It is critical for schools to nurture a growth mindset in students

This is the sixth in a series of posts explaining the Acton Academy Principles of Education.

Education Principle #6: It is critical for schools to nurture a growth mindset in students

Can our abilities be developed? After many years of research, Stanford psychologist Carol Dweck concluded that the way we answer this questions has an immense influence on our accomplishments and development of our abilities and talent. In her groundbreaking book, Mindset, Dweck detailed two thought processes that impact our success:

• People with a fixed mindset:

  • Believe their abilities are fixed

  • Believe talent is everything and that their genes play a huge role in their success or failure

  • Try to avoid difficult situations where they may be disappointed or struggle

  • Satisfaction comes from winning / getting good grades

  • Are comfortable to the level / against the competition they can currently succeed at. Don't want to "risk" going beyond that.

  • "I'm not a math person"

  • "Did I win? Did I lose?"

• People with a growth mindset:

  • Believe their abilities can be developed

  • Believe that they can get better through practice and hard work

  • View difficult situations as challenges and opportunities to get better

  • Satisfaction comes from pushing themselves

  • Want to continually push themselves to keep getting better. Competition / Failing doesn't scare them.

"I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.” - Michael Jordan

People with a growth mindset are much more likely to succeed. They are continuously looking to improve their skills and get better. Fortunately, we are all born with a growth mindset. Babies are always looking to learn something new, to do something new. Their curiosity about the world and desire to learn is endless.

The influence of parents has a huge impact of whether a child has a fixed mindset or growth mindset growing up. The impact of teachers and guides / mentors also has a huge impact. As an example, a math teacher who gives a bad grade to a student and makes a simple comment such as "You're not getting this" is doing a real disservice to the student's mindset. The student may believe she is just not good at math and that it's not her thing rather than realizing that she can continue to learn and get better at it.

At Acton, as Carol Dweck's research shows, we believe that any child can develop a growth mindset. Amongst the things you will notice at Acton:

• There are no grades. Grades provide a single mark at a point in time on whether you are good at something or not. Grades do not indicate the growth a child will see if she keeps working hard. We want the student who understands one concept to challenge herself to the next level. We want the student who is not there yet to keep working at it.

• Guides don't tell students how smart they are. Being "smart" is not a control that students have so they believe they got there from birth. Instead, guides are encouraged to complement student's effort so they continue to exhibit that behavior: "That's great, you worked really hard at learning that!".

If parents want to give their children a gift, the best thing they can do is to teach their children to love challenges, be intrigued by mistakes, enjoy effort, and keep on learning. That way, their children don’t have to be slaves of praise. They will have a lifelong way to build and repair their own confidence. – Carol Dweck

Further recommended reading: Mindset by Carol Dweck