Looking back on my life, career, and education has been eye-opening during the ADL program. I have reflected on my past and realized that I lived in a fixed mindset for years, all the while believing it to be a growth mindset. I can look back now and see that I was living in the “now” and not living in the “yet”. I was consistently working towards the next achievement, the next reward, the next goal, but not truly working on the lifelong development of skill and success. As Duckworth (2013) put it, “Living life like a marathon, not a sprint" is the goal that we should all want to achieve.
When I look back, I can see how I have influenced the minds of learners in my path. I realize that I need to change my approach to be sure I am igniting the fire of a growth mindset in them instead of the qualities of a fixed mindset. Dweck (2014) discussed some of the ways to build a bridge to “yet” as rewarding effort, praising wisely, and changing mindsets to understand that effort is a good thing. I have practiced this in my personal life, and I already see a difference in my family’s approach to learning. We are focusing less on perfection and more on embracing our mistakes. My son has progressed to focus less on his grades this year and more on his learning. I have seen him start to explore outside of class to extend his learning in areas he previously was not as interested in. The key is that we are not only focused on a growth mindset but on creating a significant environment in which we can ‘play’.
In addition, I have been able to see others who are successful because of the mentors in their lives promoting growth mindsets. Again, it is not only promoting growth mindset concepts, but I am able to identify the environments more easily in which a growth mindset is able to flourish. The environment is the key to what we consider a growth mindset working. Without the environment, it is not organic and will not last. I believe that if we first create a significant learning environment and then model the growth mindset characteristics for our learners, they will understand how to apply them themselves.
As educators, it is up to us to set an example and show that we are learners ourselves. Being comfortable with being uncomfortable is important, but showing how you can deal with mistakes and work through them to continue learning is of utmost importance to your learners. It is by providing examples that they understand how to apply this to their own lives.
A personal example of this is my nephew. He is only 8yrs old and recently made it onto team USA in BMX racing. He will race in France this summer due to his accomplishments! I am so proud of him because he is a hard worker. Recently I had the joy of watching him race, and I noticed instantly how my sister has helped him achieve a growth mindset in his racing. Listening to her talk to him after races, I noticed that she says things like, “Wow! You worked so hard on that.” “You put in the work, and it paid off”. She gives specifics like “you really pushed past that hard curve” or “I noticed you lost speed on that section, but you didn’t give up and kept pushing and that’s why you came back and did so well”. Small statements that tell him he is successful not because he is just good at it, but that his effort pays off.
In both personal examples with my son and my nephew, they are no longer pressed towards doing whatever they need to do to win or make the grade. They are proud of themselves even if they do not achieve the highest score and can accept failures as areas of needed growth. They are learning to have ‘grit’. Learners need to develop the grit needed to keep going. To push through the hard stuff to embrace lifelong learning. Otherwise, we produce learners that give up easily and do only what it takes to make the grade, including cheating.
While I have many personal regrets looking back over the years on how I was stuck in a fixed mindset, I am thrilled to know that I can change and affect the lives of so many in the future. My goal is to ensure that I create significant learning environments where my learners can use COVA. I will focus on modeling a growth mindset effectively in all areas of my life and career to focus on long-term goals of success.
References
Duckworth, A. (2013). Grit: the power of passion and perseverance | Angela Lee Duckworth. In YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H14bBuluwB8
Dweck, C. (2014). The power of believing that you can improve | Carol Dweck. In YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_X0mgOOSpLU
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