Growth Mindset Activities for Students

There has been a lot of talk about Growth Mindset around the education scene in New Zealand over the past few weeks. Stemmed by the visit of Carol Dweck for a series of conferences in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch. This can obviously apply to both staff and students in schools, and some people have been asking how to introduce Growth Mindset to their students.

An obvious place to start is the TEDx talk by Carol Dweck on the Power of Yet followed by a discussion with the class.:

Here are a couple of activities that I have done with my Learning Hub during Term 1 on Growth Mindset:

Hub Growth Mindset Introduction Session

1. Take the Quiz at this link: http://community.mindsetworks.com/my-mindset?quiz_id=8&force=1
2. Summarise in 4 bullet points what the results said about your mindset
3. Read “You can grow your intelligence” an article from the free Brainology Introductory Unit from Mindset Works. This article introduces some of the science of how a brain works.
4. Intro to the well known Fixed vs Growth Mindset Graphic
   

   Growth vs Fixed Mindset – Graphic by Nigel Holmes but accessed from Brainpickings

5. What Hobsonville Habits fit with a Growth Mindset?
   

   Hobsonville Habits courtesy of Sally Hart

6. Write down 2 ways you have shown a Growth Mindset in the past 2 weeks
7. Write down 1 way you have shown a Fixed Mindset in the past 2 weeks
8. Create an A3 poster informing other students how they can use a Growth Mindset in their learning (this can be handmade or digital). It must include at least 1 image, 1 example of how you have used a Growth Mindset and 1 example of how someone else has used a Growth Mindset

A week later we had a follow up session:

We started by sharing the posters created last time and discussing the similarities and differences in what people had written on them.

Each member of the Hub then shared a situation where we had used a growth mindset in the last week.

The main part of this session was then about thinking of a situation where we had operated with a Fixed Mindset. Each student then wrote about the situation, how they could have approached it with growth mindset and the impact this may have had on the situation.

These activities have been starting to make an impact:

Last week I spoke to one of my Hub as he finished a class with Danielle on some intense scientific theories. I jokingly asked if he had proved String Theory yet. His reply:

Not Yet