Academics
Lower School | Primary–Gr. 4
Director's Blog
Mindset: Is Yours "Fixed" or "Growth"?
And perhaps more important, which do you want to develop in your children?
Carol Dweck of Stanford University has dedicated much of her life to researching how our beliefs about our ability to learn can impact our learning and achievement. It harkens back to the notion that if you just believe in yourself you can accomplish almost anything! But Dweck is very careful to explain that this alone will not suffice; in fact it takes hours upon hours (10,000 if you look at Malcolm Gladwell's work) to gain expertise in a skill. How then, does this notion of "mindset" play into this and why is it important? This is the topic that started off our recent Lower School faculty meeting.
Prior to our meeting, I shared an article along with this short video and asked the middle school team to read or watch one of these and come to our meeting having considered the following: What, if anything, surprises you? In what areas, ways, or moments do you think you have a fixed-mindset? Growth-mindset? What about our students? How and/when do we encourage a growth-mindset?
Even amid the busy days following conferences and report cards, our teachers brought energy and enthusiasm to our meeting. Nearly every person had something to share about small and big ways that mindset impacts our children every day in the classroom. We shared ideas for ways to encourage growth mindsets, and also discussed some of the struggles we see our fixed-mindset minds facing.
Ultimately, our faculty talked about the importance of a united message to our children from their teachers, families and the entire community. I promised that I would share the same articles with our families in the hope of initiating a discussion about this topic, a discussion with me, your spouse, your child, your child’s teacher... We know that believing in ourselves is not enough. Knowing, however, that "smart" is not something you have or don't have, but is something you can become, will have a powerful impact on learning and achievement.
Gill St. Bernard's School
Gill St. Bernard’s is a private, coeducational day school for students age three through grade 12, located in suburban New Jersey. Each of the three school divisions provides a vigorous, meaningful and age-appropriate curriculum, and all students benefit from the environmental learning opportunities that exist on our 208-acre campus.