Aboyne Lodge have embarked on an exciting journey to explore growth mindset and its impact on our learning and well-being. We would like to take this opportunity to explain this project.
Recent research suggests that it is our attitude towards learning that has the greatest effect on our ability to succeed.
With a positive and growth mindset, people are able to develop their abilities and accept challenges. Therefore at Aboyne Lodge one of our aims this year is to develop growth mindsets in children and staff.
Growth and fixed Mindsets
People with a fixed mindset believe that qualities are carved in stone whereas people with a growth mindset believe basic qualities are things you can cultivate through your efforts. Your mindset, therefore, can greatly affect the way you lead your life and for children it can significantly affect the way they learn.
Every class has been looking at and learning about the two types of mindsets. Below is an overview of the traits of each:
- I like my work to be easy
- I don’t like to try a challenge
- I want people to praise me for how clever I am
- I believe I cannot change how clever I am
- I don’t like to try new things because I won’t be very good at it
- I give up easily
- I never give up
- I like my work to be difficult – it means I am learning
- I love challenges
- I want people to praise me for the effort I put into my work
- I believe I can get more intelligent by working hard
- I feel clever when I’m learning something new
- I learn from my mistakes
It has been proven that having a Growth Mindset can improve children’s progress and attainment. As a result, we are teaching our children that by having a Growth Mindset they can grow their brains and intelligence and achieve anything they want! Click here for a Growth Mindset Glossary.
At Aboyne Lodge we are teaching the children about learning powers as part of our aim to develop independent learners with a growth mindset. Research suggests that there are four key learning dispositions that we need to develop in order to become successful lifelong learners. We are introducing the children to these learning powers through these characters.
|Tough Tortoise is resilient||Wise Owl is reflective||Super Squirrel is resourceful||
Buddy Bee works well in a team
These dispositions are inherent in us all. They are not fixed at birth, or when we leave school; they can be developed by everyone regardless of “ability”, social background or age. In fact, …there are NO limits to extending our learning power!
We can think of these dispositions as being like groups of “learning muscles”. Just as we can build our physical muscles with the right kinds of exercise, so we can exercise our learning muscles to develop their strength and stamina. Each of these dispositions is made up of a number of learning behaviours, which are called capacities. Because the learning capacities are quite specific in nature, they can be individually trained, nurtured and exercised.