In two previous blog posts (here and here), I talked about Fixed Mindsets
versus Growth Mindsets as coined by Carol Dweck. For school
leaders, this is very important because a teacher’s mindset helps to guide their response to change and their expectations of students. And we’ve
all seen the research on how important expectations are. In this post, I’ll discuss how to begin to
change colleagues’ Fixed Mindsets to Growth Mindsets.
Carol Dweck doesn’t actually talk about how to change
someone else’s mindset so much, but she does talk about how to change your
own. That is step one, to develop and communicate your own Growth Mindset.
Step One: Communicate
your own Growth Mindset- You cannot
expect those around you to have a Growth Mindset if you don’t. And you have to make it known that you have a
Growth Mindset. You have to communicate
that you believe that with enough work, any teacher can be spectacular and any
student can be successful. Hold high
expectations for everyone around you and provide the support necessary to meet
those expectations. Reinforce that great
teachers aren’t born, they are planned.
Great teachers plan great lessons.
Step Two: Tell your story- When two people hear the same information (a
new idea, data, a new vision for a school) and come to two different
conclusions, it is because they told themselves different stories. They each have different experiences, have
read different books, and have different backgrounds. So, when you suspect that some of the people in
the room are going to reach a different conclusion than you are, tell your
story. When they understand why you
believe the things that you do, not only are they more likely to agree with
you, but they’re also more likely to start thinking the same way. And as long as you’ve followed Step One, then
that’s a good thing because you have a Growth Mindset.
Step Three: Ask for
their story- After you’ve told your story, ask them to explain theirs. This will help them identify their “Fixed
Mindset Voice” as Dr. Dweck calls it.
Until they can hear this voice, they cannot stop it. It’ll also let you both see why you might be
disagreeing and help you debate the actual issue (the story) and not the
surface issue (the change itself). This is what Kerry Patterson, in Crucial Conversations, calls "Master Your Story."
Step Four: Answer
these two questions before they even ask-
There are two questions that people ask themselves when facing a change
. . . “Can I do it?” and “Is it worth it?”
Make sure that when proposing a change that you answer those two
questions up front so that there is no doubt.
Providing Fixed Mindset people with changes that they are capable of
doing and reinforcing that they are capable of doing it will help them start to see that the number of things that they can do is
huge . . . and that’s a Growth Mindset!
Step Five: Don’t
criticize responsible risk-taking- The worst thing that you can do to a
Fixed Mindset teacher is to criticize them when they try something new. They finally decide to try something new,
they step out of the comfort zone, and they fail. If you criticize them for it, then one thing
is for sure, you’ll validate their Fixed Mindset and they’ll never try anything
new again. Encourage responsible risk-taking and support those who try it.
Step Six: Be careful
what you praise- If you praise “greatness,” you will inadvertently send a
Fixed Mindset message. If you praise
effort and preparation, you will send a Growth Mindset message. Compliment the effort and the courage that it
took to try something new and then discuss what went well and what didn’t. When rewarding “Teacher of the Month” or
other honors, focus on the work that these teachers put into their great lessons
or programs. Don’t send a message that
they were born that way and that nobody else can ever be like them.
What other methods have you found to inspire a Growth
Mindset in the teachers in your school?
Post them in the comments below.
Watch this TEDx video where Eduardo Briceno argues that hard
work and persistence are by-products of our mindset.
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