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How praise effects an individuals mindset-Intro to Carrol Dweck's Research

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Carol Dweck - A Study on Praise and Mindsets

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Traditionally, educators and psychologists in the U.S. were not fans of allowing students to flounder. B.F. Skinner, the hugely influential 20 th century behavioral psychologist, didn't even like his lab rats and pigeons to err and constructed experiments to shape their behavior toward always getting the task right. "He thought if they made a mistake, the mistake would get entrenched, and you'd have to backtrack to erase it," explains Janet Metcalfe, a professor of psychology at Columbia University, and the author of an impressive scientific review titled "Learning from Errors," published earlier this year in Annual Review of Psychology.

American educators, perhaps influenced by Skinner, have tended to see things the same way. Classic studies by psychologists James Stigler of UCLA and the late Harold Stevenson, detailed in their 1994 book The Learning Gap, compared videotaped lessons in eighth-grade math in several countries. They found that American teachers emphasized specific procedures for solving problems, largely ignored errors and praised correct answers. Japanese teachers, by contrast, asked students to find their own way through problems and then led a discussion of common errors, why they might seem plausible and why they were wrong. Praise was rarely given and students were meant to see struggle and setbacks as part of learning. The difference, the authors believed, is one reason that Japanese students outperform Americans in math.

"Learning about what is wrong may hasten understanding of why the correct procedures are appropriate," they wrote, "but errors may also be interpreted as failure. And Americans ... strive to avoid situations where this might happen."

'Being in this environment where we are openly discussing mistakes, where mistakes are good, really opened the door for certain kids who had math phobias.' Kushal Patel, teacher, Columbia Secondary School for School for Math, Science and Engineering, New York City

The American allergy to errors began to ease with a burst of new studies by cognitive psychologists beginning this century. They showed clear benefits to engaging with mistakes-in both verbal and math tasks. For instance, Nate Kornell of Williams College conducted a word-pair experiment in which people were cued with a word (say, tree) and then asked to pair it a related "target" word (say, oak). He found that they remembered the target word significantly better if they had made a wrong guess (like maple or pine) and were corrected than if they were simply given the correct pairing and asked to memorize it.

Numerous other studies have confirmed and expanded upon this finding. Metcalfe and others have shown that on tests involving general knowledge (What's the capital of Australia?), a wild guess doesn't help with learning. "They have to be making a serious stab at the answer," she notes. And it was Metcalfe and colleagues who showed that the more certain you are of your wrong answer, the better you will learn the right one after being corrected.

Why is this? The answer isn't completely clear but it likely involves the fact that making an error rallies your attention - and even more so if you're surprised that you got it wrong. In addition, it is easier to learn something new after you've summoned up your prior knowledge - a process neuroscientists call memory reconsolidation.

There's hard, biological evidence for some of this. By placing electroencephalogram caps on subjects as they play video games or do other tasks, scientists have identified specific signals in the brain linked to making errors. The first one, known as Error-Related Negativity or ERN, occurs just 50 millionths of a second after the error. That's well before you are even conscious of the mistake! A second wave, called error positivity (Pe for short), comes 50 to 550 milliseconds later and is believed to reflect conscious attention to the error, usually followed by an effort to avoid repeating it.

As an undergrad at Michigan State, Hans Schroder became so obsessed with error-related brain signaling that, he recalls, "I actually 'married' it on Facebook." He also did serious work on the subject in psychologist Jason Moser's lab there. Past research had shown that these signals relate to academic performance.

"The ERN tends to correlate with grade-point average. It's linked with the ability to recognize when things don't go as expected and to better working memory," Schroder explains. "The Pe is more linked to effort, becoming aware of mistakes and rebounding." While both signals emanate from a brain region called the anterior cingulate, the Pe involves more widespread activity as you allocate mental resources to improve your performance.

'By taking the grade off their test I thought they might spend more time looking at what they got right and what they got wrong. I wanted to refocus them on actually learning the content.' Leah Alcala, math teacher in Berkeley, Calif.

