One of the first things I was asked to explore and think about in the ADL program at Lamar University was mindset. It has been revisited in every single course I have been enrolled in since. I had the opportunity to blog about what growth mindset means to me, and even create a growth mindset plan to help develop and nurture a growth mindset in the learners that I will implement my innovation plan with. As I continue through the program for Applied Digital Learning, I am learning through videos, text, and discussions that growth mindset alone will not have significant impact on the learning outcomes. We must see the bigger picture, plan for intentional professional learning, and create significant learning environments to foster and develop growth mindset in our learners.
Realizing my original growth mindset plan needs to evolve to have the impact I am looking for, I took a deeper look at how I could embed components of growth mindset exploration and nurturing in my overarching 3 Column Table planning tool and even more detailed in the UbD template for planning that zooms in to look at the details of specific units of my professional learning plan. Providing students with accountability partners and encouraging peer collaboration are two of the strategies embedded. Students have a self-evaluation rubric tool to self-reflect on how they are doing with the learning and implementation with clear expectations to reach the learning target(s) on the rubric. There is also a space to goal set each week, to instill a sense of self-driven learning and grit to continue reaching for the next attainable achievement by developing and evolving in the process. The language in the rubric, as a guiding document, embraces growth mindset with “yet” being highlighted and specific actionable steps to improve.
Modeling “yet” in our check-ins with educators and helping them to self-reflect with this positive language embedded in our reflection rubric tool, encourages growth and grit, and helps the learner to realize that they can improve.
Having a growth mindset can change the acceptance of feedback or “feedforward”, and shift the concept of “cheating” to learning and resourceful. Embracing ideas and constructive feedforward from peers and learning facilitators to make improvements and deepen understanding is a powerful result of growth mindset. Sharing examples of learning products is another way of peer modeling that we can grow understanding and make our own learning come to life. Cheating is a thing of the past with this mindset! Lean on each other. Learn from each other. Support one another with honest thoughts and feedforward. When we can focus on the process rather than the fixed mindset traditional school “grade”, then we can focus on constant and ever evolving progress. Setting attainable, measurable, and clear goals will lead us to successful implementation and once reached, the next thing to improve. Personal goals keep us focused and help us to develop grit, not to be confused with rigor. Rigor is where the bar is set, the level of difficulty, and extremely thorough learning intentions. Grit is different. Grit comes from the learner when passion meets perseverance. When we care deeply about something or see great value in it, we are willing to work very hard to learn and/or practice to attain goals. We want to instill a sense of trying or “failing forward” as a means of learning. We learn by doing, taking risks, and making mistakes. If we view these bumps as learning and growth, then we are instilling a growth mindset.
In order to get learners to want to preserver, they need to connect to the “why”. The heart and mind, when passion is ignited, are willing to move mountains. It is important to connect the learning to passions in the planning process because otherwise the term “grit” will just be another fad or initiative in education that fades away.
The growth mindset is a good starting point, but there is much more that needs to be considered when developing significant learning environments. Tapping into passion, encouraging collaboration and embracing peer feedforward to improve and evolve allows learners to feel safe in an environment where learners are all working to constantly improve through improved iterations.
We can move our learners toward reigniting or adopting a learner’s mindset by setting up significant learning environments where we consider the needs of our audience, take into account passions, and provide structure to the learning process that scaffold the building of both skills and knowledge while embracing collaboration and the power of “yet” as learners make attempts at showing what they know. Below is my initial growth mindset plan, and I know it can’t stand alone. My growth mindset plan needs to be embedded in an intentional professional learning plan that creates a significant learning environment for my learners to achieve the BHAG of my blended learning innovation plan.
Resources:
Harapnuik, D. (2013, April 5). Fixed vs. growth mindset: print vs digital
Information Age. Retrieved March 5, 2023, from
https://www.Harapnuik.org/?p=3627
John, A. (2021, June 25). The “mindset” mindset: What we miss by focusing on
kids’ attitudes. Allie Kohn. Retrieved March 5, 2023, from
http://www.alfiekohn.org/article/mindset/
TED. (2013). Grit: The power of passion and perseverance. Angela Lee
Duckworth. YouTube. Retrieved March 5, 2023, from
https://YouTube.come/watch?v=H14bBuluwB8
TED. (2014). The power of believing that you can improve. Carol Dweck.
YouTube. Retrieved March 5, 2023, from https://www.YouTube.com/watch?
v=_X0mgOOSpLU