Literature Review: Growth Mindset in the Classroom: Science Scope

Below is a review of Cheska Robinson's article titled, "Growth Mindset in the Classroom," found in the publication Science Scope in 2017.  The article outlines strategies teachers can use in the classroom to promote a growth mindset.

                Robinson writes to an audience of teachers and offers tips that can help promote growth mindset in the classroom community.  The first tip she offers is to teach students about neuroplasticity and how the brain can change by forming new and stronger connections with experiences such as practicing.  She urges teachers to use pictures or videos of what brain activity looks like (Robinson, 2017, p. 18).

                Other ways that teachers can incorporate growth mindset into their classroom norms are to use learning strategies such as free recall and summarization.  She argues that free recall activities in which students list everything they know about a learning objective prime the brain to acknowledge that there is always a starting point to reference when filling in gaps.  She also encourages the use of summary sheets in which students summarize the learning objectives of the previous week.  Both activities encourage students to take ownership of their learning and can build stronger neurological connections in the brain (Robinson, 2017, p.19)

                One big facet of growth mindset is learning from mistakes.  Robinson emphasizes that teachers should normalize mistakes and failures within their classrooms.  Some good strategies that teachers can use are to have posters on the classroom walls that highlight and reflect on the importance of making mistakes, as well as showing encouraging videos of successful people who experienced failures on their road to success (Robinson, 2017, p.19).

                Reframing language is also a big key component of instilling a growth mindset.  Robinson argues that teachers often assume that students with naturally understand expectations around time and effort, however it is imperative that teachers explain these expectations to the students.  Teachers should always stay focused on the process of learning and not just the outcomes.  Other reframing techniques are centered around learning positive "self talk."  These techniques can be made more accessible through posters or visual reminders of how to change our self talk to reflect a growth mindset.  For example, instead of "I give up," a student can use a visual reminder to instead say, "I'll use a different strategy that I learned."  These reframing techniques help students develop self confidence skills and should be encouraged to be utilized everyday (Robinson, 2017, p. 20).

                Students should be given opportunities to track their own progress throughout skill development in order to see their growth and become more empowered students.  As they reach certain benchmarks, they should also incorporate other reframing skills such as stating a learning objective as "I can..."  This reinforces the idea of personal growth and ownership in their individual learning experiences (Robinson, 2017, p. 20).

                Robinson concludes with listing some additional resources available for teachers to use.  Some of the resources include a growth mindset lesson plan within Khan Academy, ClassDoJo, and Train Ugly.  The Train Ugly website offers teachers free lesson plans and a printable survey.

Implications to my study:

It was reaffirming for me to read this article as I have implemented many of these strategies into my daily classroom routine throughout the period of my research study.  I have helped the students reflect on their learning processes, set learning goals, track their own progress, and modeled positive self talk and reframing language.  Another strategy that I have used is to share growth mindset videos through Khan Academy and other resources that reflect personal growth through failures and mistakes. 

I checked out the Train Ugly website and found a lot of useful resources.  I took the survey, which is similar to the survey I created for my research study.  It was a little more user friendly that the one I created, however I believe that my survey was more appropriate for students in a tier 2 level intervention math class.

References:

ROBINSON, C. (2017). Growth mindset in the classroom. Science Scope, 41(2), 18-21