MindsetsDr Sherria Hoskins, University of Portsmouth

• Evidence based educational consultancy based at the University of Portsmouth:

– Dr Sherria Hoskins

– Dr Victoria Devonshire

– Dr Emily Mason-Apps

– Dr Frances Warren

• What we have done so far...

What is Growing Learners

–Worked with PCC to explore why we have lower than average attainment in the city.

–Worked with over 150 schools• EEF – Randomised control trial.• Part of the ‘Closing the Gap’ scheme

(funded by National College for Teaching & Leadership)

• Direct work with schools that request our support.

“I don’t divide the world into the weak and the strong, or the successes and the

failures... (or the high and low ability) I divide the world into the learners and non

learners.” Benjamin Barber

•Theories of intelligence (Mindsets)

•Tips for everyday practice

•Exploring the evidence

Overview

Theories of Intelligence

Growth Mindset• Belief that intelligence is malleable and can

develop.• Success takes effort and persistence, learning

from mistakes and challenges.

Fixed Mindset• Belief that intelligence is something you are born

with.• Can’t change it much.

What are Mindsets?

1. You have a certain amount of intelligence, and you really can’t do much to change it.

2. Your intelligence is something about you that you can’t change very much.

3. You can learn new things, but you can’t really change your basic intelligence.

1 2 3 4 5 6

Strongly disagree

DisagreeSomewhat disagree

Somewhat agree

Agree Strongly agree

Fixed Mindset Growth Mindset

Intelligence is a fixed trait & can’t change much

Intelligence can be increased through practice

Focus on performance Focus on learning

Failure and/or effort perceived as being sign of low ability

Not threatened by hard work or failure

Choose activities to maximise performance (easy ones to feel clever)

Seek new challenges for a sense of achievement

Don’t recover well from setbacks Mistakes are perceived as a good thing as they help the learning processes

Decrease efforts, withdraw or consider cheating (self-protection)

View effort and persistence as a necessary part of success

Helplessness orientation Mastery orientation

Approaches to Learning:

High Ability

Low Ability

Growth Mindse

t

Fixed Mindse

t

Tips on Everyday practiceHigh expectations

Focus: resilience, self-sufficiency & good learningSpecific plans for growth and development

Celebrating mistakesUse of role modelsLanguage/praise

Modelling

How to promote a Growth Mindset

Research shows lowering expectations does not raise self-esteem.

• Important to have high expectations (Pygmalion study: Rosenthal &

Jacobson, 1968).• Expectations should focus on effort, habits, improvement

and resilience rather than on outcomes that solely reflect ability.

• All goals should emphasise growth; the development of skill or the expanding of knowledge.

e.g. Don’t always give easy spellings to ‘poor spellers’, include a challenging word too.

Set high expectations

• The fear of making mistakes and associated shame and embarrassment can stop pupils from trying.

• Don’t let pupils blame others for failure and mistakes.

• Make the most of their mistakes, celebrate mistakes!

• Promote challenge, effort and mistakes as part of everyone’s learning process.

• When examples of attainment explore the process, effort and mistakes.

• Give time each week to discuss learning via mistakes (Mistakes Board).

Celebrating mistakes

 …Temporary high self-esteem if performed well but longer term implications:

• When challenged or fail, pupils don’t know how to put it right, and instead re-evaluate ability

• Creates low self-esteem/feel bad about themselves• Avoidance of task in future• Drop in attainment over time

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGTk6yeh9qE

Person/ability focused feedback causes...

Give ‘process praise’• Effort• Strategy• Interpret setbacks as lack of effort, persistence

or result of inappropriate strategies

Use also ‘task praise’ • What is better/worse than the last attempt• What is/is not good, realistic, neat, correct etc.

about the product

Growth feedback

Exploring the Evidence

Plasticity

Neurones in the brain transmit information through connections (synapses). The more we keep our brains active through learning new information, the more connections the brain makes.

Evidence from Neuroscience

• UCL - London taxi drivers.