Schroder was especially interested in this effort-related activity and wanted to know if it was linked to a person's attitude or mindset about his or her own ability. Stanford University psychologist Carol Dweck kicked off a wave of research in education and psychology with her work - and popular 2006 book, Mindset- defining two distinct "mindsets": the belief that one's intelligence is fixed or that it is fluid and can grow with effort. People with a fixed mindset (as measured on a standard questionnaire) tend to see errors as signs that they are not good at something. Those with a growth mindset see them as signs they need to work harder.

Schroder theorized that people with a growth mindset would have a stronger Pe signal following an error. This proved to be true in studies with both children and adults. Just as important, growth-minded people raised their game more in the wake of an error. For instance, he reports, growth-minded children playing a videogame in which they had to round up escaped zoo animals "were more accurate after making a mistake than kids who were fixed-minded."

How do these psych lab results translate to the messier world of the classroom? A number of researchers are attempting to answer that question with studies that more closely mimic educational situations or by conducting research within schools.

Carnegie Mellon psychologist Robert Siegler, an expert on how children learn math, has delved deeply into the best way to give feedback on student errors. He has shown, for instance, that asking third and fourth graders to explain how someone got the wrong answer and also how someone got the right answer is enormously effective - more so than just asking the child to explain the correct procedure, as teachers so often do. Dislodging wrong ideas is important, he notes: "These wrong approaches are like crab grass, they are hard to get rid of and often have deep roots. You really have to undermine the roots of the misconception as well as strengthen the correct conception."

Metcalfe is exploring that approach in an experiment with eighth-grade math teachers at the Columbia Secondary School for Math, Science and Engineering - a New York City public school affiliated with Columbia University. For the past two years, her team has been monitoring what happens to performance on the state's Common Core Regents algebra test when teachers give frequent practice quizzes followed each time by a review of the students' specific errors, in a continuous cycle four days a week for four weeks prior to the statewide exam.

The results, which have not yet been published, seem promising. "We had a 100% pass rate on the Algebra 1 Regents for eighth grade, which was pretty awesome," says Kushal Patel, a participating teacher. Patel notes that even though the passing grade for special education students is 55 rather than the typical 65, all of the special ed students passed with the higher grade. Performance across the class was even stronger the second year than the first. Metcalfe's team is now analyzing videos of class sessions second by second, looking at exactly what teachers did and how it relates to the errors individual children made. Preliminary results suggest that the improvement in performance was closely tied to the error-focused feedback.

"Being in this environment where we are openly discussing mistakes, where mistakes are good, really opened the door for certain kids who had math phobias," Patel observes.

And in keeping with a growth mindset, students began to see errors as a path to learning rather than humiliation. When he shared students' errors anonymously with the class, he says, "the kids got really good about saying 'Hey, that's my mistake! Let me talk about what I did wrong.' It was incredible. They got past the shy moment of, 'Oh, I screwed up.'"

Next year Metcalfe will be testing a new system for reviewing errors that combines computerized feedback with teacher-led instruction.

In Berkeley, Calif., math teacher Leah Alcala witnessed a similar change in middle school and high school students when she began spotlighting what she calls her "favorite errors." Alcala likes to hand out test results without grades but with highlights indicating the precise spots in a math problem where things took a wrong turn.

"By taking the grade off their test I thought they might spend more time looking at what they got right and what they got wrong," she explains. "I wanted to refocus them on actually learning the content." You can see her method in an online Teaching Channel video.

Like Patel, Alcala says she was influenced by Dweck's mindset framework. While not everyone in her economically and ethnically diverse classes masters all the math, "what I know for sure is that my kids never give up on my class."

Such robust examples of teaching kids how to learn from their errors remain the exception in U.S. classrooms. Probably the biggest reason, Siegler suggests, is that "the people who write the textbooks don't know about the research findings. There's a lot of knowledge in the psychology of learning that hasn't been incorporated into education." Also, he notes, there's a "common sense wisdom" to focusing almost exclusively on correct procedures. It's what American teachers have always done.

And it's what most of us believe in, the evidence be damned. Metcalfe has found that people are generally unaware of the benefits of bumping up against mistakes. This is true even after they participate in studies in which, again and again, they improve their performance after getting something wrong and being set straight. When asked if they did better in trials where they were given the answer or those in which they erred and were corrected, they chose the former.

