Growth Mindset-revised
The ability to create a meaningful learning environment where students can feel comfortable expressing their ideas, thoughts, and feelings is the starting point to creating a growth mindset. A growth mindset is not only about building self-esteem or making students feel good. It is a process that develops over time. When we introduce our students to relevant learning environments where they have a choice, develop ownership, and gain a voice in authentic learning opportunities, students will develop a growth mindset. Students will learn to apply what they have learned, and their learning effort will be rewarded.
​
In my initial growth mindset plan, I discussed the difference between a fixed mindset and a growth mindset. I also mentioned a series of steps an educator can use to help develop a growth mindset in their students. I stressed the importance of modeling a growth mindset for students by allowing them to see themselves as learners, capable of improving and growing, open to new opportunities, new technologies, and new methods to improve their teaching.
All of these steps are important to developing a growth mindset. However, it is important to implement them in meaningful learning environments that emphasize the importance of content that is pertinent to students' future goals, both in the short term and long term (Ormrod, 2006).
Meaningful environments are those in which students can understand the relevance of what they are learning, and where they can choose appropriate options, express themselves in authentic learning opportunities, and where they feel that their effort is worthwhile.
​
Sometimes it is hard to implement a growth mindset culture in the classroom. Teachers experience a lot of pressure from administrators and academic institutions to meet assessment requirements. Our educational climate is obsessed with achievement. Educators may teach the test material for part of the day, and during the other part of the day they have to apply that knowledge in real-life projects where students can use the COVA approach. The teacherwill be making the classes more interested and engaging. Students will learn to respond to initial obstacles by staying involved, trying new strategies, and using all the resources at their disposal to learn. It will create a goodenvironment to develop a growth mindset.
A growth mindset also develops in settings where students feel close to their teachers. In these cases, they are more likely to listen to them and learn from them. Students come to value what a pleasant instructor says, seeing it as something worth learning because the instructor sees it as something worth knowing (Ryan & Deci, 2000).
​
Jesús Guillén, in his video "Positive Environments in Learning and Life," describes Benjamin Zander, the conductor of the Boston Philharmonic, as a leader in his ability to create egalitarian and creative environments. He says that Zander, on the first day of each course, gives his students an A. He immediately asks them to write a letter explaining why they deserve that A and what they have to improve that year to become that A version of themselves. And then he tells them, fall in love with the outstanding A version of themselves, and always introduce yourself as that outstanding A person, because if we talk and treat each other as if we were outstanding people, we will strive to become that version of ourselves.
​
Learning about relevant and positive learning environments has been beneficial to my Innovation Plan. I intend to focus on designing projects where students apply what they learned. The business professor I am working with and myself will create authentic learning opportunities where students can have choice, ownership, and voice. The ePortfolio will be the tool that will be used to enhance their learning.
​
​
References
​
Guillen, J. (2021). Entornos positivos para el aprendizaje y en la vida. Youtube video. Retrieved from:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8ka2uEI2Mk
​
Harapnuik, D. & Thibodeaux, T. (2019). How to Grow a Growth Mindset. It's About Learning. Retrieved from:
https://www.harapnuik.org/?p=7955
Ormrod, J.E. (2006). Educational psychology: Developing learners (5th ed.). Upper Saddle River, N.J.:
Pearson Education, Inc.
​
Roberson, R. (2013). Helping students find relevance. American Psycological Association. Retrieved from:
https://www.apa.org/ed/precollege/ptn/2013/09/students-relevance
​
Ryan, R.M., & Deci, E.L. (2000). Self-determination theory and the facilitation of intrinsic motivation, social development,
and well-being. American Psychologist, 55, 68-78.
​