"The Power of Yet" was an extremely encouraging, yet challenging, TED talk. Throughout the video, I just kept thinking that the notion of "praising the process" in order to push our students farther than they think they can go is such a simple idea but it could completely revolutionize education. Too many times we are overly concerned with the end result (the grade) and ignore the process of learning. Dwek suggests that we spend more time on the process and everything else will fall into line.
Dwek's recollection of how students responded to a difficult set of problems reminded me so much of the reactions I get in my own classroom. Middle school science classrooms are heterogeneously grouped. It is very common for me to have an advanced 7th grade student who is taking high school math on one side of the room, and another student operating on a 2nd grade reading level on the other side of the room. The other week I introduced a scientific concept that was a little more abstract than anything we've done so far this year. As Dwek mentioned, some students loved the challenge of a harder concept. Other students, however, looked at the difficult challenge as a tragic event. So many of my students wanted to immediately shut down and not try for fear of failure. They were living in the "now" instead of living in the "yet."
The concept of "now" and "yet" reminded me of the discussions we had when I gained my gifted and talented endorsement. Today's students, especially those that are identified as gifted and talented, have been conditioned to achieve the grade. Their entire academic self-worth stems on the A or B they can make on the assignment or report card. Because of this, anything less than a stellar grade is considered failure. Fear of failure is a natural human emotion, but we can not let our students use this emotion as a means to shutdown and refuse to try.
I also loved Dwek's illustration of the brain forming new neural connections as we push ourselves out of our comfort zones. I can remember being a high school student, looking at my report card filled with A's and B's, and thinking that I didn't learn a single thing that entire term. I put in the effort, put in the work, and crammed the information to prepare for the test, but I hadn't actually learned how to apply what I was taught. Real knowledge is not the facts you've crammed into your brain. Real knowledge is built through the entire learning process. This relates so closely with project based learning because more focus is being placed on the independent learning process of each student.
Dwek's recollection of how students responded to a difficult set of problems reminded me so much of the reactions I get in my own classroom. Middle school science classrooms are heterogeneously grouped. It is very common for me to have an advanced 7th grade student who is taking high school math on one side of the room, and another student operating on a 2nd grade reading level on the other side of the room. The other week I introduced a scientific concept that was a little more abstract than anything we've done so far this year. As Dwek mentioned, some students loved the challenge of a harder concept. Other students, however, looked at the difficult challenge as a tragic event. So many of my students wanted to immediately shut down and not try for fear of failure. They were living in the "now" instead of living in the "yet."
The concept of "now" and "yet" reminded me of the discussions we had when I gained my gifted and talented endorsement. Today's students, especially those that are identified as gifted and talented, have been conditioned to achieve the grade. Their entire academic self-worth stems on the A or B they can make on the assignment or report card. Because of this, anything less than a stellar grade is considered failure. Fear of failure is a natural human emotion, but we can not let our students use this emotion as a means to shutdown and refuse to try.
I also loved Dwek's illustration of the brain forming new neural connections as we push ourselves out of our comfort zones. I can remember being a high school student, looking at my report card filled with A's and B's, and thinking that I didn't learn a single thing that entire term. I put in the effort, put in the work, and crammed the information to prepare for the test, but I hadn't actually learned how to apply what I was taught. Real knowledge is not the facts you've crammed into your brain. Real knowledge is built through the entire learning process. This relates so closely with project based learning because more focus is being placed on the independent learning process of each student.
Hi Jonathan,
ReplyDeleteI appreciate the time you invested in viewing Dweck's Ted Talk and considering her suggestions for classroom practice that could help foster a growth mindset in students and foster a stronger sense of efficacy in our students when they are faced with academic challenge, or any challenge for that matter. Like you mentioned, I've noticed how many of our students can operate academically out of a fear of failure and some out of being conditioned to failure. Neither mindset promotes innovation or strong effort when there is a risk involved. This is why Dweck's suggestion of praising effort and the process instead of the product and the talent so we can push our students and ourselves out of their comfort zones. Thank you for considering ways we can build student agency both in and out of pbl. Sincerely, Dawn