'Growth Mindset'

Its not about a child believing they can do anything they want.. it's about teaching a child that making mistakes is an important part of learning and not to fear failure but recognise this is how you grow and develop both educationally and in yourself.
Anything that encourages a child to have an open mind, not be scared to try new things, recognise that you learn through mistakes and to be successful you have to be resilient has, to my mind, be a good thing. A fixed and closed mind set holds anyone back.. how many children do we all know who have the potential to be good at (I use these examples as they are to my mind the biggest examples of a fixed mindset) maths or languages who have a fixed mindset and self fulfilling belief that they are naturally no good at these subjects and they will never be able to do them? Keep an open mind and you will start to see how many fixed mindset conversations surround us and our children in the education world.. I'll bet be there are plenty of 'my child is naturally good at maths but is weak in English.. well, you are one or the other.. '.

OP The Hulk is called Bruce Banner.

"Growth mindset" makes me glad I'm not in teaching anymore.

I’m not sure the TES ‘slates’ it, but questions it’s application, and cites studies into the way it is used:

“A trial run by the foundation found that teachers trained in the principles of growth mindset had zero impact on the pupils they taught subsequently. However, when the ideas were embedded in practical workshops with pupils, children gained an extra two months’ progress compared with similar children not involved.”

My kids play Growth Mkndset Bingo in assemblies etc, and are sick of it. It clearly doesn’t work if used at the Motivational Poster Level. But embedded I can see it can make subtle differences. I think without knowing or using the glossary of GM parents who instinctively deploy approaches that encourage ‘grit’ sometimes do their kids more of a favour than those who constantly praise and try and build self esteem that way.

Montessori method shares some GM ground.

I wish I had been able to naturally adopt and embed GM techniques when my kids were younger.

Growth mindsets and BLP (building learning power) both have nice ideas at their basis. Ideas that good teachers try and incorporate at every opportunity to encourage students to basically try their best and not give up. My issue with it is when it's taken as a 'miracle cure' to fix issues of so-called underachievement. Lessons have to be rewritten to incorporate BLP or GM buzzwords or students have to get certain types of feedback etc.
It often seems to be the case that some middle manager takes up the cause, rejigs everything, gives staff a load of (extra) work to do and then since they've single-handedly improved teaching and learning in the school (!) they are promoted. After this, GM, BLP or whatever dies a death and is never referred to again......

“Growth mindset” as a current system popular in schools is not the same as encouraging your pupils to grow and fulfill their potential. You’re looking for a fight I fear!

Do read the TES article I linked to, Larks

Growth mindset is a mindset. It is commom sense.

Growth Mindset is pseudo-science.

Of course teachers want kids to work hard at stuff, that's not Growth Mindset, that's common sense.

There is un ethical problem with teaches oposing growth mindset of children. It is unetical. How about telling your own child to not believe in his potential and growth. Arg, it is easy because those are someone else's children.

Larks I'm not sure what you've just said has anything to do with Growth Mindset.

Of course it can, children are born to grow into accomlished well rounded , great people. It is the school experience and maybe teachers, that cut their wings.

Larks As it says in the TES article "Carol Dweck told me that they don’t have a single example of a school successfully changing pupils’ mindsets.”"

So what's the point in 'promoting' a growth mindset as something awesome if it can't be changed? Any work spent on mindsets is a waste of time that would be better spent actually doing the work that needs improving.

Why rubbishing a mindset that promotes self belief and self esteem? In professional life, at work, growth mindset is de rigueur.

Why can't children have growth minset? Inconvinient to teachers?

Even the TES has slated Growth Mindset, I really thought it was officially over. www.tes.com/news/school-news/breaking-news/weekend-read-growth-mindset-new-learning-styles

"In my experience it’s a useful way to deal with a certain type of student. The perfectionist who won’t try something new unless they already know they’ll be good at it.
It’s about valuing the experience and process of trying"

My eldest, who is now a high performing, high achieving child, was very slow to learn to read in school - which surprised me. Then I realised that they were doing word recognition, which relies on a lot of guessing. He hated guessing, because of the chance of getting it wrong. When they switched to phonics, the tools with which to solve a challenge by yourself, he got it immediately.

