Mindsets
One of the most important aspects of my career at Rhode Island College and the School of Education, has been learning all about fixed and growth mindsets. After I first started learning about the difference between them and reflected on my own experiences, it was really difficult to kind of realize that the environments around me that I had myself in a fixed mindset throughout a lot of my childhood. Reading the piece by Thomas really made me reflect on the idea of growth and fixed mindsets once again. For me, growth mindset was something that I thought was like the holy grail of mindsets, but it never occurred to me that there might be something to question on the subject. It is really something else to look at Thomas’s writing and consider how deficit ideology comes into play in terms of fixed and growth mindsets. One section in particular stuck out to me when Thomas wrote, “One way to flip this ideology is to recognize that all students actually begin each assessment with 0 (no work has been done), and then the grade should be built on what learning and understanding the student demonstrates: simply checking the accurate responses and then giving credit for those positives.” It actually reminded me of this really amazing Ted Talk I’ve watched before and how something as simple as flipping the language can really create an impactful difference. Here’s a link to the full Ted Talk and the part in particular that I’m talking about starts at about 4:25.
Rita Pierson also talks about how when you flip the language and make students believe that they can strive for something, then it creates confidence and an awesome conversations in the classroom about what they can achieve.
With the other piece by Cadeiro and Kaplan, I really was interested in all of the different ideologies that were mentioned. I tried to look back at my own school life and try to find out what ideologies seemed to be most prominent at my high school. The mission statement of my high school was "to educate all students in a safe, nurturing, and challenging environment which empowers them to become well-rounded individuals who are lifelong learners and productive members of society." I kind of wanted to take a look at this and see what ideologies seem to manifest themselves in it. While I was reading, the first one that popped into my head was the functional literacy ideology especially for the last part about being productive members of society. For my school, that always seemed like the part they emphasized the most to us and I wonder what made them so interested in the idea of functional literacy. With the bit about being well-rounded individuals, I could see hints of progressive literacy, but in the end, it never seemed to be the most important part of the mission statement.
I found it interesting that you wrote about your high school's mission. My high school was similar in that they wanted to prepare us for society but oddly enough I felt the opposite as a student. I remember my later high school years being will filled with stress to pass state tests and it made an impact on how we performed. We dreaded that time of year and felt that we were competing with other schools instead of improving our education. Its interesting to see that all schools have different goals in our education and makes me wonder is there any correct way? Great post!
ReplyDeleteI love that you included this link, I really enjoyed watching it in my Educational Psychology class and thought it was a fantastic way to approach a group of students that were falling behind. Absolutely phenomenal. You talk about how you feel that you were taught in a functional literacy ideology, I can't say that I really felt that way in my own high school because it was fairly liberal about those kind of things. Though, they did follow the standards. Maybe I missed something! I really enjoyed this post!
ReplyDeleteTaylor, I enjoyed the link! I believe I have seen this Ted Talk before! My highscool experience was kind of biased in our ideologies and discourses. Once I got to college though, it was kind of a culture shock. My special education journey had me thinking about the growth mindset and the deficit mindset from early on. Thomas' post however, got me thinking just how prevelant the deficit mindset is in education today.
ReplyDeleteI really like that you decided to point out the quote about the student beginning with no credit and earning their credit as they produce their work. Prior to this reading I had never given this idea any thought: this is the way it has been for me throughout most of my education. But, I do like the idea that all students begin with a zero and must work their way up to a passing grade. It may be something I would like to do in my classroom in the future.
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