If you're like me, then positive thinking isn't necessarily the easiest thing to practice. It's easy enough to say what's wrong or cast things with doubt, but the field of education calls for optimism not just for the success of our students, but for ourselves.
Enter the Growth Mindset Plan: a way to foster positive thinking based on the writings of Carol Dweck.
Simply put, Dweck outlines four steps to take to help change your mindset:
Learn to hear your "fixed" mindset voice.
Recognize that you havea choice.
Talk back to it with a growth mindset voice.
Take the growth mindset action.
I've already been able to apply these four steps with my reservations about learning the Swift coding language and fears that I may not be cut out for it. Rather than focus on the fact that I don't know how to code, I've learned to talk back to this fixed mindset-derived feeling with my own growth mindset voice, which says "I don't know how to code yet, but I'm on the road to find out."
Using the word 'yet' makes the biggest difference; rather than be trapped in a redundancy of negativity, it breaks the circle and instantly adds much-needed open-endedness to tasks, which makes them seem within reach.
Perhaps the biggest group that would benefit from learning a bit more about the growth mindset are my students. They often cast self-doubt on their own talent and ability to learn, but being able to see their own learning more open-ended will certainly benefit them and their future endeavors.
Though I'm still learning to adopt this mindset for myself and have to regularly remind myself to keep my mind open to growth (usually in the form of a good inspirational quote or story), I know how imperative it is to my future success. In fact, my success in this coding program likely won't be possible without retooling my brain to accept to words: I can.
I can learn to code using Swift.
I can make lessons meaningful and engaging.
I can bring coding to the classroom and empower a new generation of doers.
I can.
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