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Growth Mindset, Debbie Silver

By Anonymous

Debbie Silver's wit, sense of humor, and passion for education was evident in every facet of her presentation at the National AMLE Conference. She presented herself as human (and all of the faults that are associated with that) and wasn't afraid to identify singular mistakes that she made during her career; mainly buying into the idea early on that we should praise every child, often, and often times for things that they ultimately couldn't control (i.e. naturally smart). This was the prevailing educational thinking (even now in some circles) at the time (I still recall an undergraduate professor lecturing me on the evils of red pen on self-esteem). She went on to detail that she felt it her duty to insulate her students from failure or struggle. She summed all of these ideas up with one word, wrong.

That led us to the not so new, but seldom used pedagogy of growth mindset. Debbie identified a few people as being responsible for helping her to shift her thinking from everyone gets a trophy to let's celebrate the process rather than the result. If you're unfamiliar, growth mindset, in a nutshell, celebrates those who made a better score than last time, as opposed to those who didn't make any mistakes. That mindset is more reflective in many ways of what real life is actually like. As important as the end result is, what company wants employees that don't focus on improving themselves, or know how to deal with failure. Debbie included this graphic (see below) which received a chuckle from most, but in my estimation speaks a truism worth more than a thousand words. 

This session left me alone with a few thoughts that have been bubbling in the back of my mind but that I've ignored. Debbie helped these thoughts coalesce to the forefront for me. In my experience, most students tend to view school and their success as a very linear venture. The idea that they need to stop, change directions, reconsider their thinking, try again, or fail several times before getting to the end results causes many students to give up long before whatever educational goal or outcome we've set for them (and that failure is wrong). If we accept this to be a truth, in the current environment of standardized testing, how great of a job then are we doing educating students? 

The default method of grading in this country also doesn't encourage students to take risks. I could also argue that it doesn't leave us as educators with a very clear picture of what we've actually taught our students. If a student gets a 90% on a test, am I okay with them missing out on perhaps the 10% that was the most crucial information for them to learn? Our current "default" grading system indiscriminately provides me with information about what my students have actually learned. The best example I've heard someone give on this idea -  "Would you want a pilot who passed flight school with a "C" flying your plane?." I think the response that you'd want a pilot who got an "A" is also wrong. I'd want the pilot with the most practical experience, who has been assessed on their experience, rather than the one who looks great on paper and doesn't know what to do when things don't go according to how the textbook outlined them. 

Lastly, and most succinctly, if we've raised a generation of parents and consequently students who all believe that failure is not an option how do we societally or through education remove that barrier to actual success? 



N.a. "funny-success-representation-arrow.jpg (500×362)." Salescatcher.files.wordpress.com. 3 Dec. 2012. Web. 4 Dec. 2017. <https://salescatcher.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/funny-success-representation-arrow.jpg>

N.a. "participationtrophy.jpg (623×456)." Intellectualtakeout.org. 8 Nov. 2017. Web. 4 Dec. 2017. <http://www.intellectualtakeout.org/sites/ito/files/participationtrophy.jpg>

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