Reflecting back to my original Growth Mindset plan, I must say that I’ve not lived up to the plan that I put forward for myself, my learners, and my campus.
My original “plan” was more of a presentation and I tried for the longest to figure out how to put the plan into motion, but the more I looked at the Sway I created, the more I saw that it is just a presentation to inform people about the Growth Mindset. I tried hard to take Dr. Harapnuik’s words and take my presentation and turn it into a plan, but my fixed-mindset kept me from expanding the ideas.
Most of my plan was focused around creating activities for my learners to interact in and have reflections with them to do step 1 of Dweck’s plan, Learn to hear your fixed-mindset. Then I would shift to step 2, recognize you have choices, onto step 3 to talk back with the growth mindset, and move towards the final step, step 4 taking the Growth mindset action.
I was skeptical of the whole Growth Mindset process from the beginning, thinking to myself “Is that all it takes to learn to be more successful? I just need to change my mindset? How simple!” From reading Mindset by Dweck, you see a lot of examples of people who succeeded by adjusting to a Growth Mindset and those who failed by staying in the Fixed-Mindset. She also helps the reader connect where students show their change of mindsets, but I still felt that there must be more to it.
A colleague of mine had heard of the Growth Mindset, so we’ve had discussions hear and there. Some other colleagues of mine also shared passion for the Growth Mindset, so we also shared some ideas. I tried to make a subtle change in my learning environment by adding some posters that were given to me. They seemed like cool “student thinking” examples to get their minds working, but with little success.
For weeks the Growth Mindset has kind of sat in the back of my mind until week 4 of 5313 where we were preparing to reflect back on our plan. In our weekly meeting, Dr. Harapnuik mentioned the assignment and it got me thinking. Had I done anything to promote my “plan?” My initial thought was no. But after talking to my wife, I had an epiphany. What if I’ve been practicing the Growth Mindset all along and didn’t notice? I started going back to day one of school and how I promised myself I’d be a different teacher and remembered that Dweck’s plan is continuous and we should always be working to achieve a growth mindset daily.
Here are the facts:
I’ve changed my behavior with students and that has lead to a better relationship with them. In the past, I would put a lot of blame on the students and for lack of better words get mad at them and making them feel as if they are failures. I also thought that they could never improve (fixed-mindset). This year, I’ve communicated with students that they need to keep working to improve and connect the dots, like we learned with Fink’s model of learning.
In 5305, I had the mindset that the course work was extreme, that I would be able to do it especially to complete a Literature Review, which I’ve NEVER done before, so that sacred me to the point where I thought to myself “It’ll be horrible, Dr. Harapnuik is going to tear it apart, I’m going to get an F.” The anxiety for that course was at an all time high. Not only did I kick that Literature Review’s butt, but I succeeded in the course with an A, A highlight if I must say towards my master’s degree.
As I continued thinking I realized that although I’m not using my “planned” growth mindset, I am putting the plan into action. If it weren’t for the growth mindset, then I wouldn’t have changed my attitude towards my students and helping with their success. If it weren’t for the growth mindset, then I wouldn’t have been successful in my courses so far. I came to the understanding that this IS the growth mindset in action and not some presentation that I came up with because it’s something I learned about and wanted to show it to others.
I think that is the true meaning of why Dr. Harapnuik wanted us to reflect on the plan and to have the realization that this is how it should have been working all along “Get comfortable with being uncomfortable” as he usually states. It’s not a matter of us teaching it to others, it’s us continuously practicing it and implementing it in our daily lives while paying it forward to others.
I’ve occasionally pointed to the posters recently trying to get my learners to see the growth mindset in action, so that is slowly working into my plan. After much thinking I’ve established a new plan to add onto Dweck’s.
- Learn to hear your fixed mindset
- Recognize that you have a choice
- Talk back to it with a growth mindset
- Take the growth mindset action
- Practice and model the growth mindset
- Repeat steps 1-6 and share with others
To wrap this up, I wanted to quote Dweck as she ended her book:
“Keep the growth mindset in your thoughts. Then , when you bump up against obstacles, you can turn to it. It will always be there for you, showing you a path into the future.” I must say it certainly has.
References:
Dweck. C (2016) Mindset The New Psychology of Success Updated Edition Ballantine Books
Dweck. C (2016) Mindset The New Psychology of Success Updated Edition Ballantine Books Chp 8 (pg. 264)
Dweck. C (2006-2010) Change your mindset: How can you change from a fixed-mindset to a growth-mindset? Retrieved from http://mindsetonline.com/changeyourmindset/firststeps/
Fink, L. D. (2013). Creating significant learning experiences: An integrated approach to designing college courses. John Wiley & Sons.
Harapnuik, D., Thibodeaux, T., & Cummings, C. (2018). Choice, Ownership, and Voice through Authentic Learning
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