What is Mindset?
According to Dweck (2015) a mindset is a student’s perceived view of their abilities.
What are the different mindsets?
There are two mindsets according to Dweck (2015).
Fixed Mindset
According to Dweck (2016) the fixed Mindset is a belief that a student’s intelligence is an innate ability that they cannot change. It is what it is. You are born with it or it is genetic and no matter what you do it cannot change.
Growth Mindset
The growth mindset is a belief that a person’s intelligence can be changed through embracing failures and conquering challenges to learn from those experiences (Khan Academy, 2014).
Why is a Growth Mindset Important?
According to Dweck (2015) it is about motivation and achievement. Students that have the perception that their own intelligence could grow and be developed perform better than students that have a perception that their intelligence is stagnant and unchanging. Dweck (2015) explains that through her research and data it is possible to teach students in a way that helps them change their perceptions of their abilities from a fixed mindset to a growth mindset. Through this process you are providing motivation for a student to achieve. By using her strategies it is possible to increase a student’s performance and show them their brain can grow.
The power of yet!
Yet is a powerful teaching strategy proposed by Dweck (2015). Dweck speaks about the power of the word yet providing a path to and hope for the future. (Stanford Alumni, 2014). By speaking to students and helping students realize their failure or setback is just a stepping stone to their goal the word yet opens the students mind that if they continue to work and strive, they can achieve their goal.
How do We Promote a Growth Mindset?
Dweck (2016) outlines four steps to develop a growth Mindset.
Listen for your fixed mindset voice.
Recognize that you have a choice to listen or not.
Talk back to your fixed mindset voice with a growth mindset.
Take the growth mindset action.
Watch out for false Growth Mindset!!!
A key trap according to Briceno (2012) our belief can be a trap. Those who have taught or see themselves as special and view themselves as winners to refuse feedback, not learn from failure, and shy away from challenges. On the other hand, if one’s self perception is that they are a loser they will live out that self-fulfilling prophecy. There is also a trap that teachers fall into by putting praise over process. By providing praise for hard work without enabling students with a process only promotes the fixed mindset and students work only to receive the praise. Dweck (2016) outlines a process for avoiding the false growth mindset.
Provide meaningful work to students
Give honest and helpful feedback
Offer advice on future learning strategies
Provide opportunities to revise work and demonstrate learning
Put your learning so far to the test!
Can you recognize the mindset?
Example 1
Example 2
Example 3
Example 4
My Plan for Growth Mindset and Technology
This plan is in four parts.
1.Following Dweck’s 4 steps through personal reflection that focuses on listening to my fixed mindset voice and speaking back to it with growth and taking a growth action I will keep a record of situations and moments when the fixed mindset voice speaks up. I can track what the situation was and what the fixed mindset tells me, what my growth mindset response was, and what the action was taken. I believe this will allow me to start to anticipate when a fixed mindset may try to creep in on me and allow me to head off the fixed mindset.
2. After step one I plan to develop lessons that have language built from the idea of the power of yet that guides me in helping students to see their setbacks or failures as moving forward to success. I plan to use my content of music to do this. In developing lessons I have experience as a student musician to anticipate when in a lesson a student may experience a fixed mindset. While I cannot anticipate all challenges for a student I can work to be prepared. Currently in class I post critical thinking questions that I and teacher’s aides use to guide students to think more deeply about the lesson. I will do the same thing for guiding students to a growth mindset with pre prepared growth mindset statements. Currently, the grade level I teach is Pre K 3 and Pre K 4. At this grade level there is more of a focus on process than product. In some ways I have not realized it but I am already doing this work. In lessons I always stay positive. In music class we work on the process and we use encouragement to promote participation. I score students on effort and their willingness to persevere. They may not have the best voice in class, they may not even be completely vocal yet. It’s all about an attitude of encouragement. If a student shows signs of feeling unable to participate I am ready with positive statements such as
We just need to find what works for you and we will get there.
Try this next time.
How about this time we try it like this?
