If I am going to create a classroom culture where grit and growth mindsets are fostered, I will have to take into account the profound effect teachers have on developing these traits.
Harvard researchers, David Blazar and Matthew Kraft argue that teachers are in a unique position to help students develop non-cognitive traits. In fact, in an experiment done by Jennings and DiPrete, they found that 1st grade teachers actually have a bigger impact on student's social and behavioral outcomes than their academic ones. Other studies have actually found links between teacher and student behaviors such as absences, suspensions, and graduation.
Dr. Dweck even argues that teachers can make small changes to the way they teach which can lead to massive impacts later on. If there is a student struggling in a music class, instead of a teacher saying, "That's OK, maybe music just isn't your strong point," she encourages teachers to say, "If you find yourself saying 'I'm just not a music person' try adding the word yet to the end of that sentence."
This simple strategy is very effective because it changes the way students view themselves and their learning process. If faced with difficulty later on in life, the first student is more likely to give up and the second student is more likely to persevere in the face of failure.
But, if it is this simple, why are these strategies not widely implemented in public schools? It may stem from the fact that large education agencies hand out bonuses to teachers and schools for high test scores. These corporations are measuring teacher and school effectiveness based on test scores, which simply isn't a good evaluation method. In fact, a team of researchers found that teacher effectiveness (according to standardized test scores) were almost completely unrelated with other important factors such as grade progression, graduation, suspensions, and absences. This style of teaching leads many educators to "teach to the test" while failing to teach their students these non-cognitive aspects. Teacher effectiveness shouldn't be measured on a standardized test because it is unfair to both the students and educators. Instead we should base teacher effectiveness off of how students are developing in the classroom and their effectiveness in developing a mindset in students.
Hey Nic! In my opinion, teachers make all the difference when it comes to how kids perceive learning and pursue their dream careers. What do you think would be an appropriate way to test teacher effectiveness and how students are developing in school?
ReplyDeleteGood question, I think a better way to evaluate teacher effectiveness would be to monitor the student's growth. For example, if a student comes into a school with a fixed mindset and low grades the school should look at how that student changed over the course of the year. Did their grades improve, did that student become more motivated, did they develop a growth mindset, if they were missing a lot of school did they have less absences? Teachers have the ability to have a massive impact on these factors, it's all about how they engage, praise, and teach their students.
DeleteHi Nic, have you put thought into how we can widely try and go away from the "teach to the test" mentality across America? It seems like such a large population that would be hard to reach. Sorry if you don't know or if you've addressed this before.
ReplyDeleteTo really get away from this "teach to the test" mentality schools will have to change the way they reward teachers. You can look a plenty of schools and they all do it the same way, teachers get bonuses for high test scores. So instead of evaluating teacher effectiveness on their students ability to take tests, schools should hold teachers accountable for the students growth over the academic year (things such as grades, motivation, and improvement in specific areas for that student). The reason this system exists in the first place is because test scores are very easy to market to parents. BASIS does it too, on the schools website they advertise test scores and international rankings. While these numbers sound good on paper, if continue to focus solely on increasing test scores for more funding we are going to neglect a large part of our children's education.
DeleteHi Nic! Great post! I really agree that teachers have an amazing opportunity to influence children. Along side my internship I am also working as a kindergarten teacher for a few days a week. I have noticed that the kids seem to change their behavior based on which teacher they are with. I find this interesting because it's as if they act like a different people depending on what they can get away with lol. I'm wondering at what age do you think kids start to be influenced by teachers? Does it start when they begin preschool or does it really kick in latter in elementary or high school?
ReplyDeleteGood question! I actually read a study that this can happen as early as kindergarten. They found that these teachers actually have a bigger impact on the social behaviors and interactions than they do on actual academics in the early years of development.
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