As a teacher I have been working with two groups of students teaching them chemistry in preparation for their GCSE exam which they completed in June 2016. After reading about growth mindset, talent and the importance of what motivates us I was very keen to implement some of these ideas in to my classroom practice. This required me to take some risks in my approach to the curriculum and lessons, and at times I had doubts about how the process was going, but by the end of the course the outcomes were totally unexpected. This is not a scientific process because I did not have a control group to compare these students against but I believe, and more importantly the students believe, that this growth mindset approach made a big difference to their approach to learning.
Using the ideas of Robert Bjork I decided to break the course up in to smaller blocks of learning and organise them so that we could revisit ideas on a regular basis. Interleaving the course in this way made the progress slow at times. There were occasions that it felt like we were wading through porridge. I felt the students losing interest as they were not making the gains as quickly as they were used to. I explained the process to the students and how interleaving is a learning journey with a slower but deeper gain. We stuck with it.
At the end of the first year we had a eureka moment. The interleaving suddenly fell into place. The students started to link ideas and they could see how their ideas were building on previous learning. The change was noticeable, the students grew in confidence, it was a big relief!
This experience reflects the research data. The interleaving, or mixed, learners having a lower performance in practice but performing better by the end of the course.
In terms of challenging the students approach, mindset and commitment to their learning I used growth mindset principles. McPherson showed that if students commit to their learning then the practice which they complete will have a greater impact.
I shared the John Wooden quote on success with the students,’Success is the peace of mind in knowing that you did you best to be the best you are capable of’. This seemed to reduce the pressure of achieving grades for the students. They were no longer chasing a grade A or A* but were trying to improve to be the best they could be. This created a path to mastery rather than a path to a target grade which reflects the principles of Dan Pink’s book ‘The surprising truth about what motivates us’. As part of the drive to improve and learn from mistakes we made part of each lesson on a Friday a review lesson. We would mark work, identifying the best mistakes and discuss them as a way to learn from them. One or two students were reluctant to share mistakes and I had to persist with this strategy with them. Their initial thinking was that if they made mistakes it meant that they had failed and were not good at that particular area. One student told me ‘If I have to try, it means I am no good at something’. It seemed that for some students they would rather fail by not trying than have tried and failed. I believe that this is a way of students saving face among their peers, ‘I did not do well today but it does not matter as I did not try’. It was important that this way of thinking should be removed as it was a barrier to progress. We kept coming back to the core growth mindset principles and, although it took a while, eventually everyone really started to adopt a growth mindset attitude, recognising hard work and effort as the key to success.
When talking to students I asked them what success would look like for them. We referred to the ‘Iceberg of success’, recognising practice, mistakes, repetition and hard work as key parts of learning.
Students began to recognise success in other members of the group. We got students to talk about what they were doing to be successful. This was very powerful. It dismissed the belief that some students are successful because they were ‘just smart’. Students talked about the hard work and practice they were doing at home, this was the work that the other students did not see. This was a pivotal moment as students realised that they too could be successful if they worked harder on certain areas. We also used other experiences to show that you can improve through hard work and practise. There were students in the group who were good horse riders, skiers and musicial performers. We talked about what they had done to be seen as successful. This led to the creation of #nooneisbornwithskiesontheirfeet and #nooneisbornonahorse which were used by the group.
The outcomes from this group were unexpected. Their confidence grew, as did their passion for learning and the subject. Many students within this group went on to study A level chemistry at college. The principles which they had learnt, had been applied to other subjects and aspects of their life. A number of parents came to ask about these ideas as they had been discussed at home and they were impressed with the changes they had seen in their children. In terms of exam results, over 75% of the group achieved a grade A* or A with students working on average a grade and a half above government expectation.
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