Growth Mindset Elgin Academy

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Growth Mindset Elgin Academy
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What is Growth Mindset?

• "In a fixed mindset students believe their basic
  abilities, their intelligence, their talents, are
  just fixed traits. They have a certain amount and
  that's that, and then their goal becomes to look
  smart all the time and never look dumb.
• In a growth mindset students understand that
  their talents and abilities can be developed
  through effort, good teaching and persistence.
  They don't necessarily think everyone's the same
  or anyone can be Einstein, but they believe
  everyone can get smarter if they work at it.
• Carol Dweck, Mindset

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Growth Vs Fixed
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Fixed Vs Growth

• Ability cannot change.
• Look smart and talented at all costs.
• New challenges may make you look thick if you are
  not good automatically so stay clear of them.
• The main thing I want when I do my school work
  is to show how good I am at it.
• Mistakes lack of ability. So, dont be seen
  making mistakes.

• Ability can change and grow.
• Learn, learn, learn.
• Take on new challenges to let your ability grow.
• Its much more important for me to learn things
  in my classes than it is to get the best grades.
  The grades will come as a result.
• Mistakes a chance to learn how to get better
  next time.
• Feedback helps me grow
• Grow from within I can do that. Rather than
  needing the teacher telling pupils, you can do
  that

We can start breaking the cycle of dependency on
Teacher which many pupils have.
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Why a Growth Mindset?

• From a practical point of view, staff would
  recognise pupils with a fixed mindset who are
  scared to contribute to class discussion for fear
  of looking stupid who take one bad test result
  of a sign that they cannot do the subject, are
  going to fail and therefore give up who will not
  try anything new for fear of getting it wrong
  who will persevere with the same approach to
  their learning even when it is not working rather
  than being creative and finding a different
  solution.

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Why a Growth Mindset?

• In Scotland, we have a considerable dropout rate
  from Further Education and in 2010 the figure
  reached a staggering 28.
• A recurring theme for youngsters who leave school
  having only known success in exams is they
  suddenly find University a challenge and begin to
  fail for the first time in their academic career
  Sir or Miss are not there to help them pass
  the exam.
• Many fixed mindset students give up and believe
  they are incapable of turning things around. For
  many Growth mindset youngsters there will still
  be challenges and some will also drop out but the
  mindset to grow and learn from the hard times
  statistically helps them pull through.

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Why a Growth Mindset?

• Teachers and schools spend an ever increasing
  amount of effort trying to directly motivate
  students from the outside. A more effective
  approach is to motivate from the inside by using
  students' positive states to draw them into
  learning.
• Alan McLean, The Motivated School

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How to create a Growth Mindset?

• The school will be taking the following
  approaches to develop a Growth Mindset with
  youngsters
• Being very open and frank about the approach.
  i.e. making everyone aware of what they can
  achieve by adopting such a mindset.
• Using feedback and praise designed to promote and
  highlight Growth mindset.
• Praising effort, commitment and learning from
  mistakes to reach goals rather than short term
  praise for doing well.
• Praise the journey not the destination
• Showing pupils that their brain and body can
  physically achieve more through training and
  effort.
• This will be sessions to highlight the biology of
  learning.
• Giving clear and inspirational examples of others
  who have used their Growth Mindset to great
  effect.
• The opportunity for pupils to think about,
  discuss and write about how adopting a growth
  mindset has helped them achieve.

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Can we help promote a Growth Mindset at home?

• Yes.
• Were not trying to tell people how to bring up
  their children.
• I hate it when my mother-in-law gives advice on
  bringing up my son let alone a stranger telling
  me.
• However, if the methods being used in school can
  be echoed at home, it helps youngsters to hear a
  recurring theme and start to believe in their
  ability to grow.

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Michael Jordan
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Chris Hoy
Up till 2004, Hoy had won two World
Championships, one Commonwealth gold and one
Olympic Gold in his speciality race the 1
kilometer time trial. In 2005 the Olympic
Committee removed the kilo from the Olympic
programme and people said he wouldnt win again
due to his style of cycling. Hoy didnt give up,
he reinvented himself. With hard work and
determination he won 5 Olympic Golds, 4 World
Championships and one Commonwealth Gold in events
he was supposedly not capable of doing. Maybe
because they were so gifted and won so easily,
they didnt really have the desire to work hard
when they had to, and they also didnt like the
feeling of losing when it happened. Chris Hoy on
why he surpassed the more talented kids
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Scott Forstall
Scott Forstall, senior vice president of Apple in
charge of iphone software, talks about his
experience of putting together the iPhone
development team. He identified a number of the
highest flying superstars within various
departments at Apple and asked them for a
chat. At the start of each interview he warned
the recruit that he couldnt reveal details of
the project but promised the opportunity, to
make mistakes and struggle, but eventually we may
do something that well remember the rest of our
lives. Only people who immediately jumped at
the challenge ended up on the team. He wanted
people who valued stretching themselves over
those obsessed with being the best all the time
yet being scared to try something new.
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Katherine Grainger

• Katherine won Olympic Silver at the Sydney,
  Athens and Beijing games.
• Many people would have been delighted at this
  Catherine wasnt.
• Some suggested that she may be too old (37) to
  compete at the next Olympics.
• She believed she could still grow her ability,
  worked hard for a further 4 years, took on board
  constructive criticism and set her goals.
• She won Gold at London 2012!

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• YET

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Growth Mindset
Hard work beats talent when talent doesnt work
hard.
http//www.centreforconfidence.co.uk/ http//minds
etonline.com/ http//www.mindsetworks.com/ Dr
Carol Dwecks, Mindset How you can fulfil your
potential is available in most book shops and
online. Chapters 1, 2, 7 and 8 are most suited
to youngsters.
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