Growth Mindset

I'm paraphrasing, but my wrestling coach once said that there is no such thing as staying the same, we're either getting better, or getting worse. I enjoyed listening to Carol Dweck's discussion of the "growth mindset" and encouraging it in the classroom. I believe it is important to try to constantly be improving, even if it is only a miniscule amount a day. I totally agree with Dweck that a focus on results here and now without leaving a chance for improvement can create an extremely detrimental learning environment. I also think, however, that there are some faults in Dweck's argument, not necessarily in any of the facts concerning the growth mindset, but in her thoughts on its classroom implementation. It seems to me that growth oriented teaching would not be as easily put into practice as Dweck's argument posits it would be. In higher education, where professors have more freedom in how they structure, administer, and grade a course, a focus on growth rather than specific achievements like tests could work quite well. In grade school level education, however, successfully implementing a truly growth oriented curriculum would require widespread changes not just on a classroom, school, or even district level, but on a state level at least (if not a national level). 

Teachers at elementary, junior high, and high school levels (especially those who teach core classes) are very restricted in how how they can structure and grade their courses, having to meet state requirements for exactly what they need to teach their students and by when, with the end goal being to prepare them to get a good grade on a standardized test. Teachers also often face criteria laid out by schools and districts, requiring them to meet assignment and test quotas by certain dates in the year. While it would appear to be extremely beneficial for grade school classrooms to foster growth mindsets, this entire aforementioned system would need be restructured for that to happen. 

I would argue that the areas where a growth mindset can be most effectively developed in childhood, as well as the areas most capable of changing to do so, are at home and in athletic (and other extracurricular) programs. Parents and coaches (especially coaches of smaller programs) are uniquely well positioned to understand where their child or student stands mentally, physically, etc and can provide them with the just right amount of challenge to help them grow. Parents and coaches are also free to praise and reward their children or students for their progress in a way untethered to grades or deadlines, further promoting a growth (rather than exclusively accomplishment) oriented mindset.

Dan Gable and the Ten Commandments of Wrestling by Stephen Cerrone. Source: Vermont Wrestler