Ready-to-Use Resources for Mindsets in the Classroom

Everything Educators Need for Building Growth Mindset Learning Communities

Mary Cay Ricci

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2021
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9781000495713
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Educational Psychology

Ready-to-Use Resources for Mindsets in the Classroom provides educators with tools they need to help students change their thinking about their abilities and potential. This updated 2020 edition of the book features ready-to-use, interactive tools for students, teachers, parents, administrators, and professional development educators. Parent resources include a sample parent webpage and several growth mindset parent education tools. Other resources include: mindset observation forms, student and teacher "look fors," critical thinking strategy write-ups and samples, and a unique study guide for the original book that includes book study models from various schools around the country. The updated edition also includes a guide to 100 picture books and 50 extended texts that contribute to growth mindset thinking. This book is perfect for schools looking to implement the ideas in Mindsets in the Classroom so that they can build a growth mindset learning environment. When students believe that dedication and hard work can change their performance in school, they grow to become resilient, successful students. This book contains many of the things that schools needs to create a growth mindset school culture in which perseverance can lead to success!

CHAPTER 1

WHAT ARE MINDSETS, AND HOW DO THEY AFFECT THE CLASSROOM?

DOI: 10.4324/9781003237624-1

What are mindsets? Thanks to the research of Dr. Carol Dweck, Stanford University professor of psychology, education is going through a shift in thinking about student learning and intelligence. Dweck (2006/2016) described a belief system that asserts that skills, talents, and intelligence can be developed, and coined the term growth mindset. Educators with a growth mindset believe that all students can achieve at higher levels—with effort, perseverance, resiliency, and a collection of strategies. Learners with a growth mindset believe that they can grow their skills, talents, and intelligence with hard work. A growth mindset learning environment encapsulates the philosophy that there is enough success for everyone, and both teachers and students learn about the malleability of the brain and what can happen as a result of practice, perseverance, resiliency, grit, and the application of a variety of strategies.

Conversely, Dweck used the term fixed mindset, which is a belief system in which one believes that intelligence is something you are born with—it is innate, perhaps even genetic, and although everyone can learn new things, your innate intelligence cannot be changed. A person with a fixed mindset might believe that they have predetermined “smarts” or talents in a particular area, but not in other areas. A student with a fixed mindset might believe that they will never be good in a particular subject or be afraid to try something that they think is too difficult or at which they fear failure.

The growth mindset that has been demonstrated by educators across myriad education levels and content areas over the past few years is both impressive and rejuvenating. I have been fortunate to work with schools, school districts, and district leadership teams across the country since the original 2013 release and updated edition of Mindsets in the Classroom: Building a Growth Mindset Learning Community (Ricci, 2017), and have been amazed by the commitment that educators have toward building a growth mindset culture in schools and districts. Even though the purpose of my visits is to guide and educate, it is I who have learned. These experiences have allowed even more clarity as to what we must do as educators to continue to develop growth mindset environments in our schools and school districts. We would like all adults and students to be provided with opportunities so they believe that they can succeed with perseverance, effort, and motivation.

This book will provide resources that will help educators move forward in their growth mindset journey. It can be used independently or serve as a partner book to Mindsets in the Classroom. The chapter resources mirror the chapter content of the original book.

Since the release of Mindsets of the Classroom, many educators have approached me and asked to identify the most important components of a growth mindset learning environment. In other words, what are the most important actions that must occur in order to have a growth mindset classroom? After much listening, observing, research, and reflection, I have identified four components that are essential to a growth mindset culture. These are areas that each learning environment should strive to obtain. These cannot happen overnight and sometimes not even within one school year. These actions should be a long-term commitment and educators must have a growth mindset themselves in order to persevere to attain these goals. These four components are:

1. equitable access to advanced learning opportunities;
2. deliberate cultivation of psychosocial skills such as perseverance, resiliency, and grit;
3. student understanding of neural networks in the brain; and
4. growth mindset feedback and praise.

Throughout this resource book, you will find tools that will help implement these actions, but for now, let’s break these down a little.

Equitable Access to Advanced Learning Opportunities

Do all of the students in your class, school, or district have access to enriched and accelerated learning? Is a label (such as “gifted”) a requirement to access these opportunities? Ongoing informal assessment and observation should allow for all students, not just those with already developed abilities, to participate in advanced learning opportunities. This may be teacher facilitated small-group work within the classroom or an advanced class offering at the secondary level. Teachers must have a growth mindset in order to allow this to happen. No gatekeeping, no barriers, no “sorry but you are not ‘ready’ for this.”

Once students have this access, are supports put in place to help students succeed? On a recent visit with a group of high school teachers, they proudly announced that they have open access to all of their honors and Advanced Placement (AP) classes. Any student who wants to enroll may enroll. My momentary happiness did not last long—they shared that most of those students who self-enroll without the recommendation of a teacher don’t “make it” in the class. After some discussion, two things were determined; first, the honors and AP classes were not at all responsive or differentiated to meet students’ needs. The teachers just instructed the whole class as if all of the 25+ kids were on the same level. Second, they possessed a complete “sink or swim” mentality. The attitude was that if the student was in the class, they should be able to handle it. No supports or scaffolds were in place for a student who struggled. In fact, in many cases, the child was counseled to move to a standard level class at the first sign of struggle. (On a side note, struggle is not necessarily a bad thing. It is actually a good experience for a student to struggle because resiliency cannot be developed without experiencing some degree of struggle … more about that later.) With equitable access, provisions should be in place to help students succeed.

