These workshop slides offer SI-PASS/PAL Leaders a brief introduction to ‘Growth Mindset’ theory – and from slide 16 offer some practical strategies to develop growth mindsets in SI-PASS/PAL sessions.

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This is the K-W-L activity – what do you ‘know’, ‘what’ do you want to know, and later at the end, what have you ‘learned’?*This is a great growth mindset activity to highlight the process of learning in a session.

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Consider some of these statements.. Do any resonate with you?How can we understand where these actions and behaviors come from?Might the students at our SI-PASS/ PAL sessions also be thinking and feeling like this, and how can we help to remove some of these barriers to learning?

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Mindset theory is something that Carol Dweck of Stanford University in the US has spent her career working on. The basic premise is that there are two kinds of mindset – fixed, and growth. Fixed mindset people believe that intelligence (or ability, talent etc.) is innate, static, and cannot be changed. Those with a growth mindset accept that you can develop your intelligence through effort. (I’ll come back to the problems with that word, ‘effort’, in due course).

Now, one of the first things that I thought of when I learned about this was – well, I have a fixed mindset about X and a growth mindset about Y, and I’ve also been taught – and believe – that intelligence is a mix of nature / nurture. Well, thankfully, this is just the simplified, ‘ideal types’ explanation, and students that undertake the intervention with us will be encouraged to think critically about this kind of binary theory. In any case, Dweck herself has said that mindsets exist on a spectrum, and that we all have a bit of both.

Here’s Dweck introducing the theory in a 3 minute clip.. https://youtu.be/wh0OS4MrN3E

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Khan Academy Dweck interview video: https://youtu.be/wh0OS4MrN3E

Time 3:06 minutes.

Leaders could run a session by asking PASS students to watch this video – it is a concise but useful introduction to some of the key concepts that are within Mindsets theory.

This slide is to recap the key points about mindsets in the video.Growth mindset ‘traits’ and fixed mindset ‘traits’ – each lead to implications and consequences for belief in one’s own ability, and the learning process for individuals –as the next slide shows…

Dweck argues these ‘traits’ arise as a result, or are compounded by one’s own mindset, and indicates how mindsets can impact a person’s approach to learning.

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Leaders could run this Think – Pair – Share activity

ACTIVITY TIME: Total 5 mins.

Ask participants to think about their own fixed/ growth mindsets, then discuss in pairs before feeding back thoughts to the group:

- What do you have a fixed / growth mindset about? (can be past/present)- How has this affected your approach to learning? (turn back to previous slide if need prompting)

When feeding back to the group, encourage a critical discussion – specifically:- Can we have both fixed and growth mindsets?- About different things? About the same thing?

This leads into the next slide…

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The emphasis here is that fixed/growth mindsets exist on a continuum, and that we can have a bit of each about the same, or different things.

Give examples – draw on student responses in prior discussion / use personal example / make up an example, e.g. some people may have a fixed mindset about maths, and a growth mindset about football training... or, some people may believe that being a good musician is partly about innate talent, and partly about practice.Leads into discussion on neuroplasticity (how the brain grows in response to learning) – point here is that ability is much more malleable than many believe…

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Watch the 2 minute animation on neuroplasticity.. https://youtu.be/ELpfYCZa87g

The brain physiologically changes when we learn so therefore… it is possible to develop our abilities with training – just as those with a growth mindset believe / the scientific evidence therefore suggests that the idea that ability is innate, as thought by those with fixed mindsets, is inaccurate.

Continue (links to next slides): Experiencing failure / making mistakes is one of the most useful ways to learn. Our brains develop when we make a mistake and think about the mistake. This brain activity doesn’t happen when people get work correct.

**From my own experience, this process of working against the comfort and ease of the pathways and habits that are so ingrained is EFFORT!! What is particularly interesting is then what this leads to in terms of unconscious habits, biases, what subjects, interests, people we are drawn to (sub-consciously) and how that affects our judgements and behaviours without our awareness. *More on this topic of ‘stereotype threat’ a bit later.

Using the gym analogy is quite useful – a brain ‘workout’ involves challenge – but it’s not easy!Learning is not always plain sailing – it can actually be uncomfortable at times, but something we can learn to live with.

This video is about how neural pathways form habits of thinking, and automatic responses, that can progress or inhibit our goals. https://youtu.be/UYSKW3IvZlQ?list=PL53nCCeNj-RQDhbjE9LjvnFad-wdB5bw7

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Consider some of these comments; any you relate to, about yourself, or others? [ If time/ need: Discuss for a few minutes]

Stereotype threat – is being or feeling at risk of confirming, as self-characteristic, a

negative stereotype about one’s group.Stereotype Threat can therefore lead to…

– Poorer performance in assessment or other tasks- Acceptance of poor performance like “I predicted this would happen”

- Distancing oneself from a stereotyped group like “I don’t fit in” or “It’s not for me”- Redirection of choices, aspirations and career paths

It is interesting to consider the impact that stereotype threat has on all of us as individuals, as students, teachers, managers etc. But what is interesting in this project

is the combined effect of a students’ own stereotype threat, with that of their tutors, or parents, which is also projected onto the student. This is the reason why this intervention is not simply aimed at students – which would insinuate some kind of ‘deficit’ in the student.