• Brain scans = larger hippocampus than others

• Grew as they spent more time in the job.

• Suggests brain adapts to help them learn ‘The Knowledge’ and store mental maps.

• Outstanding performance in violinists from the Music Academy of West Berlin in Germany.

• Students were divided into three groups:

1. The outstanding group (expected to become international solists). These were the children normally described as “super talented” and “naturally” gifted.

2. The extremely good group (expected to end up playing in the world’s top orchestras, but not as star soloists)

3. The least able group (studying to become music teachers- a course with far less stringent entry requirements)

Ericsson, Krampe, & Tesch-Romer (2007)

Ericsson, Krampe, & Tesch-Romer (2007)

All three groups were remarkably similar regarding a lot of factors, such as the age they started playing the violin, the age they decided to become musicians, the number of teachers who had taught them.

One dramatic difference between the groups:

The number of hours spent practising

By the age of 20, the outstanding group had spent and average of 10000 hours practising- 2000 more hours than the extremely good group, and 6000 more than the least able group.

There were no exceptions to this pattern.

Blackwell, Trzesniewski & Dweck (2007)

Study 1: Children’s theory of intelligence predicted maths grades when making transition to high school.

• Pupils with growth mindsets progressed faster and outperformed pupils with fixed mindsets.

Study 2: Intervention training (Brainology)• 8 week intervention with school children.• One group received study skills and mindset workshop, other

group received only study skills.• Over period of 2 months, mindset training promoted positive

change in motivation and grades, in comparison to study skills only group.

Good, Aronson & Inzlicht (2003)

• Pupils were randomly assigned student mentors who provided them growth mindset training.

• These pupils increased in maths and reading test scores compared to a control group (who received antidrug advice).

• Further, girls who received mindset training particularly benefitted in maths scores and narrowed the gender gap.• Performance suppressed by stereotype?

• Boys already positive and performing well in maths.

Mueller & Dweck (1998)

4.5

5

5.5

6

6.5

Trial 1 Trial 3

Effort PraiseControl PraiseIntelligence Praise

Num

ber

of P

robl

ems

solv

ed

Carol Dweck talking about praise http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTXrV0_3UjY

US ResearchMay not be relevant

Small numbersOne or two schools

No teacher interventionNo long term follow upSometimes no control

What about in the UK?

Westcott School, Wokingham, Berks• Have been using a growth mindset approach in their

classrooms

Examples:• Mindset display in each classroom• Discuss learning and mistakes each week• Use terms such as incremental learners, even in reception

Evidence from schools

Deputy Head – Celia Thatcher:

"The growth mindset culture truly encapsulates our "Anything's Possible" motto...The children understand that in order to learn they must be brave and make mistakes and this allows them to tackle challenges they wouldn't have attempted before... A mindset can be changed whatever the age of a person, but the younger the child is when a growth mindset is fostered the better the child's chance of success now and in later life.

The success of this culture is seen through the buzz in every classroom at our school, where both children and adults

challenge themselves daily to progress and learn.  Glass ceilings have been well and truly smashed...and anything really is

possible!"

Scottish study

The EEF Project...

Pupil Intervention

Teacher Intervention

Mindset Study Skills

INSET

What we have learned from our experiences:

Better to identify learning orientations than mindsets.

• 30 questions, designed to assess pupils’ learning orientation and represents four areas of behaviour:– Helplessness orientation

• E.g. “I feel stupid when I find something difficult at school.”

– Approach to mistakes• E.g. “I feel OK about making mistakes because I learn from them.”

– Approach to challenges• E.g., “I prefer easy tasks to challenging tasks.”

– Mastery orientation• E.g., “If get something wrong, I try again.”

Your Learning Questionnaire

What we have found . . .??

Any questions?Phone us on 023 9284 6315

growinglearners@port.ac.uk

Visit http://www.port.ac.uk/department-of-psychology/community-collaboration/

growing-learners/

Thank you!