What do you think? 1. You have a certain amount of basic intelligence and you cant really do much to change it 2. People’s cognitive abilities are fluid and readily changeable. 3. You can learn new things, but you can’t really change your basic level of intelligence. 4. You can change even your basic level of intelligence considerably Strongly Agree Agree Mostly Agree Mostly Disagree Disagree Strongly Disagree

Growth and Fixed mindsets: How can the mind set of your pupils help them to progress? Suzi and Emmy

Progression matters to you! Naturally, all teachers want their pupils to do well, for the good of the pupil as well as the position of the school in the league tables. But, as of 2013, your pay can be effected by the performance of your pupils. How will you ensure that your pupils have the motivation that they need to perform well? What tools will you have in your toolkit to boost your pupils above and beyond their potential, to prove that you are an outstanding teacher?

Underachieving students White pupils out perform Black and Pakistani pupils High socio-economic status pupils tend to out perform pupils of low socio economic status Girls make less progress from the end of KS2 to KS3 in comparison to boys Standardised tests generate gender and race gaps (Good et al. 2003) (Frederickson and Petrides, 2008)

Meet Bob Meet Jemima KS2 teacher says: “Bob is a good pupil, who often scores highly on work, especially in maths. However, he can often be heard boasting about his high grades, and how he doesn’t have to work hard for it, as he sees himself as naturally very smart.”   KS4 teacher says: “Bob has just sat his year 10 mock GCSE exams, and has underperformed to what our data would suggest he is capable of. My main concern about Bob is his work ethic, as he tends to become defeated easily, and will give up if he finds something difficult.” Bob says: “I am just not cut out for GCSEs, they are too hard and there is no way I can do them. I think that maybe I need to rethink which A Levels I want to do.” KS4 teacher says: “Jemima is a good pupil, who consistently puts in large amounts of effort in order to improve her understanding of Geography. When she does not understand something, she pushes herself to learn more about it, and this is reflected in her steadily rising grades.” Jemima says: “I was disappointed with some of my mock grades, but I know that if I work hard on the things that I do not understand I can do much better!” KS2 teacher says: “Jemima is a pupil who struggles when something is first explained, but who puts in the effort to revisit work. While she does not always score well on tests, it is refreshing to see her become more and more interested in improving her work.”

Agreeing more with statements 1 & 3 The mindsets behind learning In a fixed mindset, you believe your abilities are already set - static givens which you can’t change in any meaningful way. You have a certain amount of intelligence and that’s that. Intelligence cannot be changed Agreeing more with statements 1 & 3 Essentially if you have a growth mindset you believe your abilities – how smart you are, how you backhand a tennis ball, how well you manage your time – can improve with effort. The hand you’re dealt is just the starting point for development. Intelligence is malleable, and will develop over time Agreeing more with statements 2 & 4

The key differences between a growth and a fixed mind, is how you perceive intelligence

THE SCIENCY BIT Clarke (2014): You can grow your mind In the brain there are nerve cells (Neurons) Communication between brain cells allows us to think, and to solve problems Learning new things makes these connections stronger Things you once found hard seem to become easier

Research says that… Pupils with a growth mindset academically outperform their fixed mindset peers. (Blackwell, L.S., Trzesniewski, K.H., & Dweck, C.S. (2007). Girls who develop a growth mindset narrow the gender gap in maths (Good, C., Aronson, J., & Inzlicht, M. (2003). Educators' mindsets influence pupil mindsets. A growth mindset in educators results in higher performance of their pupils. (Blackwell, L.S. (2012).

How do you encourage a growth mind? BE A GROWTH MIND! Falko Rheinburg (in Dweck, 2006) concluded that having a growth mindset teacher in the classroom boosted the results of lower ability pupils. Marva Collins (in Dweck, 2006) concluded that drop out students learnt more when they were taught by a teacher with a growth mindset. Page 64

Weakness of the research It is impossible to tell somebody’s mindset. We haven’t incorporated any of our own research and our ideas are based solely on literature reviews. It may not always be possible to implement the suggested techniques into your school. Lower ability students benefit more.

Pupil Dialogue Growth mindsets in your Geography lessons Embraces challenges Persists in the face of setbacks Sees effort as the path to mastery Learns from criticism Finds inspiration in the success of others

How a student will interpret it Growth mindsets in your Geography lessons What you say How a student will interpret it You picked that topic up really quickly, well done. If I don’t pick up something quickly, I wont receive the praise…I need to speed up all my work! Considering how little studying you did, you did really well on that test! Good grades isn’t reliant on me studying for long periods of time You put so much effort in to this, I have seen a real improvement in your work ethic. The harder I work, the better I will do!

Growth mindsets in your Geography lessons Aspirational Targets Promoting the idea that students help in setting their own targets, sometimes with guidance from teachers, and sometimes without. Most schools will need to produce own academic targets as well, but can you the two targets alongside each other to boost student motivation and work ethic when discussing progress. How can they move from their working at grade, to their aspirational grade?

Offering a choice of questions Growth mindsets in your Geography lessons Offering a choice of questions By offering a choice of questions to pupils, you let them determine the level of effort they are working at. Praise is offered to students who challenge themselves with questions above their ability. Students who do not push themselves in lessons are not rewarded with praise, even though they have completed the work. You are looking for how the pupil responds to a challenge.

Praising effort in feedback Growth mindsets in your Geography lessons Praising effort in feedback Making sure to praise the effort that is made during the feedback of the task. Even if a students work contains mistakes, if it is clear that the student has put in the effort to challenge themselves and extend their knowledge, then this should be rewarded. Rather than praise good work to the class, always praise effort.

Come up with some ideas of your own: Subject specific examples of encouraging growth mindsets Your task: In your tables, come up with another way in which we can encourage growth mindsets in our pupils, through the teaching of Geography.

Any Questions?