Infographic: Beliefs of the Growth Mindset Facilitator

I found this great graphic in a blog post by Jackie Gerstein: Learning About Young Makers. Thanks, Jackie!

Beliefs of the Growth Mindset Facilitator

• You are capable of so much more than you can even imagine.
• I believe in you and your capabilities even if you don’t, but the ultimate goal is for you to internalize these beliefs.
• Failure is okay but you need to stand up after you fall/fail.
• Everyone’s unique self is valued and valuable.
• Your peers and I will support you as you take risks; attempt new ways of being. It is up to you to decide the type of support you need.
• Conditions will be set up for you to be challenged. It is up to you to take responsibility to embrace those challenges.
• You can go beyond your self-perceived limits. I might push you a bit to do so because I believe you can succeed.

Infographic: Create Orbits

There is a lot of overlap between Jackie Gerstein's acrostic poster Create Orbits (a.k.a. An Educator’s Soul Survivor Kit) and the growth mindset; visit the blog post to see the full version: Creativity and Orbiting the Giant Hairball of School.

C-R-E-A-T-E   O-R-B-I-T-S

Courage to teach and learn via the paths less traveled

Responsible risk-taking and responsible creativity

Enlist colleague, learner and parent support

Avoid complacency - getting too comfrotable

Transparency - widely share what you know and do

Escape from self-imposed limitations

Original thinking does matter

Reflect deeply on what's working, what is not

Bridge what is to what could be

Innovate within boundaries of acceptability

Trust process of creativity: time it takes for change

Stop trying to be normal; stop stifling your growth

Infographic: Questions to Help Guide Learning

Jackie Gerstein's Questions to Help Guide Learning are also a good way to promote the growth mindset (visit the blog post for full-sized view):

Questions to Help Guide Learning:

• Is failure viewed as normal and as a productive part of the learning process?
• Is learning spaced out over time rather than crammed into a short time period?
• Are distractions during learning normalized?
• Is the learning practiced often and in a variety of contexts?
• Is learning playful and fun? This is especially important when 0ne gets “stuck” at an impasse.

Infographic: Self-Regulation

A crucial dimension of the growth mindset is self-regulation so that you can be your own best helper as you grow. Here is Jackie Gerstein's illustration of the different elements of self-regulation:

Self-Regulation:

The Other 21st Century Skill

(visit the blog post for full-sized version)

self-motivating

metacognitive knowledge

cognitive regulation

emotional regulation

self-consequating

self-evaluating

self-directed time management

unique and situational problem-solving abilities

self-monitoring

self-regulation

Infographic: Educator as a Model Learner

You can see elements of the growth mindset here in Jackie Gerstein's illustration for Educators as Lead Learners.

Educator as a Model Learner

(visit the blog post for full-sized version)

think about your learning
note your steps to learning
build self-evaluative reflection into the learning process
make a record of your learning artifacts
acknowledge and respect that the learning process is iterative

Infographic: Skills and Attributes of Today's Learner

As you can see, there is a lot of overlap between Jackie Gerstein's illustration of the many skills of today's learners with the growth mindset, especially curiosity and imagination, hope and optimism, self-regulation, vision, agility and adaptability, and resilience:

Skills and Attributes of Today's Learner

(visit the blog post for the full-sized version)

effective oral and written communication

* do you provide learners with lots of opportunities to speak and write using their own unique and genuine voices?

* do you help learners create focus, energy, passion around the oral and written communications they want to make?

collaboration across networks

* do you facilitate global communication and collaboration with your learners?

* do you give learners opportunities to collaborate face-to-face and virtually?

* do you assist your learners in developing their own personal learning networks?

agility and adaptability

* do you accept change as normal and natural, and assist your learners in doing so too?

* are you and your learners flexible?

* do you and your learners use a variety of tools to solve new problems?

grit

* do you give learners opportunities to work on long-term, complex projects?

* do you assist learners in identifying and acknowledging the rewards of persevering through tough times?

resilience

* do you help learners see failures as opportunities for growth?

* do you encourage and reinforce learners' own innate resiliency?

* do you ensure that each and every learner knows "You Matter"?

empathy and global stewardship

* do you provide learners with opportunities for perspective-taking?

