I have looked forward to exploring Growth Mindset in the classroom since I first heard about it last year. As I began to look into the many different facets of Growth Mindset (and noticed that a lot of concepts were quite complex), I started to wonder how it could be taught most effectively in a Stage 2 classroom.
Early on in their unit of work, Stage 2 looked at a number of examples of mindset-driven success. One of their favourite clips to watch and analyse was the story of Panyee FC in Southern Thailand whose founding members had incredibly strong Growth Mindsets. The video is great viewing for anyone and you can find it here:
Stage 2 also read and discussed the fable of “The Tortoise and the Hare.” We discussed the importance of effort and persistence (even if the odds of success are stacked against you) as well as not being too complacent if you think you are naturally good at something.
More recently, we have learned about the concept of neuroplasticity and the brain’s ability to grow when we experience challenges. We have started to create a Growth Mindset wall in our classroom that displays an array of neurons. These neurons represent the challenging goals that each of us are working towards. Each time we practise our challenging goals, we will add another neuron connection to our pair of neurons and be able to “see” our brains grow.
Damian and I have both noticed some very positive changes in our students’ learning attitudes since we have started this unit of work but I wanted to reflect on its impact a little further. I asked for some willing volunteers to answer a few questions about Growth Mindset to help me with this blog post and the responses I got were pretty amazing…
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