How will incorporating growth mindset into my classroom help with student achievement in math?

Seminar Title

How will incorporating growth mindset into my classroom help with student achievement in math?

Growth Mindset and Productive Struggle

4th Grade

Elementary

Mathematics

All Disciplines

“This is SO stupid! I hate this. I’m NEVER going to be able to do this!” Does this sound familiar? Many students turn away from struggle and like to give up. This school year, I focused on growth mindset, specifically in math, in my fourth-grade classroom. If you would like to hear about the wonderful change I saw in my students after the first week of incorporating growth mindset into my classroom, I would love to share my ideas with you because, in the experience I had, I saw great growth and perseverance in my students and I continue to each and every day; especially when they encourage each other.

Educators have many important roles in students’ lives and one of these roles is pushing students to their full potential. Pushing students to their full potential can also push them outside of their comfort zone. Students may not like to struggle and may shut down, and often times, push back, causing behaviors. What can educators do to help students get pushed outside of their comfort zone, learn from their mistakes, but yet, keep them wanting to come to school every day and be excited to learn?What can educators do to help student mindsets? I introduced growth mindset at the beginning of the year. My students participated in a Marshmallow Challenge where they worked in their table groups and had to build the tallest structure out of raw spaghetti noodles, and string, then a marshmallow had to be on top to the structure. By doing this early in the year, I was able to see them do this task together before all of the drama the school year seems to bring. Before winter break, my whole class built gingerbread houses. This was a true test of perseverance and working through their mistakes and frustration. Twenty-one of my students were able to participate. They were all able to build a structure, but five of them got very frustrated along the way and wanted to give up and if it were not for their classmates, kind words of encouragement, they probably would have quit, but did not. Since I have incorporated growth mindset into my teaching I know it is essential that my students know that failure is not only allowed but actually something that is thought about in a positive way. I have noticed most of my students are not only improving their performance on math tests and challenging tasks but they are thriving with struggle and many of them enjoy the challenging tasks that I give them.