[Guest Blog Post] Surfing, Personalized Learning & Growth Mindset

even synchronized swimming. Recently my attention has been drawn to SUPs – Stand Up Paddleboards. This surfboard-like watercraft requires a steady balance and the ability to stand up on board. I wasn’t sure I had that agility anymore but I sure wanted to try one.  I mentioned my fascination to my husband, who as it turns out has a friend who has one.  His friend invited us over for me to try it out. 

Now, you would think that would be fantastic right?  But actually, I turned it down at first. I didn’t want to look foolish if I fell off into the water.  What was I thinking?  I eventually said yes and did try it.  It was everything I thought it would be and more.  I think I already know what my next birthday gift is going to be!

My mental exercise over the SUP reminded me of Carol S. Dweck’s book, Mindset. She wanted to know which factors impact achievement and success. Dweck found that intelligence and talent are not the factors that bring success; it is the belief we have in their own abilities to change.

She identified two mindsets: fixed and growth. Depending on which mindset we believe we have, our motivation, productivity, relationships and accomplishments are impacted.

With a fixed mindset, you believe that the talents and basic abilities you have are simply fixed traits. You might argue that a person is successful because they are talented – success should not require effort. According to Dweck – people with fixed mindsets spend their time documenting the success of others rather than developing their own. They see challenges as impossible to tackle because they do not have the talent or knowledge do well with their first try.

In contrast, if you have a growth mindset, you understand that it will take effort and hard work. You can eventually accomplish a challenging task. The intelligence you are born with and the talents you have can be developed with some effort. If you have a growth mindset you see challenges as possibilities:knowing that you will learn and you can develop  skills to meet those challenges through practice and use.

An interesting perspective in Dweck’s research is that when teachers are trying to motivate reluctant learners and helping them to develop a sense of being productive some of the traditional strategies, like using praise, may just backfire!

According to the New York Magazine, in an August 2007 article by Po Bonson, Dweck’s research places the blame for lack of motivation and productivity of even our brightest students on the praise that has been heaped on them since they were babies. Being told they are smart, intelligent, talented, and amazing, did not grow into a sense of fearlessness and self-confidence that they could tackle even a simple routine challenge. Instead, praise caused just the opposite. Because they did not want to disappoint anyone or prove they are not as smart, talented, or perfect as their parents and teachers said they were, these kids refused to try.

Artists, scholars, and athletes develop mastery of their talents and skills through practice. Students with fixed mindsets underestimate their own abilities and the importance of effort. They believe they have all the intelligence and talent they will ever have. They don’t recognize getting good at a something requires working at it and dealing with the many small failures that will happen before they get the hang of it. According to the article, Dweck believes that “giving students the label of ‘smart’ does not prevent them from underperforming. It might actually be causing it.”

We need to be aware of how a single line of praise for intelligence can be a motivation stopper, compared to being praised for effort, which is a motivator.  In Dweck’s studies, when we praise their efforts in completing a challenging task, 90% of the children choose to continue with even more challenging tasks. But, compared to most of the students who were praised for their intelligence, they chose an easier task, to avoid failure.

Robert Marzano, et al. in the book, What Works in Schools (2009) suggests reinforcing effort and providing recognition for small gains is very effective in raising student achievement. His meta-analysis gives the nod to Dweck’s studies, which suggest praising grades plays into the game of: “Look smart, don’t risk making mistakes.”  Because, with fixed mindsets, students choose to look smart and avoid being found out. They are afraid it will be discovered that they don’t have the natural talent or that they are not as smart as the adults and friends in their lives may think.

Personalized learning, in which students and teachers can set goals and work to achieve them, provides an opportunity to focus on a growth mindset. When students know their destination and both students and teachers can track incremental progress against it, it becomes easier to focus on the effort, rather than only on the end result.  We can make classrooms places where iteration is valued and where students can try again and again – removing the risk of failure and the fear of mistakes.  But this is something we need to work at constantly, and for most of us, it will not come easy.

I would like to invite you to visit STEMcoach.com and check out our videos in STEMtalk from February and March to learn more about mindsets and strategies for embracing the failures that come when you try to develop an open mindset. There are videos and resources with some ideas you might want to try to promote your own growth mindset or that of your students. As students are completing tasks in their personalized learning, without a growth mindset, they will choose ones to confirm what they already know. Their need to appear smart, rather than show they don’t have the skills yet, which will shortchange their experience.

Terry Talley, Ed.D.

STEMcoach in Action!