Deliberate Cultivation of Psychosocial Skills

Many educators do not realize that approximately 75% of achievement is contributed to psychosocial skills (which some researchers refer to as noncognitive factors) and only approximately 25% of innate intelligence or IQ contributes to achievement (Olszewski-Kubilius, 2013). The cultivation of these skills is imperative, especially for those students who have not yet developed their abilities and/or talents. The skills that must be deliberately modeled, taught, and cultivated include but are not limited to: perseverance, resiliency, grit, emotional regulation, comfort with intellectual tension/discourse, self-confidence, coping skills when faced with failure, and ability to handle critique and constructive feedback (Olszewski-Kubilius, 2013).

Development of these psychosocial skills should be part of the climate of the classroom, discussed across every content area and modeled daily by the entire class or school community. Students can self-evaluate and make plans for improving and tracking their growth in these skills (see Chapter 9). One resource that can be used is Angela Duckworth’s Grit Scale. The 10-item scale can be found at this site: https://angeladuckworth.com/grit-scale.

These scales give adults and students an idea of how “gritty” they are. If they have a low score, then they can make a conscious effort to improve their ability to persevere or bounce back after a less-than-successful performance or failure to master a new concept. They can begin working toward being diligent about their actions. Interviewing community and family members who showed perseverance and demonstrated grit throughout their lives is an assignment that can have a great impact on students.

Hand-in-hand with nurturing grit and resiliency is teaching students how to learn from errors and failure. Mistakes should be considered “data”—this data can help a student set goals for moving toward success.

A recommended first step in deliberate cultivation of psychosocial skills is to reflect upon what is already in place in your classroom or school. Focus on a few areas that overlap at first, such as perseverance, and resiliency, and then gather some interested staff members. Together, brainstorm school or districtwide experiences that will deliberately cultivate perseverance and resiliency. Establish “look fors” and a plan for monitoring student progress over time in the areas of concentration. Resource 1: Deliberate Cultivation of Psychosocial Skills (p. 5) can be helpful to you and your staff as you complete these tasks.

Building a Conceptual Understanding of the Brain and Neural Networks

Having an understanding of neural networking can significantly increase motivation. In Carol Dweck’s (2010) original New York City study, students reported that visualizing neural connections helped them move forward. In my visits to schools, I have often heard students state that they think about the neurons connecting when they are faced with a difficult task or have difficulty understanding a new skill or concept. This does not require going deep into neuroscience; just building a conceptual understanding can increase motivation to succeed. Ideas for teaching students about neural networking can be found in Mindsets in the Classroom on pages 130–137 or in Chapter 8 of this book.

Growth Mindset Feedback and Praise

Strive for a learning space that praises effort, struggle, and perseverance. Provide feedback and praise when students select difficult tasks to conquer or try new strategies when learning a concept. Praise what students do, not who they are. This feedback also encompasses how you react to student behavior, such as a typically strong student not having success on an assessment. The learning environment, whether it is a classroom, field, court, in front of a piano, or at the kitchen table should be a setting where both adults and students favor the word “yet.” “You are not quite there … yet … with more practice, you will be.”

RESOURCE 1

Deliberate Cultivation of Noncognitive Factors

School/Office/Program:___________________________________ Date: _______________

Psychosocial Skill	Actions Our School/District Has Already Taken to Cultivate These Skills	Ideas to Cultivate Noncognitive Factors	Ideas for Monitoring and Measuring Progress in This Area
Perseverance
Grit
Resiliency
Learning From Failure

Two great video resources for growth mindset praise include:

• Carol Dweck: A Study on Praise and Mindsets presented by Trevor Ragan. This is a great synthe...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents Page
• Acknowledgements Page
• Chapter 1 What Are Mindsets, and How Do They Affect the Classroom?
• Chapter 2 What Are Some Ways to Begin Building a Growth Mindset School Culture?
• Chapter 3 Why Is a Differentiated, Responsive Classroom Important to a Growth Mindset Culture?
• Chapter 4 Why Is Critical Thinking Important in a Growth Mindset Class Culture?
• Chapter 5 How Can Students Learn From Failure?
• Chapter 6 What Messages Should Parents Hear About Growth Mindset?
• Chapter 7 Can Gifted Education and a Growth Mindset Belief Coexist?
• Chapter 8 What Are Some Ways to Help Students Adopt a Growth Mindset?
• Chapter 9 What Are Some Ways School Staff Can Maintain a Growth Mindset School Culture?
• Chapter 10 How Can We Use Mindsets in the Classroom in a Book Study or Discussion Group?
• References
• Appendix Suggested Resources by Audience
• About the Author