I can see the value in it. When our head started talking about it I started shuffling uncomfortably on my seat as I know flippin well that I have a closed mindset. So does DH really so DS has no chance, really.

I feel very much at my age I know if I am good at things or not. I am not really into the idea of being stretched at work - I'd rather do what I know I can do well even if it's a bit boring because I know I won't get sacked. Whereas if I cock up something that is too difficult for me, I'll be out on my ear.

But for kids I think it can be quite valuable and of course they are not out on their ear if they fail although they may not get the grades they want for the course they want, but there's no problem in aiming high. It annoys me a bit when people say " you can be anything you want to be" because that's rubbish. I like running, I can train and train and train but I will never run as fast as Mo Farah however much I believe I can. However, I can of course get as good as I can be for me - and that's a mindset that is worth instilling in kids.

In my experience it’s a useful way to deal with a certain type of student. The perfectionist who won’t try something new unless they already know they’ll be good at it.
It’s about valuing the experience and process of trying so nothing not the output. Since this is desperately lacking in our system in general it can be a useful counter balance.

But OMG I’ve seen it applied so badly at times!!!

DS has been told for years by school that he has "anger issues". He has a very fixed mindset about that & sees it as a fixed part of his personality. Cheers, school, that's just peachy. I don't imagine your new "Growth Mindset" initiative is going to cover this label, is it.

noblegiraffe yes i agree with you, just saying that Dweck's is far from the only well-hyped research with this problem.

replication is a big problem with lots of social psychology.

Well that just means it's totally useless in the classroom doesn't it? 'I did this great experiment with amazing results but when I repeat it, I don't get amazing results'. You can't shrug and say that's social psychology for you and continue to waste time on it.

Dweck's reasoning for the amazing results not being forthcoming in the real world is that it's too delicate and complicated. That's also useless.

replication is a big problem with lots of social psychology.

The Dweck stuff i have read didn't deny there was such a thing as innate ability or say that anyone could achieve anything. in fact i thought one of the most interesting bits was her analysis of mindsets in high-ability sportspeople - claiming that some went further than others with more ability because of mindset factors. Different from claiming we could all be a world-class tennis player if only we had the right attitude. i agree there's a lot of speculation though.

My Ds's school got into it too when he was around 8. i was pretty sceptical but it was interesting to see how fixed his mindset was on the questionnaires they gave, and it did correlate well with how he approaches things he struggles with. Something seems to have shifted for him, though, whether that's to do with a year of GM stuff i can't say. I felt the problem was not so much the model as how it had been co-opted into the education system - in a simplistic, answer-to-everything way that I'm not surprised has teachers rolling their eyes! Also, much of the education system is fixed mindset in itself - ultimately focused on levels you do or don't hit - so there's an inherent contradiction.

I thought her points about fear of failure /exposure in high achieving children (because if you don't get the grades/get into a particular school/uni etc, it will mean you're not as intelligent as people thought) were interesting, though, and rang quite true from my experience.

Our school got into it.

As a parent I found it was helpful in learning to talk and respond, the difference between ‘well done, you are really good at maths’ and ‘well done, you have worked hard at maths’, and how to ask critical questions (in my old training we called it ‘the teaching question ‘.

NobleGiraffe, I have no doubt good teachers have been doing all this for yonks, but parents don’t necessarily come with pedagogy.

It depends on how far you take the idea imo. I was convinced I 'couldn't do' maths and science at school. Looking back, I just specialised too early, encouraged by my anti-mathsy-subjects DM. Dd is convinced she is irrevocably shit at music and sport, so she doesn't try.

However, I think that the idea that no ability or intelligence is innate is utter bollocks. I have taught many, many children who could not have become doctors, lawyers or rocket scientists however much enthusiasm or can-do attitudes they might have had.