Growth Mindset and Affective Assessment

When I first heard about Growth Mindset, I did not exactly know how deep of a concept it truly was. I thought that a growth mindset was simplistic, like having the want to learn. Through my MAT courses and other educational professional development course I have taken this year, I have come to realize it has a much larger meaning. A growth mindset means wanting to learn, never stop wanting to learn, facing each challenge head on. I feel that to teach with that mindset can be challenging, but as I develop innovative activities and give my students more opportunities to self-discover, I am helping them to develop that type of mindset.

To support my students in developing a Growth Mindset, I do a number of things in my lessons. If a student is feeling defeated or I can see that they are giving up, I help them to realize that they can figure it out and I push them to do so. I give them some guidance when needed and give them an opportunity to get there themselves. I allow my students ample opportunities to practice materials, giving immediate feedback along the way to ensure mastery of as many skills as possible. My students have developed, over the years, a more fixed mindset, meaning they do not want to push themselves and if they keep getting something wrong, they shut down. I try to promote students to instead of look at a critique as a negative, use that to fuel the fire and to try again to get it right by scaffolding things even a little more to break it down for them. Having more collaborative activities, also is a way I push students to perform at the level of the highest of students and the best way to push that mentality is to use positive reinforcement and a competitive reward system.

In supporting student growth, I use different types of affective assessment to improve my student’s learning. An affective assessment helps me to gauge the comfortability of level of my students with concepts and by having them also demonstrate their cognitive understanding, I can see where that comfortability may be developing in the process. I tend to give more reflective exit tickets at the end of a lesson and sometimes a reflective recall type of drill. This allows me to see what most students may be getting incorrect, so I can make sure I address it the following class or even later in the lesson. I can be sure to squash any misconceptions and help my students adjust instead of getting stuck in a habit.

Having a more positive mindset and allowing students to not only learn from me, but me learn from them has helped me to foster a more Growth Mindset oriented classroom. When I push my students, they see it more as a caring approach rather than a this is the work complete it. If I show that I am willing to help them get it, they are more willing to push themselves to learn. This mindset has helped me gain a lot od trust from my students and have more students come to me for advice and help with their other courses. They see me more as an equal than a superior and feel that we are all in this together.