I keep feedback focused on success and use as many different activities for one learning objective as I can in order to reach and include as many students as possible. My goal is to inspire my students to find a love and appreciation for music and a desire to continue learning about it after they leave my class. The lessons I develop come from several resources. I use a curriculum called Preschool Prodigies that is focused on teaching the basics of rhythm, melody, beat, pitch, and music theory. The lessons I use from preschool prodigies aid in teaching students how to play a musical instrument. I use the color code system from this curriculum to incorporate core subject areas like colors, shapes, and numbers. I also expand this to several instruments including desk bells, boomwhackers, xylophones, and pianos. These are all great concrete instruments to use. Abstract instruments such as guitar, flute or recorder, and others are not appropriate at this age. A second resource I rely heavily on in lesson development is First Steps in Music by John Feierabend. I have been fortunate enough to attend some of his training sessions. He has developed an excellent approach to teaching music skills to children all the way from infant level to adults. Many of the differentiation skills I have come from this training. Both of these sources I have mentioned are aligned with national standards for music education at the Pre K level. I align all my lessons with the Texas Pre K guidelines and extend lessons into the Kindergarten level that align with the Texas essential Knowledge and Skills for Fine Arts music in Kindergarten. I was tasked with this upon being hired into my position as music teacher for Amber Terrace Discovery and Design Early Childhood Academy. My original task as the music teacher was to find the prodigies. I work to do this while using best appropriately developmental practices for all my students.
3. I recognize a growing need for the integration of technology to expand the classroom outside the doors of the school. I embrace this change. Preschool Prodigies online curriculum does help with this however there is an economic challenge. I work through grants and donors choose to overcome these challenges. The area I teach is about 95% economically disadvantaged. Many of my students do not have access to technology at home. In the wake of the Covid 19 pandemic the district I work in has worked hard to meet the needs of students and pass out devices to students in need. However, there is still a large economic obstacle. When school opens back up these devices will be collected. However, I still plan to include a technology piece of my classroom for each unit, lesson, or concept. As a music teacher I would like to integrate new technologies I have discovered such as Chrome Music Lab. This is perfect for the age I currently teach. Just like in Preschool Prodigies I can use color, shapes, patterns in Chrome Music Lab to guide students to compose and create their own music compositions through technology. I can also include self recorded music videos or instrument lessons and provide them through my own website or the app Remind for students to access. Many families do have a cell phone that they could use to access these technological expansions of the music classroom. Along with content presented to students through the use of technology to expand my classroom I will include concepts of the growth mindset through positive lesson statements and feedback that I spoke of in step two. One example I can use is in instrumental music lessons. I can model and communicate to students how the skills of a good musician develop over time and do not happen immediately. I can have guest speakers that are music students from the high school speak about how far they have come as musicians and how they have felt in their growing process. Partnering with the high school directors this could be done through videos on youtube or applications such as zoom. This way the high school students' day is not interrupted and the students in my classes hear about this from people they know and can relate to in their own community. With proper permissions this could even be done on the app Remind or through a school website. Persistence and perseverance are keys to music. Learning to develop skills in music is closely aligned to what the growth mindset strives to teach educators.
I plan to share this information with the staff on my campus. I have spoken with my principal about doing a presentation of my learning. II will also work to model the growth mindset when working with peers. After reflecting on this I realize how much the leadership of the campus works from a growth mindset. I also recognize how many teachers and staff would love this, grab onto it, and run with it. There is a hunger for more practice of this concept on campus.
References
Bertasso, M. (2015, Feb. 16) Rocky in a Fixed Mindset. [Video]. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watchtime_continue=4&v=ff_TKj45_UY&feature=emb_logo
Briceno, E. (2012, Nov. 18) The Power of Belief: Mindset and Success. TEDx Talks. [Video]. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pN34FNbOKXc&feature=youtu.be
Dweck, C. (2016) Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. Ballantine Books. New York, NY.
Dweck, C. (2016, Jan. 11) Recognizing and Overcoming False Growth Mindset. Edutopia. http://www.edutopia.org/blog/recognizing-overcoming-false-growth-mindset-carol- dweck
Dweck, C. (2015, Sept. 22) Carol Dweck Revisits the “Growth Mindset”. 35(05), 20-24. http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2015/09/23/carol-dweck-revisits-the-growth- mindset.html
Growth Through the Middle Years. (2019, May 9) Identify Growth or Fixed Mindset. [Video]. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vz6HU1LlOU&feature=emb_logo
Feierabend, J. (2006) First Steps in Music.: For Preschool and Beyond. GIA Publications I Inc. Chicago, IL.
Khan Academy. (2014, Aug. 9) The Growth Mindset. [Video]. Youtube. https://youtu.be/wh0OS4MrN3E
Prodigies Music, (2020) Preschool Prodigies. Young Music LLC. Retrieved From. https://prodigiesmusic.com/curriculum/
Stanford Alumni. (2014, Oct. 9) Developing a Growth Mindset with Carol Dweck. [Video}. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hiiEeMN7vbQ&feature=youtu.be