Getting Kids to Focus on Growth
- Use Gamification
- Encourage Goal-Based Journaling
- Do Not Praise Intelligence
- Allow Students to Expand Their Answers
- Diversify Your Teaching Strategies
Students who have a growth mindset know that they can develop their talents and skills through persistence and perseverance. They do not give up when they encounter challenging tasks and are always receptive to lessons and feedback. They generally believe they can make strides through learning new things and hard work. Here are five ways teachers can encourage their students to focus on growth.
1. Use Gamification Elements
Gamification is the practice of incorporating gaming elements such as competition, point scoring and rules of play in classroom activities. Teachers can use simple aspects of gamification like video games to highlight progress rather than emphasizing mistakes. They can come up with a gamification model that allows them to easily award marks in the form of experience points (XPs). For instance, if a student scores 75 percent on a test, the teacher can give him 7,500 XPs. The XPs can also be given for completing assignments and participating in any activity that signifies an effort to learn. This way, a student will have a clear reference point to see how much he has accomplished in class.
2. Encourage Goal-Based Journaling
Journals encourage students to focus on growth by allowing them to set and track their goals. For instance, a student may set a goal to score a particular grade in an upcoming test. In order to achieve this goal, he will keep a journal highlighting the steps he will be taking. These may include reading more, planning his time well or completing a certain number of questions every day. Teachers should encourage their students to apply the SMART method when developing their goal-based journals. The goals should be specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-based.
3. Do Not Praise Intelligence
When students excel in a test or assignment, teachers should not tell them how intelligent and brilliant they are. Doing so will make the students to think that their brilliance is a fixed trait and that they not need to try new approaches and improve. Instead, teachers should provide feedback that briefly highlight the student’s achievement and provide new suggestions for improvement. For example, if a student passes a quiz, do not say “Excellent! You are very smart.” Instead, say “Great attempt! The study plan you established was very effective. You should come up with another one for the next quiz.”
4. Ask Students to Expand Their Answers
Allowing students to expound more on their answers during discussions will help reveal what they don’t understand. This will, in turn, encourage them to analyze the topic of discussion at a deeper level while they reflect on what to say next. Teachers should provide problem-based learning activities and hold question and answer sessions after presentations for effective results.
Further reading: What is Child-Centered Schooling?
5. Diversify Teaching Strategies
A teacher who uses different instructional techniques impacts great leaning skills on students, allowing them to handle diverse challenges. Teachers can vary the content they present and influence how students internalize it. The content can be a variation of videos, audio clips, physical learning materials and presentations. Students can have chances to interact with such content individually or in groups. They should also be allowed to demonstrate an understanding of such content in different ways, such as tests, presentations, assignments and projects, according to the ACSD.
A mind that focuses on growth is an important factor that separates highly successful students from those who perform dismally in class. Follow the tips discussed above to help your students develop a growth mindset.
