1. Supporting your child to develop a Growth Mindset Grove Wood Primary School Friday 19th May

2. “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 L

3. Professor Carol Dweck:
We all have different implicit theories of intelligence (mindsets)
Fixed Mindset
Growth Mindset L

4. 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.
Can’t change it much. L

5. The brain is like a muscle that can be developed and grow in strength

6. Fixed Mindset Growth Mindset
Focus on performance
Focus on learning
Failure and/or effort perceived as being sign of low ability / pointless
Not threatened by hard work, failure or challenge. Persevere
Choose easy activities to maximise performance (so feel clever)
Seek new challenges for learning and development.
Don’t recover well from setbacks, challenge or failure
Mistakes are seen as a good thing – aid learning
Self protection (to repair self-esteem): Decrease efforts, avoidance (passive/active), deny value of work, consider cheating…
View effort and persistence as a necessary part of success R

7. Growth Mindset at Grove Wood Primary School
We remember that it is always okay to make mistakes – we learn from them.
We never give up! We try a different approach, or use a different strategy.
We learn from each other.
We don’t compare ourselves with others, but we do learn from others.
We challenge ourselves – which really helps us make progress.
We take risks – we don’t limit ourselves by taking the easy option.
We join in as much as possible – and we learn much more by being involved.
We remember that mastering something new feels so much better than doing something you can already do.
We remember that the brain is making new connections all the time – the only thing you need to know is that you can learn anything! R

8. Case Studies
Fictional stories which embody Growth Mindset: Fables, myths and fairytales.
Non-fiction:
Thomas Edison (trial and improvement)
James Dyson ( learning from mistakes)
J.K. Rowling (persistence, putting failure – in the form of rejection – to one side)
Michael Jordan (focus on processes; mistakes as a path to learning) R

9. How can you help at home? Reframing – Yet – If….then
Building Resilience
Celebrate Mistakes
Feedback
Praise Effort not ability(Growth Feedback) L

10. Reframing
Children may use language which reflect the beliefs of a fixed mindset.
‘I can’t do it.’
‘I’ll never be able to do it.’
‘This isn’t me.’
‘I’m not a maths person.’
‘There’s no way I’ll ever be able to get the hang of this.’ L

11. Reframing – ‘YET…’
‘I can’t do it.’ becomes ‘You can’t do it yet.’ ‘There’s no way I’ll be able to solve this’ becomes ‘You haven’t been able to solve it yet.’ ‘This isn’t me.’ becomes ‘You haven’t tried it yet.’ ‘I’m not a maths person.’ becomes ‘You are not the maths person you want to be yet.’ L

12. If I want to play the piano, then I must practice every night.
If…then
If I want to play the piano, then I must practice every night.
If I want to run faster, then I must practice my running twice a week.
If I want to get full marks on my spelling test, then I must practice my spellings every day. L

13. 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!” L

14. Celebrating Mistakes A normal part of learning process for everyone
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
‘Mistakes are the building blocks of understanding.’ L

15. We may encourage fixed mindsets without realising it
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”
“He’s a born sportsman”
“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” R

16. Messages about failure
Nine-year-old Lisa was on her way to her first gymnastics competition. She was a little nervous about competing but she was good at gymnastics, really loved it and felt confident about doing well. She had even thought about the perfect place in her room to place the trophy she would win.
In the first event, the floor exercises, Lisa went first. Although she did a good job, after the next few girls had performed she slid down the scoring table. Lisa also did well in the other events, but not well enough to win. By the end of the evening, she had received no trophies and was devastated. R

17. What would you do if you were Lisa’s parents?
Tell Lisa that you thought she was the best.
Tell her she was robbed of a trophy that was rightfully hers.
Re-assure her that gymnastics is not that important.
Tell her that she has the ability and will surely win next time
Tell her that, on this occasion, she didn’t deserve to win. R

18. Feedback
There is a strong message in our society about how to boost children’s self-esteem, and a main part of that message is: Protect them from failure! While this may help with the immediate problem of the child’s disappointment, it can be harmful in the long run. Why?  R

19. R

20. Growth Feedback Give ‘process praise’ Use ‘task 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? R

21. 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.”
“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.”
“I know that you can do better than this with a little more focus.”
“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?” L

22. Feedback Watch Austin’s butterfly L

23. Consistency and reinforcement are key!
Supporting change
We weren’t born with a fixed mindset.
A fixed mindset is ‘learnt’ behaviour.
Research shows Mindsets can change quickly…
…But it won’t necessarily happen quickly for all children.
Consistency and reinforcement are key! L

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