Reflection from guest blogger: Fixed versus Growth Mindset

This summer, Stanford Professor, Jo Boaler,  hosted a free online course, titled “How to Learn Maths”.  Close to 20,000 teachers, parents, administrators from across the country learned about mindsets and how a perception of one-self impacts learning every day.  We watched interviews of college students on the impact of K-12 teachers and how one statement from one teacher early on in their education impacted their beliefs on their math ability. Some teachers from our district participated in the course so I asked one of them to write a reflection of what she learned.  Thank you, Juli Schexnayder (Maryvale), for sharing your insights and honest reflection. 

“… I learned about mindsets and how they impact student’s ability to succeed.  Our students come to us with one of two mindsets, fixed or growth.  The fixed mindset is typical of the student and/or parent who tell us they cannot do math because of genetics, gender, race, etc…  These individuals have convinced themselves or been convinced by others that they cannot do math so they don’t.  A growth mindset belongs to those individuals who believe they can do anything and they do!  Mindsets can be changed, and must be changed, especially from fixed to growth. 

Changing a mindset isn’t done with hollow platitudes or pandering.  Giving students genuine feedback on their work and the opportunity to express their math thinking are big keys to helping students change their mindset from fixed to growth.  To do this, I question student answers both verbally and written.  I ask my classes if anyone’s reasoning or problem solving method makes sense.  I allow my students the opportunity to explain how their reasoning/problem solving works.  I even learn from my students and give credit to students who demonstrate reasoning I have not considered before to my other classes as I present the teacher/student’s ideas.  Most importantly, some of my struggling students (based on assessments) have started to express themselves mathematically and are seeing themselves as capable in a math class, possibly for the first time ever.

The most exciting development in my classes is the engagement students have with each other.  I can put a problem on the board and they are processing, generalizing and then applying what they know and intuit to find solutions.  They are becoming curious about math, and I hope, excited about math, many for the first time in their lives.  I know that if I had not taken this course my students would be sitting in their desks, tolerating my class, bored by the same old math they have seen year after year.  

The idea of mindsets is not new, but does need to become part of who we are as teachers of mathematics, if we hope to produce students who are to become the future scientists, doctors, mathematicians, game designers, and educators.”