Creating Outstanding Futures

Resilience; using evidence- based practice to Develop Growth Mindsets Graeme Blench Vice Principal (Curriculum and Quality)

Developing a growth Mindset Lowering standards WILL give learners success, boost self-esteem and raise achievement in the short term.

Developing a growth Mindset Lowering standards WILL give learners success, boost self-esteem and raise achievement in the short term, it will also produce Poorly educated learners who expect easy work and lavish praise

Creating Outstanding Futures __________________

What have they in common?

Our learning intentions Creating Outstanding Futures __________________ Share how ‘educational character’ can influence classroom practice Brief overview of brain plasticity Develop your understanding of Carol Dweck’s work on self theory (Growth Mindsets) Share some practical strategies we have developed to develop resilience Identify relevant student outcomes which test the impact of the strategies

John Wooden on character Creating Outstanding Futures __________________ ‘Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are.’

The College context 88% of students are from the three lowest social deprivation bands (on a 1-10 scale), c.10% greater than the local population Creating Outstanding Futures __________________

Local schools’ performance is mostly below national average. Schools in the district perform below the national average for:- the proportion of students achieving 5 A* - C including GCSE Maths and English (3 out of 5 schools); the proportion of students making above national average progress in English (3 out of 5 schools); the proportion of students making above average progress in Maths (all schools); In 2013/14, only a third of full-time students enrolled with level 2 (GCSE Grade C and above) in GCSE English and only a quarter had level 2 and above in GCSE Maths. Creating Outstanding Futures __________________

Work with Governors on the college’s educational character produced some interesting findings…… Creating Outstanding Futures __________________

‘Overnurture’ Signs Lack of stretch and challenge in lesson observations Symptoms Low value added Low percentage of high grades at level 3 Quartile D scores on ‘stretch and challenge’ (QDP) Confirmation of same in SCS Creating Outstanding Futures

K S A

K SA = employability Creating Outstanding Futures

Teaching induces physical changes in the brain Top fMRI scan of 10 year old dyslexic boy. Red areas denote brain activity during a word sounding activity. Bottom. Same boy doing the same sound building activity following an 8 week teaching intervention Creating Outstanding Futures

Existing Learning New learning New learning is corrected, and becomes richer and more connected with prior learning

You have a choice of activity (but all must be completed in one minute) Easy(ish) riddles Logic puzzle (geometry) Logic puzzle (maths) Logic puzzle (lateral thinking) Creating Outstanding Futures

Give It a Go! Move to the side of the room for the activity of your choice. You will have 1 minute to work the activity. You are working alone, no talking. Now, reflect on the following… Before, During, After Go back to your core groups Talk for 5 minutes about your B, D A reflections. Be honest! Leader leads, recorder records, time keeper keeps time, life coach cheers ! Creating Outstanding Futures

Can you move just TWO toothpicks and create SEVEN squares?

Pause: What Was Going On in Your Brain? What was our inner voice saying? Before – Why did you choose your activity? How did you feel? What was your inner voice saying? During – How did you feel? What was your inner voice saying? After – How did you feel? What was your inner voice saying? Creating Outstanding Futures

Professor Carol Dweck- Stanford University

Summary of Dweck’s findings: Two ‘Mindsets’ Fixed mindset: Intelligence and talent – are fixed Innate talent is the cause of success you can either do it or you cannot You either get it or you don’t Growth mindset: Intelligence can be developed Brains and talent are just the starting point Enjoy effort and process of learning You can always develop, learn and improve Creating Outstanding Futures

Responses to a challenge Fixed Mindset Do not pay attention to learning challenging information / new skill Lose self-esteem Say to themselves ‘I am stupid’, they’ll think ‘I’m rubbish at this’ Under-represent past successes and over-represent failures Explain the cause of events as something stable about them. ‘(I’m ALWAYS this way’) Growth Mindset Pay attention to learning information, and so do better on future tests. Focus on what they are learning, rather than focusing on how they feel. Try out new ways of doing things. Use self-motivating statements such as ‘ the harder it gets the harder I try’. When faced with failure they will not blame their intellect / talent. ‘I cannot do this yet’ Creating Outstanding Futures

The power of the word ‘yet’ Creating Outstanding Futures

Developing a growth mindset Demonstrate consistently high expectations and belief in their capacity ( linked to time and effort) NOT “I know you can do it”

Intelligence = _____% effort vs. _____% ability Fixed = % ability Growth = >% effort vs. <% ability Creating Outstanding Futures

Review With your group choose a way to remember the difference between fixed and growth mindsets Write it? Draw it? Map it? Poem? Other? Creating Outstanding Futures

Turning research into actions….. ‘Brainology’ tutorial programme ALL Staff training into Dweck’s work Coaching programme for managers Developing Value added trackers for ALL courses (including pass/fail!) ALPS for vocational L3 courses Introduced CSPAR R learning cycle Poster campaign relating to Mindsets Curriculum Review to track progress Focus upon classroom environment

Impact (two terms): student outcomes PPE increased from 195 to 203 Improved LAT VA score (TBC) Percentage of high grades increased to 24% above national average for first time (from 16% to 24%) QDP quartile rating Quartile A rating on induction Creating Outstanding Futures