Learning Without Limits Early Years Networks

Aims of the Session

• To gain an understanding of mindset and how it affects children’s learning.

• To consider how we might help adults and children to develop and maintain a growth mindset most of the time!

• Introduce yourself• Your name• Setting• Role• Your favourite teacher

The myth of fixed ability

A word about labels…

Alfred Binet1857 - 1911

The plasticity of the brain...

tells us that we can improve our learning capacity.

To Recap

When babies are born, is their future predetermined or are they all still a work in

progress?

Laura Trott• Born with collapsed

lung, developed Asthma as a child, was advised to take up cycling with her family to improve lung capacity.

• Of the top 120 performers in the world today (in sport, arts and media) only 10 % showed any aptitude at age 12.

Which for some children starts at a

very early age

10,000 hours of practice

What is a ‘Mindset’?

• A mindset is a set of beliefs about ability and potential.

• Everyone has a mindset – but some people have what Carol Dweck (2006) calls a ‘growth mindset’ and some people have a ‘fixed mindset’.

• We are all a mixture (Carol Dweck,2016)

Sort the statements into:

• ‘fixed mindset’ expressions’ and • ‘growth mindset’ expressions.

Activity

Fixed Mindset Triggers

• Facing a challenge or struggle: anxious self-doubting

• Having setbacks: discouraged, defensive• Being criticized: angry, defensive, ashamed• Seeing someone more skilled than you:

jealous, demotivated

Carol Dweck

Another study looked at praising toddlers for persistence, focus etcetera ie the process.

The positive effects of this were still visible 5 years later

(Carol Dweck, 2016)

‘One of the great tragedies of the last hundred years has been the failure as a nation to take on the essential concept of human educability and thereby challenge the idea that children are born with a quota of intelligence which remains constant both during childhood and in adult life’ (Chitty 2001)

Gap Tasks• Action Plan – How are you going to support the

learning of your colleagues? Bring next time.• Choose 2 children and 2 adults, 1 of each you

believe has a predominantly fixed mindset and one who has a predominantly growth mindset.

• Observe, collect evidence, bring next time.• Reading• Evaluation