Assistant Principal - Pastoral Care

Having a growth mindset means believing that a person’s abilities aren’t innate but can be improved through effort, learning, and persistence. A growth mindset is all about the attitude with which a person faces challenges, how they process failures, and how they adapt and evolve as a result. 

With a growth mindset achievement is supported, students are more likely to rise to their full potential, people focus on the learning process and challenges and effort are embraced.

Mindsets can be changed.

If we want to improve our physical fitness we engage in regular exercise, eat healthier food and get plenty of rest. We work at it and it’s not always easy to start or to retain this regime. However we can do it by prioritising this in our lives. We change our habits. Growth mindset needs this same commitment. Commitment to improving our mind fitness. Changing our thinking to more positive thoughts.

The mindsets we’ve got right now were formed by years of personal experience, but that doesn’t mean they can’t change. Research tells us that our brains are always making new connections, even as we get older. With training and self-discipline, it’s possible to shift from a fixed mindset to a growth mindset.

Examples of growth-mindset thinking

• We take small steps each day toward our goals. Change doesn’t happen overnight, but we can build small, positive actions into our daily routine.
• We move out of our comfort zone. Take on a project doing something we have no experience with. 
• We roll with the punches. It takes time to develop a growth mindset, so we don’t get dismayed if we don’t see results. Instead, focus on consistency.
• We seek out new perspectives. Books are an invaluable source of new ideas and viewpoints, and can expose us to novel ways of seeing the world that we hadn’t considered before. 
• We use the word ‘yet’.

The “power of yet” is about having a growth mindset. It is rooted in how we approach failure to say that we can't do something “yet” instead. Carol Dweck is a Stanford University professor and the mind behind the “power of yet.” In her book “Mindset,” she discusses the effect of a positive growth mindset. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BxlPK1cKn0U

I strongly believe as teachers, parents and caregivers of the young people in our lives it is our responsibility to not only encourage a growth mindset but to also model it in our own lives.

Until next time: