Growing Learners: Parents’ Briefing.

Agenda Context What are Mindsets? Our work with your child. What you can do at home to help. Our school profile. The next steps. Time for questions.

What are Mindsets? What we think intelligence is: Growth Mindset Intelligence can be increased. Just takes effort, persistence. Mistakes and challenge are a way to grow better. Fixed Mindset Something you are born with. Can’t change it.  

What impact do Mindsets have on our children? Fixed Growth Focus on performance. Focus on learning. Failure and/or effort perceived as being sign of low ability. Not threatened by hard work or failure. Don’t recover well from setbacks. Mistakes are perceived as part of the learning processes. Unstable self-esteem. Stable self-esteem. Choose activities to maximise performance (easy ones to feel clever). Seek new challenges for a sense of achievement. Decrease efforts, withdraw or consider cheating (self-protection). View effort and persistence as a necessary part of success. Disengage, misbehave in class. Pay attention in class- especially when learning something new or challenging.

Evidence from the US. Growth Mindsets lead to higher attainment. Mindset is developed by the way we give praise to children. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTXrV0_3UjY Mindsets last into adulthood. We can change children’s Mindsets.

What we are doing at GJS. All staff have been trained in Mindsets by the Growing Learners team, University of Portsmouth. The children have each completed the Mindset questionnaire which has been analysed by Portsmouth University. We will deliver 6 Mindset sessions in school over the next few months (all resources provided by Portsmouth University). We will conduct the questionnaire again – Portsmouth to analyse. We will continue to promote the principles of growth mindset (developing the BLP learning muscles).

How can you help at home? Growth Feedback Celebrate Mistakes Promote Growth Mindset Resilience, motivation & success Growth Feedback Celebrate Mistakes

We may encourage fixed Mindsets without meaning to “You are not good at this.” “Never mind you’re good at other things.” “Let’s try an easier one.” “You are so clever at this!” “You are really good at maths.” “You are such a talented writer.”

Effects of this type of person/ ability focused feedback:   Okay if perform well: high self-esteem. When challenged or fail: don’t know how to put it right/re-evaluate ability. Low self esteem/feel bad about themselves. Avoid task in future. Attainment will drop. http://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=mGTk6yeh9qE

Growth Feedback Give ‘process praise’. Effort. Strategy. Interpret setbacks as lack of effort, or inappropriate strategies.

“You really tried hard and it’s getting better every time”. “That is the best one that you have done yet!” “That was a good way to do it.” “The sky in your painting is so realistic.” “Try different ways until you find the right one for you.” “Practice makes perfect.” “Try to do even better next time.” “See if you can make the sky more realistic.” “That approach might not be the best.” “You can try harder than you did that time.”

Children praised this way ... Know what to do when challenged or fail – work harder or a different way. Keep trying – resilient. Have a more stable self-esteem.

Celebrating Mistakes Talk about mistakes and what they will do differently next time. Explore the difficulties that have to be overcome to achieve. Discuss challenge/failure/mistakes as part of learning for everyone, a normal part of learning. Use role models as examples – celebrities, family, local people.

Our School Profile so far On a scale of 1 – 6 (with 1 being ‘strongly growth’ and 6 being ‘strongly fixed’) our mean score is 3.25; somewhere between ‘somewhat growth’ and ‘somewhat fixed’. Year 3 is the most ‘fixed’ year group (3.59) Year 6 is the most ‘growth’ (2.97) There is no significant difference in the mindset of boys compared to girls. There is a significant difference between those children who are eligible for free school meals (3.29) and those who are not (2.88).

Next steps . . . Deliver the Mindset Programme and evaluate its success through: The Learning Questionnaire. Feedback from teachers and the pupils. Pupils’ attainment. Continue to promote the principles of growth mindset and to develop skills of resilience and independence.

Thank you! Any questions?