Do students who develop a growth mindset increase outcomes in math?

Seminar Title

Do students who develop a growth mindset increase outcomes in math?

Growth and Fixed Mindsets

3rd Grade

Elementary

Mathematics

All Disciplines

Do you ever hear students say, “I don’t get this, I’m dumb,” and then they decide to give up and not even try? Perhaps you hear families say, “My child just isn’t good at (insert subject or activity).” Developing a person’s growth mindset teaches students that they don’t know the answers YET. I focused my research on math, however, not only can these ideas be applied to any subject matter, they can also be applied to how we think in our daily life. Growth mindset teaches students that our brains are like a muscle that continues to grow and develop. When we make mistakes our brains make new connections! When we learn to embrace mistakes and seek help from others to solve problems we learn new ideas and form new connections in our brain. Come learn how to develop this growth mindset in others and yourself! Discuss ways to encourage students how to support the efforts of others and begin to hear the growth mindset language in your classroom!

The question guiding my research is: Will students’ development of growth mindset strategies lead to increased math outcomes? A review of literature showed that contrary to earlier beliefs, our brains are not wired at birth, rather they grow in a short amount of time. New information is taken into our brain, causing synapses to fire. When this happens a new connection is made. If we develop ideas deeply, these connections are made stronger and become permanent. If we do not develop these new ideas deeply the connections will fade away. However, in order to develop new ideas deeply, we must be willing to take risks and make mistakes. Students who are open to learning from their mistakes develop a growth mindset, while those who are unwilling to try new learning for fear of making mistakes have a fixed mindset. Research further shows that teacher language, that is praising the effort rather than the student, is an important part of developing a student’s growth mindset. As a result of my review of literature, I chose to teach my students lessons in growth mindset while creating a classroom atmosphere that encouraged mistakes and collaborative problem solving. In the first weeks of school, students were taught how the brain grows and forms new connections when mistakes are made. In addition, key phrases were taught and integrated into lessons. A visual of these was made for students and teachers to refer to during instruction time. After completing my research, I have learned to carefully choose the words I use when praising students and comments written on student work. Initially, taking extra time to teach students growth mindset language and lessons in an effort to encourage academic risk taking and collaborative problem solving was difficult. However, I found this time to be an important priority as we integrated these lessons into all subjects and character development of the students. After teaching students growth mindset lessons, I have seen an increase in math outcomes. Through my own student observations, I have observed student growth in other subjects and character development as well. I will continue to teach growth mindset lessons, integrating them into existing curriculum.