Does a “growth mindset” always work?
This morning my interest was piqued by an article from Jill Hechinger called Growth Mindset Debate Heats Up.
There are probably very few teachers in the US who have never heard of growth mindset. The wave came rolling through my district around 2010 or so with a book study followed by presentations at staff meetings.
The book that was causing such fervor in the educational world was Carol Dweck’s Mindset, The New Psychology of Success, published in 2007.
A few of the guiding principles
Help children embrace mistakes as a way to learn
Tell children that Intelligence and ability can grow and expand, they aren’t necessarily based on innate talent
Don’t tell a child they are “smart” when they succeed, because they may view failure as a sign that they aren’t smart. Instead of using the word “smart”, be specific about what the child did well.
Give children ideas and strategies so they have lots of things to try if one doesn’t work
Explain that learning something new takes effort - it’s okay if it’s not easy for you at first; that doesn’t mean you can’t learn to do it
I love the growth mindset theory and I think these messages are important for all of us at any age.
In teaching kids to write or using structured literacy, I think it’s extremely important for children to know that their hard work will pay off.
However, just like any other new idea that comes along, are we using it as the author intended, or missing some important points?
Where the best intentions go wrong
in this article (which I quote with italics below) author Jill Hechinger discusses Carol Dweck’s viewpoint on three ways that parents and teachers are getting growth mindset wrong.
Praising effort without progress
“It’s like the consolation prize. ‘Oh, at least you worked hard,’” said Dweck. “What if they didn’t make progress or they didn’t learn?”
Praising effort alone, she says, is useless when the child is getting everything wrong and not making progress. Either students will feel misled when they are eventually confronted with the reality of their low achievement, or the hollow praise will convey adults’ low expectations for them.
Instead, she advises teachers and parents to praise a child’s process and strategies, and tie those to the outcome.
2. Telling kids to try harder
Similar to hollow praises of effort, many teachers incorrectly equate “growth mindset” with effort alone. Dweck often hears reports of teachers telling students, for example, “You would have done better if you tried harder,” or “Keep trying and you’ll get it.”
Effort, Dweck says, is only one route for a student to make learning improvements. If a student doesn’t have strategies for solving a problem, or the necessary skills, or the steps for completing an assignment at his fingertips, all the effort in the world might not help.
3. Missing the feedback piece
Growth mindset theories are becoming so popular that some classrooms are festooned with growth mindset motivational posters exhorting, “Don’t give up until you are PROUD” and “Every mistake you make is PROGRESS.”
“You can’t just declare that you have a growth mindset,” said Dweck. “Growth mindset is hard. Many educators are trying to skip the journey.”
To do it right, Dweck says that many teachers have to change how they teach, offering more critical feedback and giving students opportunities to revise their work.
The importance of feedback
I can’t stress enough that last line above from Carol Dweck. Without feedback, we don’t know what to put our effort into. “Try harder” rings hollow, because we don’t know what to try harder at, and we may just keep making the same mistakes. Good feedback enables new strategies and new neuron development in the brain. Good feedback enables learning, which makes us feel truly good about ourselves. Then the praise rings true and has meaning.
In Growing Writers, I incorporate immediate feedback and correction into every lesson so that every child can improve and get that real praise they so much long for and deserve. Feedback is a big part of the science of learning, which drives the science of writing.
Growth mindset isn’t an easy thing to study. If you read Jill’s most recent article you’ll read about the challenges involved. Is it also possible that some of the studies were based on practices that weren’t exactly what Carol Dweck intended?
Here’s a related blog post of mine: Why the science of teaching writing doesn’t include telling kids “Do your best”