Growth Mindsets????

[kilmuir]

School have mentioned in end of term newsletter they will be revealing more about their work with Growth Mindsets??? Anyone have any experience. Thanks

Basically it's a theory suggested by psychologist Carol Dweck. Briefly the theory is that individuals who believe their "talents" can be developed through hard work, effective strategies and input from others is said to have a growth mindset and will achieve more than those with a fixed mindset and believe that they are naturally more intelligent and gifted. With a growth mindset the person doesn't worry about making mistakes and put more energy into learning.

It's a bit of a "buzzword" in schools and business at the moment.

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2016/may/10/growth-mindset-research-uk-schools-sats

My ds' school is talking about growth mindsets for last couple of years. I don't see any difference. I think it really depends on how they apply it. Lots of talk about it in assembly but not real application through daily life etc. achieves nothing, imo.

There's no evidence it works. It's a theory.

Our school do 'learning to learn' for two weeks at the start of every year. They also have various sessions to promote particular learning values such as resilience etc. It all takes up a huge amount of time and my kids find it incredibly boring.

A school local to me has also sent out a long letter about this too, could be the same one? A lot of changes e.g. no more house colours or house captains etc. All seems to be rather a lot particularly in the middle of a school year. Would have been far better to have given parents and the children the information and opportunity to ask questions and get clarification in the summer term and then rolled it out in September. Not a good move from the leadership in my opinion.

For an academic yet common sense article on Carol Dweck & Jo Boaler's Mindset theory see paceni.wordpress.com/2016/12/13/the-flaw-in-dweck-boalers-mindset-research.
It will interest Mumsnet readers that neither of Stanford University's professors Dweck nor Boaler have replied to the article.

Perhaps this article will add to your understanding of the weakness of the Mindset research. paceni.wordpress.com/2016/12/13/the-flaw-in-dweck-boalers-mindset-research

Thanks user148etc - my DCs school is adopting this as well - although thankfully we still have houses, prefects, and a healthy sense of competition. I am a little sceptical.

I'm so sick of the 'growth mindset' buzz phrase. DS2's class did an assembly on it where all the children had to share something they'd done that showed that they had a 'growth mindset' - half of the things were really not about that at all, most of the parents were sitting there like this

Now they're having a 'growth mindset evening' for parents. As if we have nothing better to do... Don't get me wrong, I actively encourage my child to work hard to achieve things and be positive that he can improve at things he struggles with, but there's no way I'm sitting through an evening of listening to this. I tend to be pretty cynical about new 'fads' in education these days.

Perhaps if publications such as the Times Educational Supplement spent more time critically examining theories such as Carol Dweck's instead of promoting them, most teachers and parents would be spared the ignominy of having to shout out in child-like fashion "The professor is not wearing any clothes"

Yep huge buzz words in our school too. I like the idea of it - cant see how it can harm - but I dislike too much attention being paid to buzz words of the moment. To me its a part of the story not the whole story.

sugar arf we had one particularity enthusiastic teacher onto this last year - he moved I wonder if he is unleashing this at your school.

www.buzzfeed.com/tomchivers/what-is-your-mindset?utm_term=.jwXgj2J5b1#.xxpyDkOe0B