The idea of a growth mindset has been around for a while. Whether you’re familiar with it or not, I think it’s an important concept to revisit or learn as you look to start your school year. This entire concept can be summed up with the phrase ‘not yet’. When a student doesn’t achieve success, it’s not failure. They just haven’t gotten there YET.
Homeschool Mastery of Subjects
Many homeschoolers do a great job with this and you’ll often hear the phrase ‘mastery of a subject’ when it comes to homeschool grading. This refers to continuing to work at something until a student understands and fully masters it, rather than moving on with only partial competency at a pace dictated by age and grade level. It’s worth considering when you do your homeschool evaluations.
The Growth Mindset and Not Yet
The Growth Mindset, coined by psychologist Carol Dweck, is similar and encourages the use of the phrase ‘not yet’ when a student hasn’t performed optimally. This simple phrase leaves the door open for more learning and eventual mastery. It encourages the student to meet challenges with hard work.
Carol Dweck has spent over 30 years researching attitudes about failure, mindsets, and brain plasticity. She maintains that there are two mindsets – fixed and growth. Both are self-perceptions of your abilities. And, while none of us fall entirely into one or the other type of mindset, she maintains that we all have the potential to change our mindsets.
Students and Self-Perceived Intelligence
Students with a fixed mindset believe their intelligence or lack of intelligence is unchanging. If they think they’re highly intelligent, they simply seek experiences that confirm it (e.g. grades) instead of working to further themselves. If they feel they aren’t smart, they think there’s no way to change things.
On the other hand, those with a growth mindset are unafraid of challenges. They believe they can accomplish just about anything with dedication and hard work. In this TED talk, Dweck explains her research that led to the concept that students can increase their brains’ abilities to learn and solve problems.
As homeschoolers, this information is invaluable. We’re in an ideal setting to foster a growth mindset. We have the time to encourage mastery of subjects. We have the flexibility to say ‘not yet’ and add, “but with hard work, you can”. We can also help the student who easily achieves success to push themselves. We can help them go farther by rewarding hard work and not just success.
I absolutely have to finish this post by pointing out that we, as homeschool parents, can also work to have a growth mindset. Imagine how much more successful your homeschool efforts will be if you adopt the attitude that, with hard work, you can achieve just about anything.
