(Jump, 2017)
I’ve always jumped first and asked questions later. I’ve never been afraid to fail – oh sure, I’ve thrown things in frustration and maybe screamed a few times – but I’m always willing to give something a try. I feel like this is how I’ve discovered so many of my great loves and interests. I didn’t have a name for this until I read Carol Dweck’s book Mindset: The New Psychology of Success and had an opportunity to reflect on my own growth mindset. The aspect of Dweck’s work that most fascinated me was the ability to easily implement her important message into my teaching. This past September I couldn’t wait to tell my students about the importance of the growth mindset and the power of a simple three letter word – yet. I put a plan in place to share this information with my students and model what a growth mindset looks like in the learning environment, and always remind them that if they couldn’t do or understand something, it was simply that they couldn’t do it yet. This was going to be wonderful, right? My students would finally want to read the classics, discuss the universal truths of humanity, and write beautiful essays! Alas, I may have missed an important piece.
This is a case where simply believing you can just isn’t enough. I am still a huge believer in the power of the growth mindset and the power of yet (Dweck, 2006). However, after taking this course and having a chance to revisit my growth mindset plan, I realize that my students can have the most amazing growth mindsets in the world, but until I’ve done my job in creating a significant learning environment, none of that matters. Alfie Kohn (2015) points out the glaring error in simply focusing on growth mindsets is that all of the books and whole-hearted believers “devoted to the wonders of adopting a growth mindset rarely bother to ask whether the curriculum is meaningful, whether the pedagogy is thoughtful, or whether the assessment of students’ learning is authentic” (para. 7). My modeling a growth mindset and encouraging their own will not simply get my students to love to learn. The fact that I design my classroom as a reflection of my own constructivist learning philosophy will also not get them to learn. I have to take into account a combination of course design and the actual human beings sitting in front me. Back to the drawing board.
Over the course of developing my innovation plan, I felt good about the fact that implementing ePortfolios would help to create a more authentic learning experience. ePortfolios will give students the much needed sense of ownership over their learning and a chance for them to reflect on their learning journey and growth. The issue still remained with making sure curriculum and pedagogy were meaningful and thoughtful. After experimenting with Fink’s 3 column table (2003) and McTighe and Wiggins’ (2005) UbD template, I’m happy to say that I have the tools to truly examine what I’m teaching, why, and how. Kohn (2015) warns us that “no mindset is a magic elixir that can dissolve the toxicity of structural arrangements” (para. 22). Everything is connected. I’ve been collecting all these dots and big ideas along the way, and now they’re all beginning to come together.
As I continue on my own learning journey, I look forward to the opportunity to truly flush out my innovation plan and continue to examine its potential. Creating a significant learning environment and working backwards in my course design will make my innovation plan much more enriching and purposeful.
References
Dweck, C. S. (2006). Mindset: The new psychology of success. New York: Random House.
Fink, L.D. (2003) A self-directed guide to designing courses for significant learning. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Jump. [Digital Image]. (2017). Retrieved from https://quotefancy.com/quote/897455/Ray-Bradbury-Jump-and-you-will-find-out-how-to-unfold-your-wings-as-you-fall
Kohn, A. (2015) The “mindset” mindset. Retrieved from http://www.alfiekohn.org/ article/mindset/
Wiggins, G. P., & McTighe, J. (2005). Understanding by design. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
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