Growth vs. Fixed Mindsets

You may or may not have noticed the bulletin board in the school hallway outside of my office. If you haven't, please take some time to read it. 

The message behind this bulletin board (thank you Stacey Stahl for your creativity!!) is the idea surrounding learning mindsets. Mindsets are beliefs—beliefs about yourself and your most basic qualities. Think about your intelligence, your talents, your personality. Are these qualities simply fixed traits, carved in stone and that’s that? Or are they things you can cultivate throughout your life? (Dweck, 2010). That's a tough question, but this is what the research says about these two types of mindsets:

Fixed mindsets believe that we are all born with a specific set of traits and the ones that we are given are fixed-unable to be changed. I'm bad at math, so I will always be bad at math. I can't play the piano, so I will never be able to play the piano. I can't subtract fractions, so I will never understand fractions. 

A growth mindset is very different. People with a growth mindset believe that with the right amount of determination and effort we can growth and develop at anything we set our minds to. To me, this means that all of our students can learn and they can learn at exponential rates if we continue to give them opportunities to practice and try to get it right. I can't play this song my violin...yet! I don't know how to subtract fractions....yet! I don't know how to shoot a basket...yet!

Sometimes when our students are working on assignment or when they take a test they might not be demonstrating proficiency….YET! This does not mean that they won’t ever get it, that they can’t learn it, or that they are just “not very strong” in that subject. We limit our students when we live with fixed mindsets.

Moving forward, here at Bethlehem Lutheran School, we are going to explore opportunities and provide strategies to develop grit and determination, resilience and effort, and perseverance and optimism. We are going to focus on the "YET!!" and through these opportunities, we will help our students to grow and develop in all areas of their lives. This may make things look different like homework assignments, opportunities to retake a test, additional coaching and practice on sports' teams, asking people to try something new that is out of their comfort zone. Who knows? The possibilities are endless. 

Join me in changing our mindsets from "I can't do this" to "I can't do this...YET!!"