The basic disposition for developing Growth Mindset is effort. However, effort on its own is insufficient. It must be closely associated with how effective the effort is. Thus the crucial question is, ‘How does the effort relate to results?’
Convinced that their daughter was underachieving, some parents had been to see me several times. Each time my enquiries to the teachers who taught her emphasised how hard a worker she was, how well behaved she was – never calling out or distracting others, and that she always handed in perfectly presented work. Her effort they said was exemplary. She was a Growth Mindset student they told me, something to be celebrated not questioned. She would soon be up for a diligence certificate in assembly.
Her parents were coming to see me again, so I arranged for a camera to be placed in the corner of the room, focused on her desk. I was sure that when I showed them the video they would back off. However the video, when I looked at it, was something of a shock because although it showed her effort going into her presentation, this effort was not productive.
She would make some small mistake on her paper, Twink (a correction fluid) it out, blow carefully on the Twink for quite a long period to dry it, test it ever so carefully and gently with her finger and blow again until it was thoroughly dry and writing on it would not smudge. Finally, she would carefully make the correction and continue writing. This was repeated over and over. Because she was spending somewhere between fifty and seventy percent of her time off task and concentrating on appearance, the effort was actually counterproductive.
Doing Mindset wasn’t working. For it to work – to be productive – the effort needed to be monitored in such a way that the results were evaluated. The Habit of Mind metacognitive reflection is the way to do this.
A simple three step questioning process guides this.
1. The first question is, ‘What is your story?’ This is a selected, but real happening from current learning – authentic and owned. The KISS technique applies – keep it short and simple – an incident, not a whole chapter.
2. ‘What does this mean?’ is the next question. Again keep the answer simple. Integrity is also required. This is not the time for bull dust, but for plain straight forward analysis.
3. Finally comes, ‘How do I improve on this?’ Again keep it simple.
It is also necessary to have the students understand that these questions are the final steps of the Bloom thinking hierarchy, concluding with the creation of a path forward – a goal or goals for further action. This is looking for learning results to be better than before, in sharp contrast to the Twink story above, where the effort was unproductive as far as learning went. Thus question 3 is setting a personal goal or goals for the future which are self-motivated, and owned.
Importantly this process is developing problem solving skills, but there is much more going on as continuous learning is being introduced and practiced. There are elements of persistence as this is an ongoing process over time, not a one off exercise. Flexibility will be needed in modifying even a successful practice. These are all Habits of Mind and those who understand the Habits will be able to add more.
Some examples follow.
The class have been learning about mapping in their Social Studies lessons. One girl’s test result has disappointed her. “Last night’s prep was quite easy, but I regret not using my tree map because my mark could have been at a higher level. I only got 9 out of 16, but I know I could have done better. I was not too proud. If we did another map like this again I would use my tree map. I put the direction in the wrong place but that was soon fixed. I also made a key and I’m sure it’s easier to read now”
Using this disposition to reflect, even those who are the exemplary students will seek where extra effort will produce even better results for them. “I got 15/16. I used my tree map from my Social Studies book. Next time I will probably use colour and a better ruler, I will use my Tree Map as a reference as it helped me a great deal. I know I wouldn’t have done so well if I hadn’t had my T.M.”
There is no age limit on this. The above are Year 8 students but here is an 8-Year old from a Chicago Habits of Mind School talking to me about reflecting on how he would solve problems. “If you fail the first time come back at it with past knowledge, fluency, and inquisitiveness. You need to twist it and shake it.”
Once practiced and understood, reflection becomes contagious. It is an important tool to work with in other real life problem solving skill areas outside the classroom. “This year Mrs. R and Mr E asked me to do a programme for the Operetta. I wasn’t sure what they wanted so I went home sat down and wrote out a list of all the things that should be in a programme. Now I think I can do one.”
It is all about self-regulation bringing success.
There is a great opportunity for curriculum overlap in this. From time to time, perhaps at the end of each term/semester an expositor y essay can be written summarising what has eventuated. This has the advantage of engage the students for the same reason as the reflection does, because it is authentic, student driven, providing for student ownership. Further in this context writing the essay would have high intrinsic motivation. (See my article in Teachers Matter 31, entitled Learning to Write an Argument for instruction on this type of essay writing.).
The examples above are what individuals have done. Collaboration has a huge potential here. When small groups compare notes ideas flow, get modified, broadened out and new areas developed. The Japanese proverb tells us that one of us never knows as much as all of us.
Teachers should be doing this too thus developing the same disposition in themselves as they are seeking to inculcate in their students. Managers, and here teachers are managers, are at risk if they don’t know what goes on at the workbench and understand the process required. John Edwards calls this getting “Dirt under their fingernails,” which can only come from the personal practical knowledge gained from doing it themselves and thus gaining personal experience. Without this practical experience they are at risk because while theory may bring knowledge, practically doing brings understanding.
The best teachers have empathy for their students. Without doing it, having the experience, empathy is impossible. It is then often replaced by sympathy and the effect is more often than not then counterproductive.
There are many ways of doing this.
South Farnham School in Surrey is recognised as a leading edge school. Arguably it is the most successful primary school in England. Here the teachers are required to leave a space at the end of every lesson plan for a sentence or two reflecting on the lesson and noting where it could be improved for the future. In my school the teachers were required to formally keep a professional development portfolio where they focussed on an aspect of teaching for a longer period of time, perhaps a term, perhaps longer. This then became the basis for their professional appraisal. Informal diaries are another option. However, this is only a sample. The option limit is the limit of individual imagination.
To use reflection well takes time, certainly months rather than days or weeks, maybe even years. The quotation beneath is an apt conclusion.
Jim Collins in his book Good to Great explains it thus. “Pushing with great effort, you get the flywheel to inch forward, moving almost imperceptivity at first …. You keep pushing and the flywheel begins to move a bit faster …… Then at some point a breakthrough …… You are pushing no harder than during the first rotation, but the flywheel goes faster and faster. Each turn of the flywheel builds upon work done earlier compounding your investment of effort ……… What was the one big push that caused this thing to go so fast? …. It was all of them added together in an overall accumulation of effort applied in a constant direction”