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| "Auguste Reading to Her Daughter" (1910 ) by Mary Cassat |
But do these expectations match growth-mindedness? Even if the kids can master the mechanical skills—reading the words—does such mastery equal understanding? Is it possible that these teachers are fixed-minded in their outlooks and want to show the world how awesome their students are by training them to do big person tasks?
How can a "growth-minded" person resolve the inherent conflict between valuing growth while remaining leery of focusing on accomplishments that will impress others? Or is there no real conflict between these two goals?
While having young children read large books does expand their vocabularies, there are some concepts that they simply are not mature enough to understand yet. They might be able to read the big words, but that does not mean that they can fully comprehend the meaning of passages or books. Take The Great Gatsby for example. Although most of the vocabulary might be fairly easy to teach, I have a hard time believing that children in elementary school would truly understand the deep meaning behind the story.
ReplyDeleteI think that to resolve the conflict between being "growth minded and trying to impress, someone really has to determine for themselves if growing and doing better in a certain subject or task is something that brings them joy. If it does not, and they are just focused on impressing, then they need to find something else to have a growth mindset about that they actually enjoy.
-Kaylee George
Just as Kaylee George mentioned, these children may be able to read the text and pronounce the words coherently, but that being said if said kids were given books such as "Of Mice and Men", or the "Grapes of Wrath", much like "the Great Gatsby" I believe they would fail in truly understanding the pronoun meanings each of the books hold and stand for. While teaching younger children to master reading of such a dense book would certainly be impressive, they might need to expand their outlooks to reach a level where the kids can both read the book and comprehend its meaning, even if the book is now at a lower level. To truly differentiate a difference between being growth-minded and just trying to impress, I think taking a look at the persons morals, and there intentions and or goals will help create a better understanding of their motives. As long as the growth of the student is the front most pressing issues, I believe the children are in good hands.
ReplyDelete-Brooke hill
In this instance, the difference between a growth mindset and a fixed mindset is motivation. If the motivation behind a goal is praise and self-validation, then that would be a fixed mindset because it places so much emphasis on gaining approval from others. However, I do not see a problem with someone whose motivation is to learn more by challenging themselves with something that happens to have extraordinary results. Dweck directly addresses this misconception about praise and the growth mindset by stating “…we indeed praise the process, but we tie it to the outcome…” (216).This creates the understanding that an effort which merits praise ties to an outcome that does the same. As long as improvement is the motivation, a growth-minded person should be able to celebrate their achievements as the result of their continued development.
ReplyDeleteThis is represented in Collins’ mindset. Her motivation seems to be cultivating her students’ learning. They were ready for more advanced materials and had a hunger to learn, so it made sense to give them more challenging work. Staying on the same materials simply because higher level passages would attract too much attention sounds restraining and less like a growth mindset. The students could probably have an understanding of difficult material, but the meaning would mature as they do. Although her students did impressive things, Collins is still a growth-minded teacher.
-Tiffany West
The balance is found in setting goals in accordance to the level of success you are on, not the level others approve of. This strategy fuels the growth mindset.
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