Growth mindsets and school wide learning cultures – a perfect mix!

I’ve written before on growth mindsets and this year teachers were keen to include young people developing growth mindsets as a key principle in the new strategic plan. A few teachers are now mentioning this to some parents who have expressed some concerns about their children. Hence I thought it useful to include this new talk by Carol Dweck.

I’m currently reading Shirley Clarke’s new book on Outstanding Formative Assessment: Culture and Practice as I wanted some tips on how to suggest to staff they might go about working on more formative assessment.

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In Ch 2 “The spirit of formative assessment in the learning culture of the school and classroom” she talks about the ideal learning culture have 3 main aspects:

  • developing growth mindsets
  • integrating meta-cognition strategies
  • mixed ability learning

“It is important to know that with varying amounts of time, effort, practice and input we could all reach a given level of proficiency. The less genetically predisposed we are, the more practice and effort required. Even those for whom a subject or skill comes naturally have to practice for hours a day to reach expert status or very high levels of skill.”

I would add at least one more aspect that of relationships. Without trustworthy relationships between teacher, students and their peers then risk taking is problematic to say the least.

What would others add I wonder?

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