* do you assist learners in understanding the interdependence of all living systems?

* do you create opportunities for learners to put empathy into action, engage in pro-social behavior intended to benefit others?

vision for the future

* do you give learners the time, resources, and opportunity to identify and pursue their dreams?

* do you assist learners in developing the steps and strategies needed to achieve their dreams?

self-regulation

* do you model and assist learners in developing and understanding their own metacognitive processes?

* do you help learners develop their own ability to self-motivate?

* do you assist learners in reflecting on and evaluating their learning experiences?

hope and optimism

* do you model, teach, reinforce positive self-talk? a can-do attitude?

* do you assist learners in enhancing their personal agency thinking?

* do you expose learners to stories that portray how others have succeeded or overcome adversity?

curiosity and imagination

* do you promote, encourage, and reinforce inquisitiveness?

* do you encourage your learners to add their own "personal touches" to their learning experiences?

initiative and entrepreneurialism

* do you assist learners in becoming involved in meaningful work?

* do you provide opportunities for learners to take risks, take their own initiative to do things?

critical thinking and problem-solving

*do you promote and reinforce doing things that haven't been done before, where you and your learners have to rethink or think anew?

* do you ask learners to generate and ask their own unique essential questions?

Infographic: Educators Moving from a Fixed to a Growth Mindset

And here's another great graphic from Jackie Gerstein, this time about the intersection of growth mindset and your personal learning network, PLN:

Teacher Agency:

Educators Moving from a Fixed to a Growth Mindset

(visit the post for the full-sized version)

I can network and connect with others for resources, assistance, and support.

I can make a different in students' lives.

I value my relationships with students (even over content) I can make one small change at a time in my learning environment. 

I can let go of my need to control all variables.

I can find ways to change even under adversity.

I can bring my and my students' passions into learning activities.

I can risk trying new learning activities.

I can use technology to make both my own and my students' learning richer.

Infographic: The Educator and the Growth Mindset

Be sure to visit Jackie Gerstein's blog post to see the slide presentation that goes with this resource, along with the full-sized version of the graphic:

The Educator and the Growth Mindset

Fixed Mindset
feelings of powerlessness, learned helplessness

Growth Mindset
feelings of empowerment to positively influence students and learning community

Identify Own Self-Defeating, Fixed-Mindset Thinking
metacognitive awareness of negative and toxic self-statements (the students might not see me as an expert if I make a mistake; I have too much to do. I don't have time to plan and do new things in my classroom)

Acknowledging One's Own Choice
choice in perceptions and thoughts about the experience and choice in actions taken

Model and Directly Teach Growth Mindsets
in the context that ALL students are capable of growing through personal effort.

Give Learners Personal Agency
learners get opportunities to choose, set goals, struggle, fail

Use Performance-Based Feedback Systems
assessing effort and progress through the educator, peers, and self

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Video: Make Challenge the New Comfort Zone (2 min.)

I found this video clip of Carol Dweck in a blog post by Jackie Gerstein:
Learning About Young Makers. I've provided a transcript below the video; it's very short, but it gets at a key idea: what do we need to do differently so that students in school will seek out difficult challenges, rather than avoiding them? One part of the answer has to do with praising effort and not punishing mistakes; you can find out more in this video: Praise and Mindsets.

Make Challenge the New Comfort Zone 

by Carol Dweck 

I think we've made a huge mistake in our childrearing practices, in our educational system. We tell kids they should feel good when things were easy for them and they got everything right; that's a cause for celebration Not in my book. In my book it means you're not learning as much as you could. If it was easy, you probably already knew how to do it. We should make kids feel cheated if the work is too easy for them or if the teachers gloss over their errors and don't give them good feedback We should have kids asking for harder work, wanting the challenging problems.  I want "challenge" to become the new comfort zone, not "easy" being the comfort zone.

English: Power grows when you carry a load.

Made with cheezburger; animation created with GIMP (just click "open as layers," select both image files, then do safe-as-gif, with animation at 5000 milliseconds).

I started with the traditional Latin motto, and then I translated into English. The Latin word "virtus" is notoriously difficult to translate, but "power" seemed like the best option for this context. You can read more about the Latin word here: virtus.

Crescit sub pondere virtus.

Power grows when you carry a load.