"Isn't that amazing!" she says of this metacognitive blind spot. No wonder so many educators err when it comes to errors. "If teachers don't realize that making errors will help learning, they will be like Skinner and say 'I'll just teach them the right thing.' "

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Why Mistakes Matter in Creating A Path For Learning | KQED

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Traditionally, educators and psychologists in the U.S. were not fans of allowing students to flounder. B.F. Skinner, the hugely influential 20 th century behavioral psychologist, didn't even like his lab rats and pigeons to err and constructed experiments to shape their behavior toward always getting the task right.

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Although learning has always been a part of the human experience - often through necessity as much as desire or aspiration - some broad principles for guiding and facilitating adult learning in particular have emerged over the past 40 years. Drawn from the work of Malcolm Knowles, Stephen D. Brookfield, and others, these core principles, along with implications and suggestions for the learning and teaching environment, are outlined in table 4-1.

Table 4-1: Key Principles of Adult Learning and T

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The Fundamentals of Adult Learning | ATD

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Although learning has always been a part of the human experienceoften through necessity as much as desire or aspirationsome broad principles for guiding and facilitating adult learning in particular have emerged over the past 40 years. Drawn from the work of Malcolm Knowles, Stephen D. Brookfield, and others, these core principles, along with i...

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A in-depth look into Carol Dweck's Growth/Fixed Mindset.

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Downloadable pdf in English & Spanish

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Creating confident kids ready for an ever-changing future

Behind every invention, there are engineers, artists, thinkers and dreamers. Their passions are different, but they share an entrepreneurial spirit to change the world. VentureLab camps are unique and fun, entrepreneurial training camps designed to bring out your child's inner genius. It's the perfect vehicle to show kids a mindset and 'heartset' they already possess....visionary, creative, innovative, persistent and most importantly - unafraid to take risks to accomplish a goal or create their own future.

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Parents - Activities, Workbook, Free Entrepreneurship Curriculum

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Creating confident kids ready for an ever-changing future Behind every invention, there are engineers, artists, thinkers and dreamers. Their passions are different, but they share an entrepreneurial spirit to change the world. VentureLab camps are unique and fun, entrepreneurial training camps designed to bring out your child's inner genius.

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Basic Explanation of SEL and how it is implemented in schools.

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What is social-emotional learning? How can schools get teachers to understand the concepts and weave them into everyday classroom instruction? And can educators know whether the strategies are working? Reporter Evie Blad explains. (June 4, 2018)

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Teacher as Learner-The Guide on the Ride!

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Teaching is not always easy.

And learning can be a struggle for many of our students.

As educators, we are called to this back and forth process of teaching and learning. We push and challenge, and then support and guide. It's easy to get lost in the grind. It's why so many teachers get burnt out, and why so many students complain about school.

However, if we think about each school year as a journey - one that will not only come to an end, but also lead to new journeys - then our mindset changes from dealing with the grind to crafting the best story possible. When talking to students at the beginning of the year (or throughout the course) make sure they understand the journey you are about to take, because people understand complicated concepts when presented in story format:
If you want people to understand and identify with a complicated concept, tell a story about it. Telling a story often creates a "clicking experience" in a person's brain allowing them to suddenly understand what someone else is trying to say. As such, those who can tell good stories will create faster, stronger connections with others. - Donald Miller
The Guide In Our Students' Story

I recently read Donald Miller's eBook, "How to Tell a Story". It was a quick read, but one that caught me a bit off guard. Sometimes we take stories for granted or think that they are "just for kids"; but as adults, we shape our lives through stories. Each day has a beginning, middle, and end. Each life situation, each job, and each year is shaped in much the same way.

The same goes for your class and the school year. Miller gives a simple story structure that is used in thousands of books, movies, and in our own lives. Let's look at how this applies to your class:

The character in your class story could be an individual student or the entire class. Once you've defined the character, the next step is understanding what the problem is/was.

