Carol Dweck, Developing a Growth Mindset (9:37)
The message of “yet” is a powerful one. A fixed versus a growth mindset is something that I have heard about in the education world before but I was not sure what it truly meant. I would always hear “growth mindset” as a buzzword that others would sprinkle in when talking about learning new tools or strategies to use, but I never received an explanation. After watching the videos and reflecting on the reading, I now see how the power of “yet” and a growth mindset can set you and your students up for success.
As I read through Dr. Dweck's book, "Mindset: The New Psychology of Success" I could already feel myself falling into the pattern of the fixed mindset without even realizing it. I was already stressing out about what would happen if I don’t do everything perfectly, and if by some miracle I was able to stay close to perfect, how would my professional or personal life suffer because of it. I realize now, I was only setting myself up for failure.
As I reflect on these ideas and apply them, I feel like I will be better equipped to accept feedback and accept that it is okay to not be perfect the first time. Failure and feedback are the perfect environment for learning to grow. This is something that I will start to practice taking into my classroom for my students. I will try to praise them for effort instead of just the A’s they make on assignments. I will also use the power of “yet” to help build confidence in my students. I did put this into practice when I was coaching my hurdlers after school today. I had one athlete who was determined to successfully jump over the hurdles. She is a little on the short side and doesn’t have the long legs like some of the other athletes putting her at a disadvantage. She started out the practice with form that needed work. I would give her pointers and she tried again. She would continue to jump with the incorrect form. She then exclaimed that she just “isn’t good at running the hurdles.” I replied with, “yet!” She continued working and by the end of practice she had begun using the proper form and was gaining confidence. It was a good feeling to see it happening in front of me. Here was a girl who was struggling with something just 30 minutes before and was losing confidence as she saw others picking it up more quickly than she was. By the simple use of the word “yet” she was then ready to push herself even further and now she is excited to return to practice tomorrow. This then motivates me to continue learning more about the growth mindset and putting it into practice into more areas of my life.
Before watching the videos and reading Mindset, I would have said that I had a growth mindset, but now I realize that I don’t...yet. And that is the beautiful part about the work “yet.” It changes the narrative and gives hope. It is the beginning of a new chapter instead of the ending of a book.
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