Making Connections: Enhancing a Growth Mindset

Charlyn E. CassadyReading and Language Department

The Community College of Baltimore County

The view that you adopt for yourself about your abilities; this view profoundly affects the way you “lead your life.”

Fixed Mindset – You believe your abilities are “fixed in stone” – you only have a certain amount of intelligence.

Growth Mindset – You believe that your basic qualities can be cultivated through your efforts.

Mindset?

Research by Carol Dweck shows that the beliefs that students have about their own intelligence has a striking impact on their achievement in college!

Dr. Dweck identified two sets of beliefs:

A FIXED MIND-SET is a belief that you are born with a certain level of ability and you cannot change this.

A GROWTH MIND-SET is a belief that intelligence can be developed by various means, like effort and instruction.

Research studies have shown over and over that students who adopt a “growth” mind-set helps them:- Be “engaged” in class- Not get discouraged by set-backs- Achieve higher grades

Teaching a “growth” mindset can help our students understand how their basic beliefs in their abilities can either undermine or enhance their learning process and achievements.

Basic Tenet of My Project:

“Treatment” Group “Control” Group

Week 2: Mindset Self-Assessment (Pre-Test) followed by a handout and discussion.

Week 4: Presentation of a Ted Talk on Mindsets and Success.

Week 6: Presentation of a PowerPoint on mindsets.

Week 9: “Gallery Walk.”

Week 13: Writing assignment and Mindset Self-Assessment (Post-Test).

Week 2: Mindset Self-Assessment (Pre-Test) followed by a handout and discussion.

Week 13: Writing assignment and Mindset Self-Assessment (Post-Test).

Quick self-assessment from Carol Dweck’s book: “Mindset – The New Psychology of Success”

How did you score?

Results: The majority of the students had a “growth” mindset according to their pre-test!

Week 2: Mindset Self-Assessment (Pre-Test)

Portion of handout on “Mind-sets and Success in College:” Yes, you can grow your intelligence! When

you learn new information and skills, these tiny connections actually multiply and grow stronger. The more you challenge your mind to learn, the more your brain cells grow. Then, skills or concepts that you once found very hard or impossible to do, seem to become easier……

The Power of Belief - Mindset and Success: Eduardo Briceno at TEDxManhattanBeach

Week 4: Showing of a “Ted Talk” on Mindset

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=pN34FNbOKXc

“Mindsets” and YOUR Success in College

Week 6:

Presentation of PowerPoint on Mindsets and Famous People with Growth Mindsets

Can you “grow” your intelligence?

… the connections (“dendrites”) between the nerve cells (“neurons”) in our brain MULTIPLY and GROW STRONGER!

Research shows that when we practice new skills …

When your dendrites multiply and grow stronger, what happens?

Your skills increase and you have a stronger and smarter brain!

Question:

What can we do to make our dendrites grow?

PRACTICE!

Question:

Research by Carol Dweck shows that the beliefs that students have about their OWN intelligence has a HUGE impact on …

their success in college!

But get this!

Dr. Dweck identified two sets of beliefs that students have about their own intelligence!“FIXED”“GROWTH”

What would a student with a “fixed” mindset say about taking a challenging math class?

Research shows that students with a “fixed” mindset believe they are:

Born with a certain level of ability.

You cannot change your level of intelligence!

You are correct!

What would a student with a “growth” mindset say about taking a challenging math class?

Research shows that students with a “growth” mindset believe they:

Can develop their intelligence by different means, such as:

effortinstructionpractice

You are correct, again!

How does a student with a “fixed” mindset see the instructor’s role?

How does a student with a “growth” mindset see the instructor’s role?

What “Mindset” Do Successful People Have?

Are they really that different from you and me?

They have certain attitudes and qualities that helped them to outperform their competitors…

What ARE these attitudes and qualities?

It doesn’t matter who they are….BUT,

Did you ever look in fascination at the Port of Baltimore?

Those container ships are amazing! Who came up with that idea?

In 1937, a young truck driver named Malcolm McLean waited hours as his truckload of cotton bales were loaded one at a time onto a ship.

He thought it would be much faster if the trailer itself was loaded onto the ship.

Malcolm began redesigning truck trailers into two parts – a truck bed on wheels and an independent container.

He converted an old oil tanker into a container ship and the maiden voyage of the Ideal X took place in April 1956.

He is considered the “Father of Containerized Shipping!”

Success is built upon failure and learning from mistakes.

Mistakes are inevitable.

Failure is a useful type of feedback!

Successful people never stop learning. They know that…

Who enjoys reading the Harry Potter series? (Who wrote it?)

a divorced, single mother on welfare struggling to get by while attending school and writing the "Harry Potter" novel.

