapted for Monitor elementary by Victoria groomer

2. Where are we headed? • Understand growth vs. fixed mindset • Recognize the differences between mindsets • Discover the effect on mindset on your student’s academic/life potential • Immediate steps you can take to foster mindset

3. What is “mindset”? “Mindset is the multiple assumptions and expectations we have for ourselves and others. These attitudes guide the way we behave as well our reactions to daily events. “The view you adopt for yourself profoundly affects the way you lead your life. It can determine whether you become the person you want to be and whether you accomplish the things you value.”Dweck, 2006

4. Fixed Mindset • Every situation calls for a confirmation of intelligence, personality, or character. Will I succeed or fail? Will I look smart or dumb? Will I be accepted or rejected? (Do not want to expose deficiencies) • They see what has happened as a direct measure of their competence and worth. • Nothing catastrophic has occurred, yet there is a feeling of utter failure and paralysis. • Risk and effort are two things that might reveal your inadequacies and show you were not up to the task. People with fixed mindset do not believe in EFFORT. • EFFORT is a bad thing; it means you’re not smart or talented. If you were, you wouldn’t need effort.

5. Responses of the Fixed Mindset: “I feel like a failure”, “I am a total loser”, “Everyone’s better than me”, “Life is unfair.” How do they cope? • Withhold time and effort • Find a comfort - eat chocolate! • Do nothing • Pout • Cry • What is there to do? I can’t do anything about it.

6. Growth Mindset • If you believe you can develop yourself, you’re open to accurate information about your current abilities, even if it’s unflattering. • Oriented toward learning, you NEED accurate information about your current abilities in order to learn effectively. • Identify own strengths and weaknesses • Can convert life’s setbacks into future successes • EFFORT is what makes you smart or talented.

7. Responses of the Growth Mindset: • “I need to try harder in class”, “Be more careful when …”, and “I wonder if my friend had a bad day, and how can I help?” How would they cope? Directly. • Studying harder • Use a different strategy • Direct action • Find a resolution: “Work things out with my friend.”

8. Effects of Mindset Fixed Growth an intrinsic love for learning and self-improvement. a desire to be challenged. a willingness to work, an understanding that work yields positive results a belief that you can determine the outcomes in your life through effort and practice. an openness to learn from mistakes and failures. emotional resilience • a false sense of superiority, undermined by self-doubt. • a fear of failure and, therefore, a refusal to take risks. • a belief that failure defines you as a loser. • a need to prove yourself again and again.

9. 2 types of Mindset Fixed Growth

10. Evidence: Feedback Fixed • People with a fixed mindset were ONLY interested when the feedback reflected on their ability. Brain waves showed them paying close attention when they were told whether their answers were right or wrong. When presented with information that could help them learn, there was no sign of interest. Even when they had gotten an answer wrong, they were not interested in learning what the right answer was. Growth • Brain waves showed they paid close attention to information that could stretch their knowledge. Learning was a priority.

11. Messages About Success Adult: “You learned that so quickly! You’re so smart!” :Look at that drawing. Is he the next Picasso or what?” “You’re so brilliant, you got an A without even studying.” Child’s Interpretation: “If I don’t learn something quickly, I’m not smart.” “I shouldn’t draw anything hard or they’ll see I’m no Picasso.” “I’d better quit studying or they won’t think I’m brilliant.”

12. Change in Math Grades www.brainology.com Math Grades

13. Power of Praise: 2 groups of 5-7th grade students were given tests on an increasingly difficult level. One group was praised for their ability and one group for their effort. As the tests increased in difficulty the students demonstrated the following behaviors: Ability Effort 90% wanted challenging tasks Applied more effort Difficulty did not reflect on their intellect Showed consistently better performance Used hard problems to sharpen their skills Had advanced much further in understanding when returning to easier problems • Rejected challenging task • Didn’t want to expose flaws/call talent into question • Less success meant they were deficient • Burden of talent was killing enjoyment • Performance plummeted, even when returning to easier problems • Lost faith in their ability

14. Rigor: Common Core/UBD and Mindset • UBD/Facets of Understanding: Perspective, Self-Knowledge, Interpretation, Explanation, Application, and Empathy “Growth mindset students look for themes and underlying principles and are clued in to all the different ways to create learning and take charge of the learning process to make sure it happens…A successful student is one whose primary goal is to expand their knowledge and their ways of thinking and investigating the world. They do not see grades as an end in themselves but as a means to continue to grow.” *Rigor will require students to struggle and put forth effort. Growth occurs when we struggle and work hard to attain understanding. It is okay for your child to experience rigor and struggle towards growth.”

15. What Can I do?9 Parenting Actions the Promote the Growth Mindset 1. Practice What You Preach • Model growth mindset thinking • Explain how approach challenges and how you continue to learn from them • Avoid labeling yourself with a fixed mindset: “I’m a terrible cook.” “I always struggled with writing too.”

16. 2. Learning for Learning’s Sake… • Instead of asking, “How did you do on the test?”, talk with your child about how they are responding to the curriculum: “How can you use that strategy next time?” “Is there a way you can make a connection to something else you have been learning to help you understand that concept better?” • Talk about learning as an avenue for personal growth, intellectual challenge, and opportunity rather than for a grade or college acceptance

17. 3. Set Growth Goals • Set goals that are reasonable and of interest to both of you • Talent is not a goal that your child can work towards; set goals that further develop a skill and knowledge.

18. 4. Praise Effort, Practice, and Process • When your child experiences success, talk about the effort and work ethic behind that experience • Praise perseverance and persistence • Help your child to focus on the positive habits and choices that led to the successful experience

19. 5. See Failure As A Growth Tool • Don’t protect your child from failure. This does not boost a child’s self-esteem. It does the opposite. • Rigor is critical to your child’s growth; struggle is when growth occurs. Learning requires effort. • Ask: “What can you learn from this experience?” “What could you do differently?”

20. 6. Provide Honest Feedback • Avoid comments such as, “Just try harder”, or “Believe in yourself.” • If your child identifies an area of weakness, make a plan of improvement together. • Do not allow your child to offer ineffective solutions: “I’ll review my notes.” “I’ll ask a friend.” • Follow-up with the plan, help your child evaluate it, and refine it if needed.

21. 7. Point Out Others’ Perseverance • Use your child’s interests to point out people who have been successful in that area by: Focus Goal-setting Daily Practice Commitment • Talk about key people in history/modern-day who failed in their early efforts http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2HD57z4F8E&safe=active

22. 8. Risk-Taking • Accepting risk and, at times, failure is part of being a lifelong learner. Lifelong learners have a growth mindset. Take reasonable risks and encourage your child to do so. • Try something you’ve always wanted to do, and allow your child to do the same.

23. 9. Don’t Forget The “yet”… • The fixed mindset forgets the “yet”; success is expected before the hard work of learning how. • “The fixed mindset does not allow people the luxury of becoming. They have to already be.” • Championship Mentality - always add the “yet” to conversations where your child may be demonstrating a fixed mindset; encourage them to stretch beyond ordinary ability. • #1 ingredient in achievement: the kind of perseverance and resilience produced by the growth mindset

24. Any questions?