The Growth Mindset in Standardized Testing Preparation

Students and teachers alike get very agitated about these tests. It is rare that anyone looks forward to them serenely and says, "bring me the test please so I can show my learning!'

Can Mindset encourage us to bring calm and confidence to standardized testing?

Of course! A growth-minded educator knows there is nothing Mindset CAN'T do!
Instead of that traditional test prep talk that goes on all over the country in the spring before testing, we could talk with students about Mindset. If a person sees learning as a process of growing one's intelligence, then an achievement test would not feel like a judgment. If a person sees his or her brain as fixed in its intelligence, then the test feels like a measure of their brain power. Growth-minded people know that the test only measures the information that made it into their long-term memory based on their effort and nutrition and sleep. They would never think that a missed answer defined them. It would be feedback about what to learn better NOW.

If we can teach kids that assessments are feedback - not a label, we would all be better off. Then, as educators WE could treat tests as feedback - not a label. If we changed our thinking in this way, how could we continue to be so attached to hard-and-fast due dates and grade killer assignments "worth 20% of your grade" ? Performance in classes would go up because students would DO more work and make the kinds of changes to assignments that deepen learning. With that deeper learning, the state tests would also raise.

Brainology (by Mindset Works) teaches students about the nutrition and healthy habits that grow a strong brain. At the same time, it teaches about how the brain grows and how our neurons become strengthened. As "test prep" all students could get a lesson about how their daily nutrition and sleep habits contribute to 1. their learning, and 2. their specific performance on test day.

The other essential thing Brainology (for students) covers that Mindset (for adults) doesn't, is emotions and learning. Brainology teaches that one must stay calm in the face of stress. If one does not, then the adrenaline that produces anxiety is released into the blood stream and performance is seriously stifled. At that point, the individual must do something to de-stress. Brainology teaches those strategies: www.brainology.us

Then tying this knowledge about nutrition, sleep, stress, and the brain to ALL performances (band, football, speech and debate), we empower our students to excell in any endeavor they choose to take on. They grow a growth mindset!