The "Harry Potter" franchise has made Rowling a billionaire!

J.K. Rowling was …

How did you feel?

Have you ever been cut from a sports team?

He went home and cried in his bedroom.

But Jordan didn't let this stop him from playing the game has stated,

"On 26 occasions I have been entrusted to take the game winning shot, and I missed. I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed."

When Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team…

At age of 22, Oprah Winfrey was terminated from her post as co-anchor of the 6 o'clock weekday news on Baltimore's WJZ-TV after the show received low ratings.

Seven years later, Winfrey moved to Chicago, where her talk show went on to dominate daytime TV for 25 years, and she now heads her own channel, OWN.

Who was told she was "unfit for TV?” – Oprah!

So… What are the characteristics of “successful people?”

Do not always start out on the right path.

Do not let their personal conditions or family life stop them from reaching their goals.

Successful people have the persistence to rise above their conditions. They:

Believe that their most basic abilities can be developed through dedication and hard work.

Love to learn and have a resilience that is essential for great accomplishments.

Remember - Developing a growth mindset takes practice, too!

Successful people have a growth mindset… They …

Have you ever shopped at IKEA?(What does IKEA mean?)

Why do all the products have funny-sounding names?

(This table is called the “Hemnes”?)

Ikea's name comes from its founder's dyslexia!

Ikea is actually an acronym of founder Ingvar Kamprad's initials, Elmtaryd, the farm where he grew up, and the nearby village of Agunnyard.

He picked Swedish-sounding names for all the products so that he wouldn't have to remember strings of letters and numbers.

How can your background and social level impact your “mindset”?

You have to be pretty successful to appear on TV with…

Denyce wanted to be an opera singer, but she had to learn foreign languages and she was African-American (people didn’t think African-Americans could excel in opera).

She cleaned dormitories and washed dishes to pay for school and went on to become an “operatic superstar of the 21st Century.”

Denyce Graves grew up in a poor, single-parent household.

In the “treatment” classes, students matched statements and beliefs with either a “fixed” or a “growth” mindset on large posters on the classroom walls.

Week 9: “Gallery Walk”

“My instructor should teach me everything I need to know for the text. That’s why she gets paid.”

  “It would take a lot of work, but Biology seems

interesting.”  “I think you found the right strategy that works

for you!”  “You are not good at algebra – YET!”  “I’m going to ask my instructor to meet with me

and go over the exam questions that I bombed.”

Sample of Gallery Walk Statements:

Now You Try It!

Gallery Walk

One of the last assignments of the semester was composing a letter to an incoming student who is struggling in high school.

Week 13 : “Letter to Incoming Student”

Scenario: Imagine that as part of a service-learning project, you have been asked to motivate a student who is struggling with his or her studies in high school, but is still planning to attend CCBC. You can help in sharing your educational journey and knowledge by writing a letter of support to the student.

Before you write your letter, think about the following “prompts” below. Be sure you include all of the items listed!!

Make the student feel welcome and excited about attending CCBC.

Discuss how high-school and college are different.

Inform the student about the concept of “mindset” – “fixed” and “growth;” how mindset can influence our learning and decision-making; why a “growth” mindset” is important, etc. You may use examples from your own experiences, the Mindset handout from class, websites, your observations of other students, and what you have read and learned this semester.

Finish your letter with any last helpful “hints” for success in college.

Writing Prompt:

Almost identical changes between the two groups with regard to:

Increase in Growth Mindset.

Decrease in Growth Mindset.

Stayed the same!

Findings on the Pre-Post Test?

“Treatment” Class Student: “Coming into college, you have either a fixed or growth mindset. A fixed mindset is having knowledge in your brain. Once it’s in your brain you don’t attempt to develop it any more than it already is. In a growth mindset, the knowledge you know/learn, you keep developing it so you will be better at what it is you are talking about and be on top of the subject.”

Observations of the Letters?

In the two “treatment” classes: 82% and 83% completed the course with a 70% or higher.

In the two “control” classes: 60% and 64% completed the course with a 70% or higher.

Interesting (but certainly not scientific) Findings…

Absolutely!Will I do this again?

Comments and Questions?

http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/ (Great materials for teaching students about mindset!)

Kezooki, Max. “The Mindset of the World’s Most Successful People.” Counterpoint – The Personal Development Article Library. Web.

Love, Dylan. “15 CEOs with Learning Disabilities,”Business Insider. Web.

Mayo, Anthony. “The Truck Driver Who Reinvented Shipping.” Working Knowledge. 3 Oct. 2005. Web.

Weisman. Aly. “15 People Who Failed Before Becoming Famous.” Business Insider. Web.

RESOURCES