Woodbury Elementary and IUSD is committed to teaching students to maintain a "growth mindset." What is a growth mindset? It means that someone believes they can learn or grow to be good at something or to get better at something through practice, repetition, and hard work. Someone who believes in having a fixed mindset believes that people are only born with as much ability or intelligence as they could possibly have, and that they cannot get better at something.
In the classroom, we want the children to fail occasionally. Making mistakes is a natural and NECESSARY part of learning. As their teacher, I want my students to know that I make plenty of mistakes all the time-- but that's because we're all human. And it's okay to make mistakes as long as we learn from them! I maintain a growth mindset because I know that with dedicated time and effort, I can learn many new things and grow in many different abilities. The children should be encouraged to feel and believe that they can learn and grow too. They need to believe in a growth mindset.
Tips for promoting a growth mindset in kids (adapted from Sarah McKay; yourbrainhealth.com):
Help children understand that the brain works like a muscle. It can only grow through hard work, determination, and lots and lots of practice.
Praise the process and not always the outcome. It's effort, hard work, and practice that allow children to achieve their true potential.
Don't always focus on the outcome or results, whether it is good or bad.
Embrace failures and mistakes. Children sometimes learn the most when they fail. Let them know that mistakes are a big part of the learning process. There is nothing like the feeling of struggling through a very difficult problem, only to finally break through and solve it! The harder the problem, the more satisfying it is to find the solution.
Encourage participation and collaborative group learning. Children learn best when they are immersed in a topic and are allowed to discuss and advance with their peers.
Encourage competency-based learning. Get kids excited about subject matter by explaining why it is important and how it will help them in the future. The goal should never be to get the "correct" answer, but to understand the topic at a fundamental, deep level, and to want to learn more.