Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Growth-Minded Feedback and Questioning

I have read a stack of articles that must weigh 3 lbs about Carole Dweck's research on mindsets. While I am boundlessly grateful for her work and that of her colleagues, I want more...


What I want more of is, what specifically must happen in a classroom setting that will contribute to growth minded, persistent students. How do we develop students' willingness to "try, try again"? IF students are used to immediate positive adult feedback in an attempt to build self-esteem, can I reverse the fixed mindset that results?

With this question in mind, I brainstormed some comments and pulled some out of Dweck's book (Mindset: the New Psychology of Success).

Please read and comment:

Growth Minded Feedback
We're growing dendrites here!
Of course it's hard - that's why they call it school!
I can tell that you are excited about this topic
Your hard work is clear
I can tell that you didn't give up
Mistakes are part of the process - it's called practice!
Mistakes are welcome here!
I think this is moving into your long term storage
Your persistence paid off!
Let's do one together
Listen to me solve it/answer one out loud
Let’s write a plan for practicing and/or learning.
If you make ______changes, we can re-asses your score. Let’s discuss a plan for you.
Describe your process for completing this task.
Here is what I was thinking when I solved it…”____Think aloud ____” (entire thought process – then give a new question, issue, problem).
Let’s practice (skill) so we can move it from Temporary storage to our long-term memory.
Let’s think about how to improve (the accuracy of) this section/paragraph/sentence/word choice/logic/description/problem.


Growth Minded Questioning
What were you thinking about when you did this part?
Do you think you can do this? because I know you can.
Did you get the 8 hours of sleep last night that your brain needs today for class?
What part of this task is making you anxious?
How can we break this problem/task down into smaller parts?
During my "think aloud" what mistakes did I make and what did I learn?
What can you do to move this to your long term storage?
What did we learn today that feels more permanent in your brain?
What made you come to this conclusion?
What evidence supports that?
When does it start to become confusing?
How does it feel to get that answer?
How can your partner/team help you solve this?/answer that?/reason it out?
What can be some strategies to figure this out?
What additional information would help?
What question(s) do you have?
Is my explanation helping, or should I try something new?

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