My Class Story

I've written a lot about the " 20% Project " in my class a few years ago. That class story would looks like this:

The character (my students) had a problem (they were solely focused on what grade they received and not the learning experience). They met a guide (me) who gave them a plan (the 20% Project) and called them to action (learn what you want and what you are passionate about...not because I'm giving you a grade). That ended in a success (happy ending when the presentations came through with amazing work that was not tied to grades).

Inside of this class story would be many individual stories. One such story could look like this:

The character (a girl in my class) had a problem (she was afraid to share her own music with the world). She met a guide (a mentor we found through the project) who gave her a plan (you don't need to perform in front of people at first) and called her to action (record yourself and put it up online anonymously at first...and write about it), that ended in a success(she received positive feedback online and eventually added her name and more songs).

As a teacher, we are often the guide who calls the character (class or student) to action. However, we can also sometimes point the character to a different guide (it doesn't always have to be us) who may be able to help better for various circumstances.
The point is to view your class and each individual student as a story waiting to happen...
Misconceptions About Being the Guide

In the seven years since diving head first into Project-Based Learning (PBL), I've connected with amazing educators doing the same type of project-based learning and/or inquiry-based learning (whether it be Genius Hour, 20% Time, or any other name).

It's one of the most empowering types of learning that can happen in (or out) of the classroom, and the real kicker is that we tend to follow this "inquiry-based" learning path in many other areas/aspects of our life.

Yet, when I started down this path of PBL and Genius Hour I had it all wrong. I believed that I would be "helping" students by guiding them and giving them some advice here or there. I saw it as more of a call and response type of guiding where I had all the answers (or at least most of them) and could help in times of need.

Boy, was I wrong.

Since going through those first few PBL experiences, I've had my perspective and bias towards teaching and learning changed many times. When I have conversations with other educators about moving towards PBL or Genius Hour, I hear many of the same questions I had when I started.

Here's my best effort at sharing what I learned along the way.

People often believe PBL and Genius Hour is a response to teacher-directed learning...

Some believe that PBL and Genius Hour is all about kicking back and letting the students do the driving...

But it's more like putting them in the driver's seat while you are still in the car...

Many focus on the all the possible issues that might arise from giving students choice...

Or worry about how much time they'll spend "policing" students who have time on their hands...

Or think it's time to "gamify" learning (it's not)...

PBL and Genius Hour is definitely student-driven learning, but we can't be backseat drivers during this experience...

And we can't spend our time in the classroom judging what students are learning and making...

Instead, we are on this journey together. The student is the hero, and the teacher is the guide ON THE RIDE...

Reflecting along the way on failures, successes, and lessons learned...

So that each student can navigate their own way, and create their own learning path, with us by their side (and along for the ride) on the journey...

And watch the entire class find their own path, own goals, and own failures and accomplishments along the way.

That is what PBL and Genius Hour are all about.
Here's the piece that many teachers (me included) often miss.
Sometimes the main character in the story isn't the students. Sometimes that main character is the teacher.

I can't tell you how many times I've gone through a school year and had my students guide me and call me to action. In fact, the best stories are when I'm joining them on the adventure. When we are embarking together and learning by each other's side. We may be learning different lessons along the way, but the journey is shared.

There is a popular phrase in education that teachers must be a "guide on the side" instead of the "sage on the stage". The thought is that we should be facilitating the learning from the side instead of preaching to students on what they should learn.

If we look at our students' learning stories as shared journeys that we take an active role in, then we are more than a guide on the side.

We are guides on the ride.

We are active participants in this adventure, and learn just as much as our students do throughout the process.
When students are empowered to craft their own learning stories and go on shared learning journeys, they'll often take the chance to dramatically impact their own life (and the lives of others) through what they make, create, design, and explore.

Call to Action

Interested in learning more about PBL and inquiry-based learning experiences like Genius Hour? Sign-up for the PBL Checklist below and get access to the Innovative Teaching Toolbox filled with step-by-step guides on bringing this type of learning experience to your classroom!

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What Should Be the Teacher's Role During Project-Based Learning?

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Teaching is not always easy. And learning can be a struggle for many of our students. As educators, we are called to this back and forth process of teaching and learning. We push and challenge, and then support and guide. It's easy to get lost in the grind.

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Rubric for softskills (mindsets)

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