The Power of Growth Mindset Within The Significant Learning Environment
The power of the growth mindset is very important because it will empower us to truly build, measure and learn everything that we desire. However, we know that in the real world some challenges look impossible to reach or there are things that look hard or difficult. The word successful can be different for everyone, what is success for someone could not mean the same for others. That is why we need to understand the kind of mindset that we have. To create meaningful learning environments, students are encouraged to keep a positive attitude in the face of challenges and believe in themselves.
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​When learners implement a growth mindset, they are building strength in the learning process, in other words, students have the opportunity to learn everything that they want in real contexts. I would like to help and inspire other people in my school to believe that they have the power to take challenges and be open to say I can, I will do it, it is not going to be easy but I will try my best.
I strongly believe that we have in our hands the keys to help others to develop their abilities by keeping the experiences that we have in order to design plans or strategies that can contribute to the learner to reach their goals. I firmly believe that mistakes become learning opportunities, which makes us more willing to fail. It is interesting that having a growth mindset we can see the feedback as a part of an iterative process, and not as a criticism action.
Having a growth mindset lets us know that learning is the result of effort, it is not something that you are born with. This helps learners understand that there is no such thing as "can't" because dedication and hard work lead to success. People learn how to develop their skills through a process, time and strategies, we are in the 21th century where everything is possible in a learning process applying the right tools, in other words, one of the most important aspects when we are creating significant learning environments is let it be an authentic learning environments, failure is going to happen and should not be feared. When we fail it is a learning opportunity and should be embraced because challenges help students grow. Some things take students longer than others, and that is okay. That is why we need to challenge our students using the power of “yet”.
When I started out planning my growth mindset plan in a manner it looked easy to apply, but to be honest it has been requiring extra time to reinforce it to them everyday. Constantly I am motivating my students to change their mindsets. I perfectly understand that it is not easy by any means, but this is the perfect scenario to implement the growth mindset on them. Sometime we have the idea that we are implementing in a right way the growth mindset but we could be involved in a wrong application of this, in other words, give them a good grade or simply say “ you are doing a great job” it is not enough, teachers have to dig deep to evaluate every aspect when they are feeling frustrations because they can not reach the goal or a good grade, that is when teachers need to remind them that in the failures comes new opportunities.
Creating a significant learning environment can be the difference between failure and success.There are many components that go into making a positive learning environment for students. For starters, positive learning environments should offer a climate of safety, where risk-taking is encouraged, there is open authentic conversation, trust and respect are fostered, and positive interaction is the norm.
By having, a growth mindset also develops grit. However, the term "grit" sometimes is applied in the wrong way. The most important element to keep in mind about it is perseverance and passion for long-term goals. Grit involves working strenuously toward challenges, maintaining effort and interest over years despite failure, adversity, and plateaus in progress. When teachers are implementing grit in a significant learning environment, it makes students feel less likely to feel discouraged when they perform poorly on a test, or when faced with a difficult question. These students understand that challenges are part of the journey towards success.
References
Duckworth, A. L. [TED]. (2013, May 9). Grit: The power of passion and perseverance [Video file].
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H14bBuluwB8&t=5s
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Dweck, C. S. (2006). Mindset: The new psychology of success. New York: Random House.
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Gerstein, J. (2015, September 04). Is "have a growth mindset" the new "just say no." Retrieved from https://usergeneratededucation.wordpress.com/2015/09/04/is-have-a-growth-mindset-the-new-just-say-no/
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Kohn, A. (2017, July 31). The "mindset" mindset. Retrieved from https://www.alfiekohn.org/article/mindset/​
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Whitman, G. (2014, August 06). The power of yet. Retrieved from https://www.edutopia.org/discussion/power​76
Stanford Alumni. ( 2014, Oct 9). Developing a Growth Mindset with Carol Dweck. YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hiiEeMN7vbQ
TEDx Talks ( 2012, Nov 18). The Power of belief–mindset and success. YouTube.