Educators understand and apply knowledge of student growth and development.
Educators are knowledgeable about how children develop as learners and as social beings, and demonstrate an understanding of individual learning differences and special needs. This knowledge is used to assist educators in making decisions about curriculum, instruction, assessment and classroom management.
Evidence: Growth Mindset webinar & Reflection
For this piece of evidence, I completed a webinar on “How Teaching Growth Mindset Leads to Student Success” put on by Create-abilities. This webinar focused on ways to teach growth mindset and incorporate it into the day to day of your classroom routines. I learned more about what having a growth mindset means versus having a fixed mindset and what the implications of each have on students’ growth and learning. I learned a variety of strategies to incorporate growth mindset into my classroom routines and tools to use growth mindset in my decision making surrounding curriculum, instruction, assessment and classroom management. In this webinar, topics covered included how to create the right environment for a growth mindset, the eight core areas of growth mindset that can be explicitly taught to students, ways to teach these areas of growth mindset, how to reinforce growth mindset, and how to avoid a false growth mindset.
The idea of Growth Mindset is both a learning theory and an approach to teaching and learning. The learning theory is the idea that the brain can get smarter, that knowledge and skill level are not fixed but acquired. Growth mindset also sees failure as a part of the learning process; students with a growth mindset have the desire to stretch and challenge themselves, to take risks in order to learn from mistakes. In a fixed mindset, students are often scared to go beyond where they are comfortable for fear of looking “dumb.” Students with fixed mindsets are comfortable with easy and tend not to stretch themselves because they do not believe they can get any better. The teaching approach of having growth mindset in your classroom both gives students an environment in which having a growth mindset is comfortable and gives them the tools to cultivate a growth mindset. On the website Mindset Works, by Carol Dweck, it is stated that “researchers started noticing that teacher practicehas a big impact on student mindset, and the feedback that teachers give their students can either encourage a child to choose a challenge and increase achievement or look for an easy way out.” With this in mind, I feel it is important that educators understand what a growth mindset is and how it can be modelled and promoted through effective instruction, assessment, and questioning. By creating a space promoting growth mindset, students can feel comfortable to be uncomfortable and take risks in their learning, focusing on improvement rather than looking “smart.” By actively teaching and modelling a growth mindset, students can learn how to adopt it themselves and become equipped with the tools and strategies to become effective learners.I believe that this piece of evidence benefits all learning styles because having a growth mindset and believing you can always improve in your learning benefits all learners.
The strength of this piece of evidence is that it addresses real ways to incorporate and teach growth mindset in the classroom. Rather than simply discussing the theory of growth mindset, it provided strategies and approaches to promoting it in the classroom that can be used and adapted for any grade. This workshop clearly defined growth mindset and how to incorporate it into your classroom. It also discussed how to avoid promoting a false growth mindset, outlining common misconceptions about what it is and how you can ensure you are fostering a true growth mindset environment in your class. Another strength I found in this evidence piece was that it did not focus solely on what growth mindset looks like in our students, but what it looks like as a teacher and how we can truly model and promote it through our actions and conversations. The webinar talked about shifting our mindset from “Can I teach them” to “How can I teach them” and from “Can they learn” to “How can they learn.” I appreciated the attention given to how the teacher contributes to and models the mindset they aim to achieve in their classroom community in addition to what the students are doing.
This standard is important to my practice because in order to facilitate student learning, an effective teacher needs to understand how students learn. As I grow as a teacher, I will hold this standard true by adapting a growth mindset myself when it comes to knowledge of student growth and development. I intend value this standard in my journey of lifelong learning, going along with TRB Standard 7, continuing to learn and grow in this essential area of teaching knowledge. Because of the ongoing learning and growth that accompanies this standard, it directly relates to improving knowledge and skill related to teaching and learning. Understanding knowledge of student growth and development and using that knowledge to assist you in making decisions about your teaching (curriculum, instruction, assessment, and classroom management) contributes to continuous improvement in skills and attitudes towards teaching and learning.
Works Cited: Create-abilities: https://www.create-abilities.com/ Dweck, C. (n.d.). Decades of Scientific Research that Started a Growth Mindset Revolution. Retrieved February 15, 2018, from https://www.mindsetworks.com/science/Default
For this evidence piece I have chosen a presentation I did for my inquiry project on Inclusive Education. The topic that I researched and presented was “How Poverty Affects Learning Needs and Behaviours in the Classroom.” This presentation was presented to my pod members and pod mentor during the PB6 program and helped me to learn more about and understand what learning differences and needs students coming from poverty are bringing into our classrooms. While researching this topic, I came across an article that discussed the impacts poverty has on engagement in the classroom. The article outlined seven different factors that are affected as a result of poverty that have impacts on learning and engagement in the classroom. These factors included health and nutrition, vocabulary, effort, hope and growth mindset, cognition, relationships, and distress. Through my research, I was able to learn about the different ways children coming from lower income families may be affected in terms of development and how we can better support those students by using this knowledge to assist decision making aboutcurriculum, instruction, assessment and classroom management. I learned a lot while doing the research for this presentation as well as the conversations and questions that were brought up with my pod during and afterwards. This evidence piece has impacted my knowledge about teaching and learning by allowing me to learn more about needs and learning differences about a specific population of students and giving me the space to explore strategies and approaches that will support their learning and well-being. With this knowledge, as well as the knowledge that Nanaimo has one of the highest child poverty rates in the province, I will be better able to make decisions regarding curriculum, instruction, assessment and classroom management with individual learning differences and special needs in mind.
This evidence addresses Shelley Moore’s bowling metaphor on inclusion. Her idea is that traditionally, teachers aim down the center of the aisle - “knocking down” most, but often missing the outside pins. Professional bowlers however, and effective teachers, will aim towards the outside pins, curving the ball so it knocks them all down. Thinking about inclusion in this way, aiming for the ones that are hard to get to from the beginning rather than trying afterwards to get the ones you missed, will make for a better learning environment overall. Shelley Moore says that teachers need to ask themselves when planning, “Who are my kids that are hardest to get? What do I need to do so THEY get it?” (Moore, 2013). By becoming more knowledgeable about the learning barriers and differences students coming from poverty face in our classrooms and using that knowledge to guide my practice, I am more likely to hit all of the pins rather than just some or most.
By planning for all students, this evidence addresses all learning styles because whether affected by any or all of these seven factors, the strategies and approaches outlined in the article and presentation are beneficial for all students. This is a strong piece of evidence because it is a presentation specifically about understanding and applying knowledge about student growth and development for students coming from low-income homes (which is a large portion of students in this school district). It discusses students development as learners (outlining specific learning needs) and social beings (outlining needs surrounding mental health and relationships). It is also a strong piece of evidence because it meets more than one standard. The evidence fulfills TRB 3 because the topic relates to student growth and development (as outlined above), but it also fulfills TRB 1 (valuing all students and acting in their best interests), TRB 5 (implementing effective teaching practices), TRB 7 (engaging in career-long learning, identifying professional needs and working to meet them individually and collaboratively), and TRB 8 (contributing to the profession, through presenting this information to my pod members and discussing with them).
This standard is important to my practice because in order to facilitate student learning, an effective teacher needs to understand how individual students learn and be able to apply that knowledge to their practice. As I grow as a teacher, I will hold this standard true by adapting a growth mindset myself when it comes to knowledge of student growth and development, always striving to improve my practice in the best interests of my students.
Works Cited Moore, S. (2013, November 05). Inclusion: It's Critical. Retrieved October 24, 2018, from https://blogsomemoore.com/2013/11/05/inclusion-its-critical/