I am going to post my progress in separate posts each time I complete some.
Today I started lesson One and I have answered 10 reflection Questions. For someone reading this blog post, you won't see the videos or the research that I was basing my reflection on. You will only see my thinking. I spent a couple of hours on lesson one and I am not even finished yet so this course is going to take me a while but I am really really enjoying it and I am loving the learning and the messages in it!
Lesson
1:3
Well
firstly I have to say that I am not surprised that the children perceived to
have learning disabilities had more areas of their brain lighting up when they
worked on Maths. I have an opinion that these types of students usually are
quite extraordinary! I can also understand how that is not a positive thing and
could cause a problem when they are trying to learn something new. Learning how
to focus the brain functioning could be a great step in the right direction.
It’s
very exciting to me that the students ended up with the same achievement and
brain functioning at the end of the eight week period. It makes me wonder what
they did to accomplish that? How did they change the learning for the students
and teach them how to use their brain differently so that they could achieve?
It’s great because this achievement was accomplished in such a short time frame
of only 8 weeks. Imagine what the children could be capable of over longer
periods of time?
I
think this study really proves that you can grow your brain and now I’m curious
to know how we can achieve these results in schools.
Reflection
1:4
Imagine you do some work and a leader /
colleague / manager says to you, “Wow you are so smart”. How does that make you
feel?
It
implies that I am smarter than others which also implies that some people are
smarter than others. This is a limiting statement. Someone who says this most
likely has a fixed mindset even if only at a subconscious level.
Reflection
1:5
Why
did children told they are smart chose the easy problem next?
Because
they are afraid to lose their title. They are worried that if they make a
mistake or get something wrong, they will no longer be considered smart. They
want to continue to be considered smart so choosing the easy problem gives them
a greater chance of being correct and staying smart. They are afraid to fail.
Those people will never struggle and will give up. In reality struggling is
what grows our brains. We need to struggle and can’t keep choosing the easy
problem or we won’t grow. Therefore saying a student is smart is very harmful
in the long-run.
The
child who is not told they are smart is prepared to challenge themselves as
they are not worried about not being considered smart anymore.
Reflection
Question 1:6
What
does the gifted label do to young children and their teachers?
It’s
a very limiting concept. If someone is gifted at something, it implies they are
special and unique when compared with other children. That also implies that
other children cannot attain the same level of giftedness no matter how hard
they try because they don’t have ‘the gift’. I can see some issues with this.
The gifted child doesn’t challenge themselves because why? They are already
gifted. The child who is not perceived to be gifted in an area thinks why
bother trying? There is obviously a capped limit on how high they can achieve
in a subject if they aren’t gifted.
From
a teaching perspective it produces low expectations on students to achieve. It
limits their potential and how much they can achieve. This is very damaging!
It’s damaging for all students too though not just the one who is told they are
gifted.
It’s
particularly worrying that Women and African Americans were most impacted when
their professors believed a gift was necessary for success in their field. In
NZ there is no doubt that this would transfer to our Maori and Pacifica
students.
The
statistics outlined in the graph are quite scary. In Graph A the STEM subjects,
the more professors that believed in the strength of the gifted idea, the less
women there were in the field. That’s terribly concerning. Imagine what
messages it sends to our young girls. Another concern is that more math
professors believe in the gift than any other students. Therefore the message
is still clearly being portrayed that to be good at maths you need to blessed
with the gift when we know that this is simply not true.
Reflection
Question 1:7
Give
an example of when you or someone you know has used the ‘smart’ word. What did
they really mean and what could it have been replaced with?
“You’re
really smart with computer coding.”
It
was great when you were able to think about the coding instructions needed and
put them into a logical order.
Reflection
Question 1:8
Given the weakness of the impact of genes and
the incredible impact of the environment, messages, teaching, and other brain
growth opportunities, why are schools keen to label children as “smart” and
“gifted” or not?
I don’t know. Now it doesn’t make any sense to
use these words. Could it be linked to school performance? If you have a ton of
gifted and smart children at your school then it’s a good school? Most of us
don’t realise that it has such a detrimental effect. I didn’t until today.
Reflection
Question 1:9
What is a belief message you can give to
students when you are talking to them about their work?
I believe you can solve this problem. Keep
persisting. Don’t give up. Call me back when you’ve made a new discovery.
Reflection Question 1:10
The evidence that those with a “growth” mindset
have more brain activity than those with a fixed mindset is pretty amazing –
and important. What does it make you think about? Is there something you may do
or say differently because of this evidence?
I’ve known this already and read this research
and seen these pictures before. I guess it makes me think about how powerful my
words are and also my inner thoughts and beliefs. It makes me think of Henry
Ford’s Quote, ‘Whether you think you can or think you can’t, either way you are
right.’ This man knew this without a brain scan and I refer to this quote a lot
in my life and in my class.
I guess it means that I can focus my words on
helping my students to believe in themselves because I believe in them. If I
can convince them that they have the power to achieve anything if only they
believe they can, then they will go on to be very successful in their lives. If
I can prove that this is science and not fluffy teacher nonsense, then it might
resonate with more of them.
The growth mindset is a huge mission in my
class at the moment. I’ve shown the students these brain scans in a video from
the Inspirational Week of Math at Youcubed.com.
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