Tag Archives: Mindset

Jamie Fitzgerald

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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!?
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Guy Claxton

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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 the talk by Guy Claxton.

Fixed Mindset is the biggest handbrake on intelligence

Old views of intelligence: fixed sized pot to be filled. Decided at birth, doesn’t get bigger, sets a ceiling on what you can achieve, is easily diagnosed by a test and based on a rational mind. This is the model of intelligence upon which schools were founded. It set up a hierarchy of subjects and allowed teachers to make judgements about students being intelligent, average etc. Contemporary research by Dweck and others has blown apart this preconception of fixed intelligence.

New View

Intelligence is:

  • composite,
  • attitudinal,
  • physical,
  • distributed,
  • social,
  • expandable

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Carol Dweck

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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 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 →

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

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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:

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 →

Why Does Dissonance Provoke Curiosity in Some But Rejection From Others?

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It has been a while since posting anything in my Question Quest but this question has been developing over the past few days.

Whilst at ULearn there was lots of discussion about the ideas being presented in keynotes, workshops etc. but also about educational ideas that have been shared over the year.

The most interesting conversations for me were about when people disagreed with the ideas being presented. When these ideas caused dissonance in people’s minds there seemed to be 2 main reactions: curiosity to find out more OR outright rejection of either the idea and/or of the person presenting those ideas.

I wonder why there is such extreme reactions to when our minds encounter dissonance? Is this linked at all with Growth vs Fixed Mindsets?

Anchor Points

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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

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“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)

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