As an educator and a graduate student in an Applied Digital Learning (ADL) master’s degree program, I believe that a growth mindset is essential for success. A growth mindset is the belief that intelligence and abilities can be developed through hard work, effort, applying strategies, and receiving feedback from others when stuck. This contrasts with a fixed mindset, which is the belief that talent, intelligence, skills, or abilities are fixed, innate, and cannot be changed. People with a fixed mindset think that they don’t need to work towards developing new skills and gaining new knowledge, avoid challenges, give up easily, and are afraid of failure.
Applying Growth Mindset as a Teacher
There are many benefits to having a growth mindset. For educators, it can help us to be more effective in teaching our students. When we believe that our students can learn and grow, we are more likely to provide them with the support and challenges they need to succeed. We are also more likely to be patient and understanding when they make mistakes, knowing that they are still learning and making mistakes is a part of the learning process and is nothing to be ashamed about. Growth mindset can also be a powerful teaching tool used to motivate students.
In my third year in the classroom, I actually started to directly teach my students about growth mindset after having read some articles about the topic during my summer vacation. From that school year moving forward, during the first week of every school year, my students and I would engage in a short reading and presentation on growth mindset, watch short videos related to the topic, and engage in a whole class academic discussion and small group discourse on grit, perseverance/not giving up, and the power of “yet”. I would throw in a few stimulating activities to drive home the point of having a growth mindset, and students would conclude the class period by writing a motivational letter to themselves.
I truly believe doing this, among other actions like directly teaching and practicing systems and routines, continuously and positively reinforcing growth mindset and behavioral expectations, and applying a host of additional best practices helped me have year after year of nearly nonexistent behavioral issues with students who rose to the occasion when challenged! Now with over ten years in the profession and having served as a district-wide learning and development specialist, teaching growth mindset is a practice I still recommend without hesitation as a part of the social-emotional learning or procedural week(s) teachers typically have at the start of the school year.
The Tables Have Turned!
Moreover, I am now in a position to practice what I preached because as the saying goes, “the tables have turned”. Instead of being a teacher, I am now a graduate student, and I am relearning the concepts of growth mindset while also being challenged to embody having one as I learn, make meaningful connections, and develop my innovation plan throughout the ADL master’s degree program.
In both my career and in my studies, I have found that the power of “yet” is a helpful tool for maintaining a growth mindset. When I’m faced with a challenge, I remind myself that I don’t know everything yet, I am always learning and growing, and if I apply myself I will succeed. This helps me to stay positive and motivated, even when the going gets tough.
Applying Growth Mindset to My Studies
One example of how I applied growth mindset and the power of “yet” in the ADL program is in fact in creating my Schooled by a Teacher ePortfolio. While I had already created what I thought would function as an ePortfolio in Google Drive and later began the process of transitioning over to Google Sites, I saw an opportunity to make an even better ePortfolio with a different platform. Even though it was tempting to use website builders that are considered intuitive and easy to use, I opted for the challenge of building my website using WordPress.org.
From the start, it was a challenge and there were moments where things were slightly frustrating, but I stuck with it, learned from tutorials on YouTube and the WordPress for Beginners Blog, and was also able to give and receive feedback from one of my classmates, Laura Hopkins, who also used WordPress to build her ePortfolio. Now, I feel very confident in using WordPress to continue to build out my ePortfolio.
Since I am only in my second semester of courses and I am enrolled in the accelerated learning option, I am sure there will be a variety of challenges that continue to arise and opportunities to learn from them. I also know that throughout this program, I must seek and remain open to feedback and feedforward so that I can continue to flourish as an educator and a lifelong learner.
Overall, I believe that a growth mindset is essential for success as an educator and a graduate student in the ADL master’s degree program. A growth mindset has helped me persevere in the face of challenges, embrace learning, and seek feedback. It has also helped me teach and inspire my students to do the same. I am grateful for the opportunity to learn and grow in the ADL program, and I look forward to applying my new skills and knowledge to my innovation plan on Technology-Enhanced Project-Based Learning for Newcomer Emergent Bilingual Students. I hope that by sharing my experiences and reflections on growth mindset, I can encourage others to adopt a growth mindset for themselves and their learners.
Thanks for reading! If you’d like a little laugh, read this cheeky post on why having a fixed mindset is the best thing since sliced bread!
