Growth Mindset Activities for Students

Posted on March 28, 2015 by stevemouldey

There has been a lot of talk about Growth Mindset around the education scene in New Zealand over the past few weeks. Stemmed by the visit of Carol Dweck for a series of conferences in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch. This can obviously apply to both staff and students in schools, and some people have been asking how to introduce Growth Mindset to their students.

An obvious place to start is the TEDx talk by Carol Dweck on the Power of Yet followed by a discussion with the class.:

Here are a couple of activities that I have done with my Learning Hub during Term 1 on Growth Mindset: Continue reading →

Jamie Fitzgerald

Posted on March 13, 2015 by stevemouldey

Today I am at Teaching for Intelligent Mindsets where we will hear from Carol Dweck, Guy Claxton and Jamie Fitzgerald. I will try to post blogs about each session so my next few posts will be far more bullet points rather than a flowing post of any sort (if any of my rambles ever achieve a flow!?).

This is my post on Jamie Fitzgerald‘s talk. For those who haven’t heard of Jamie you should check out his website, he has won the Cross Atlantic Rowing Race, was first to walk unaided across Antarctica and helped organise the volunteers for the Rugby World Cup. First impressions are that this awesome Kiwi adventurer is a great story teller – why have I not heard of him before!?
Continue reading →

Carol Dweck

Posted on March 13, 2015 by stevemouldey

This post is my notes from Carol Dweck’s talk on Growth Mindsets:

You don’t see unmotivated babies just people with curiosity and gusto.

When we put too much emphasis on giftedness and talent we create kids who feel they have to be infallible. Infallible is the enemy of learning.

Mindsets matter:

Fixed Mindset = Intelligence is a fixed trait. Turns people into non-learners, not worth putting the effort in.

Growth Mindset = Intelligence can be developed. Doesn’t mean that everyone has same initial talent but you believe that everyone can get smarter.

Cognitive Scientists are isolating the parts of the brain and working out they work .

Alfred Binet made IQ tests to identify who wasn’t progessing under teaching methods, not so it could be used to show fixed intelligence. He hated the way the IQ tests came to be used. Continue reading →

Transformation and Discomfort

Posted on February 24, 2015 by stevemouldey

There is a lot of talk about transforming education or transforming schools these days. Many of the ideas or initiatives linked with this though leave me wondering whether we really understand the challenge we face to transform education in New Zealand. Many of the initiatives I have discussed with others lately are based around STEM and/or digital technologies, so that will be the slant of this post. All of these initiatives are truly innovative and are having great outcomes for students and teachers, but I wonder is it enough and are they focused on the right things?

In our experience here forming Hobsonville Point Secondary School, the hardest thing about change is the discomfort that occurs. This was also backed up in EdJourney where Grant Lichtman says that change is not hard, change is uncomfortable. To me, none of the innovations and initiatives trying to bring about change are really addressing this discomfort well. Continue reading →

How Might We Promote Growth Mindset, Risk Taking and Perseverance in Teachers?

Posted on November 17, 2014 by stevemouldey

It has been a while since I have posted a Question Quest post and this is a question I have been pondering a lot lately. This HMW question actually started as a why question:

Why are teachers so unwilling to be uncomfortable when they expect it of students every day?

I have been frustrated to see teachers across the country unwilling to take a risk and push themselves to try new approaches. It seems that it is about getting teachers to feel ok with that uncomfortable learning feeling. To me, discomfort is just a part of learning:

The Learning Pit by James Nottingham

And if we expect students to be ok at grappling with confusion and discomfort while they learn new skills and ideas, shouldn’t we be ok at doing the same? Continue reading →

Anchor Points

Posted on May 31, 2014 by stevemouldey

Image sourced from Wikipedia

Earlier this week I had a mini-mental tantrum to do with my struggles teaching robotics. I pride myself on having a Growth Mindset but it absolutely disappeared on me as I thought “that’s it, next term I’m moving back to teaching the stuff that I know really well and that is my passion, not theirs (the students).” But after letting my tantrum go I was able to reflect and move forward with teaching robotics in a more effective way.

This whole episode (and how quickly it happened) reminded of a visual metaphor (I think that’s the right thing – I may be about to be slayed by the English teachers out there!) I thought of a couple of weeks ago when having a critical friend talk with Maurie. Continue reading →

A Mindset for Learning

Posted on July 28, 2013 by stevemouldey

“If you haven’t failed in the classroom lately, you probably aren’t pushing the envelope enough. You are being too safe.” Dave Burgess

This blogpost is all about the word “mindset”. I know this has been around for a while but I first consciously came across the word Mindset at ICOT this year. It seems to have really grown on the world and in my consciousness this year and I see it everywhere now. There are many people out there selling tool kits or strategies that will make you a more effective teacher but I fundamentally believe there is no 1 correct answer for education. By having an open mindset we can make more of a difference.

My teaching mindset at the moment is heavily influenced by the following mindsets that I believe really complement each other to help me approach teaching with the enthusiasm (and hopefully effectiveness) that I do:

– Carol Dweck’s Growth Mindset
– Design Thinking
– Teach Like a PIRATE
– Exploration mindset (heavily influenced here by Dan Raven-Ellison)

Continue reading →

Steve Mouldey

Emergent Reflections of a Secondary Teacher

Tag Archives: growth mindset