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It’s important to recognize that stereotypes can form barriers to us, and send fixed mindset messages to us and others.Let’s be aware of what is happening and more conscious of whether stereotypes are causing us to perform less well.Send growth mindset messages to others to create a positive approach to learning and potential.

Now that we have introduced the theory and the connections between them, we can move on to some practical strategies for SI-PASS/ PAL sessions!

Here there are four considerations for SI-PASS/ PAL Leaders to use within their sessions.

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https://youtu.be/iC4WyIhZI40

Demystifying the processes by which inventions or discoveries have been made, can

help students to understand and feel more comfortable with the challenging process

of learning.

By making a mistake, we are led to the pivotal question: "Why was that wrong?” ~

leads to critical thinking, problem solving, curiosity, reasoning, resilience.

Open question – think about your disciplinary area – what breakthroughs have been

made, through adversity, failed attempts, challenge, trial and error?

Reflection reflection reflection

https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2012/08/21/essay-importance-teaching-

failure

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This is a short (3 minute) video highlighting some failures of high-profile, successful people.Video link: https://youtu.be/zLYECIjmnQs

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Possible SI-PASS/ PAL activity.Give students 3-4 minutes to write down two examples of when they’ve ‘failed’, or made a mistake – 1 that they dealt with with a growth mindset, and one with a fixed mindset.Students should essentially be thinking about a time when they persevered because they knew that they’d get it with practice, and one where they gave up because they didn’t think they’d get it or it was too hard for them.Spend 3-4 minutes discussing this as a group (check understanding). Prompt for understanding of the consequences (i.e., with practice I improved vs. missed opportunity to learn etc.)

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These types of statements offer fixed mindset feedback to others. The talk of ‘gifted and talented’ or ‘clever’ indicates that some people are clever or naturals, and others aren’t. This is not true. With a growth mindset it is best to feedback on the strategies and nuances of someone’s learning (process) rather than the outcome (product).

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Beware of using seemingly complementary statements to try and make people feel better, but that send a fixed mindset message… it’s better to recognise the strategies and effort – the learning process!

Formative feedback can help students adapt or shift their thinking or approach to learning; and can help teachers adapt and incorporate new strategies within their teaching.

Ensuring students know when they are receiving feedback is important – as informal conversations, chance meetings, tutorials, email conversations, interactions in class –all add up to formative feedback, but students don’t always recognise informal feedback. This is highlighted in the NSS, when students write about ‘not getting much feedback’.

By focusing on strategies, you can highlight processes that are looking promising or successful, and encourage new strategies that build on or replace ones that aren’t working. This also takes away from the focus on student as failure, but the strategy as not successful. We will be looking at specific strategies next.

Encouragement of mistakes and experimentation can help creativity, reasoning, inventiveness, originality. But can you create a ‘safe space’ for sharing, without fear of judgement for getting a ‘wrong answer’.

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The power of yet. (You could get your SI-PASS/ PAL group to write a post-it, completing the sentence ‘I can’t...do xyz’ and then putting ‘yet’ after, does this shift the imperative to then thinking ‘what do I need to do to be able to...’) this links with motivation, interest, belief in one’s own ability to overcome.

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THINK PAIR SHARE.

It’s useful to identify the people who have influenced our learning journey and our self-belief – what can we learn from their actions and mindsets?

And, how, as Leaders can we offer this gift of role modelling growth mindsets to other students – this can have a huge benefit to others.

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It isn’t necessarily productive to just ‘work harder’ or for longer, putting the same type of effort it.Instead, we need to build a ‘toolkit’ approach to learning – changing our strategies if some aren’t working!

In an SI-PASS/ PAL Leader session a simple conversation about what everyone does when they’re stuck might provide lots of new strategies that the students hadn’t thought of.

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Ensure that you are talking about forming positive study habits, and promoting resourcefulness and being proactive.Demystify the commonly held view that asking for help is a sign of weakness – it is the opposite!Get students to share strategies, try new things, experiment and make mistakes! Let the creativity flow.

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Use small activities in SI-PASS/ PAL sessions which allow students to see the process of learning – for example we used the ‘Know / What / Learned’ activity; build confidence through small tasks and breaking learning down into easier chunks.

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The final activity is to reflect on what you’ve learned. Now, could you pass this on to your fellow students – to spread the word about growth mindsets?!

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