How does teaching number talks and growth mindset foster mathematical mindsets in kindergarten students?

Seminar Title

How does teaching number talks and growth mindset foster mathematical mindsets in kindergarten students?

Growth Mindset; Number Talks; Mathematical Mindsets

Kindergarten

Kindergarten

Mathematics

All Disciplines

My mom told me...I just know...I know because I am smart! These words came from my five- and six-year old students each and everyday when asked to explain their reasoning in the area of mathematics. While kindergarten expectations for academics have continued to grow in rigor, Growth Mindset is the up and coming trend, booming in the education world. I was curious to learn about how growth mindset and number talks shape and develop mathematical mindsets. This fall, I research and implemented growth mindset and number talks in my classroom. This has been a strong influential change that has promoted success for my kindergarteners this school year. If you are curious about growth mindset, number talks, and/or mathematical mindsets, this session is for you - see you there!

The question that is guiding my research is: How does teaching number talks and growth mindset foster mathematical mindsets in kindergarten students? I have been curious to deepen my understanding of what increases growth mindset in the content area of math. How can mathematical skills benefit when growth mindset is being implemented? How can number talks implementation with growth mindset implementation increase student achievement in math and their feelings toward learning? To five into current research, I synthesized findings in a review of literature. Throw this synthesis, I (1) examined how teachers learn to facilitate number talks, (2) deciphered the purpose of gaining a strong understanding of how children learn number concepts, and (3) shared the importance for fostering a growth mindset in each and every learner. Following my review of literature, I began to brainstorm a plan for implementing number talks and growth mindset instruction in my kindergarten classroom. I worked to instruct three ten-to-fifteen minute number talks lessons with a strong focus on composing and decomposing numbers. While instructing number talks, I also worked to implement one ten-to-fifteen minute growth mindset lesson each week. Both implementation instructions took place for ten weeks. I collected a growth mindset surveys and scenario data three times throughout the implementation period, number talk video recording data three times a week, and compose and decompose data assessments twice as a pre implementation and post implementation data point. As a result of my implementation efforts, I found that my growth mindset data points on the surveys and scenarios increased for my students. Many of my students agree they feel smart, try their best, and always learn, even through mistakes. From September to November, 17/19 students made growth on the compose and decompose math task The mathematical language that was collected through video recordings illustrated how kindergarten mathematical oral language begins very basic with little to no reasoning. By the end of implementation, students extend their thinking into verbal reasoning within facilitated whole group number talks. Overall, after concluding my action research experience and finding success in mathematical mindsets, I will continue to instruct with number talks and growth mindset lessons in my classroom. I believe this has been a strong influential change that has promoted success for my kindergarteners this school year.