I enjoyed Carol Dwek’s TED talk video on The Power of Yet. During the school day before I watched the video, one of my students said, ‘This is hard. I can’t do this.’ and I corrected him by saying, ‘Yes, this is hard. You can’t do it, yet, but you will.’ While he still seemed a little discouraged, he went back to attempting to solve the 2-digit by 2-digit multiplication problem. After watching the video, I was reassured by the fact that I, personally, have a growth mindset, and strive to help my students also develop a growth mindset. The word ‘yet’ offers so much possibility to students. Students cannot do many things yet, such as drive a car, or live by themselves. There are so many things that they are just not ready to tackle on their own, yet.
I also encourage failures in my classroom and learning from that failure. As we discussed in the first PBL course, if students don’t fail at anything, it is going to be really hard for them to grow. When my student did not complete his math problem correctly the first time, he wanted to give up and go back to another strategy. But it was going back through his mistakes, that we were both able to realize what he was doing wrong and fix it. I think these moments are essential in helping students develop a growth mindset. As Dwek said, ‘many are focused on the now and worry about failure’. But if we can show them how to learn from failure, that failure then becomes a success. We are not going to be successful on things the first time through; we have to accept that we can and will learn through time. While waiting is hard, we have to realize that not yet does not mean never, it just means not yet.
Another thing I loved from this TED talk was ‘praising the process’. This is something I learned about when I worked at summer camp. When you praise the process the child takes, you can help them learn from it, whether they were successful or if they had a failure. Letting students know that you notice their effort and their work is such an important skill. Many times they only receive praise if they get the right answer. The example we used at summer camp was, what if you only praised the child when they got a bulls eye in archery? Even if you are holding the bow and arrow correctly, you may not hit the bull's eye, or even the target the first time. But when you notice, and then mention, them working hard and persevering, you are letting the child know that the process is just as important as the product. When teachers praise the process you give the student the sense that their work matters, not just what they produce. I hope to continue to encourage the process my students take in my class on more of a daily basis.
Hi Helen,
ReplyDeleteI am glad that after viewing Dweck's video you realize that the concept of "growth mindset" aligns with your personal beliefs and your classroom practice. I really liked your example of positive failure when your student failed to complete a complex math problem correctly. When the two of you sat down and went through the problem and his problem solving process you were able to see where the mistakes were and that led to new learning. Dweck's point is not yet doesn't mean never, it promotes the learner forward toward learning, not backing away from it. Understanding the power of a learning process for me began when I took the summer institute of the Spartanburg Writing Project and realized the value of a process that didn't lead to a perfect product ready for publishing in the literary market but led to my own personal growth as a writer. You mentioned this value of process in summer camp. I believe this is very applicable with pbl too. Whether or not the end result was what they wanted, we can help facilitate the "mining" of the process to find learning and to see growth. Thanks, Dawn