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| Alberto G. |
It has taken some convincing to get me to see the importance of teaching growth mindsets to students. I’ve often felt that fostering certain mindsets and dispositions in students would be great to do if I had time, but that there were more important things to do. I have heard about and tried many of the strategies for teaching growth mindsets. For example, I know that saying “good job” to students is too general, and that giving students specific feedback on their learning process is much more effective, but I’d never really considered that repeated phrases like “good job” could actually decrease students’ motivation and risk-taking. I have also reinforced the idea of persistence and effort with my students, telling them that they can achieve anything while having them set goals. Yet, I never considered that persistence and grit are byproducts of having developed a growth mindset, and that teaching students about mindsets would be more effective than teaching them about persistence.
This week’s readings and discussions in the DLMOOC and my Distance Learning class have given me much to think about regarding mindsets and dispositions. I am realizing I need to be more mindful about teaching and modeling mindsets. The power of a growth mindset cannot be underestimated. By incorporating more of the ideas I have been learning these pasts few months into my daily lessons, my students can strengthen and develop their own growth mindsets. Here is a Storify with some reflections from this week.