Walking Through Questions

Hi, everyone! This week I want to walk through questions I asked teachers, why I chose them, and what they revealed about different teaching styles.

The first question was a general open-ended one, it was, "What do you know about grit and growth mindset?"

Most of the teachers I have interviewed so far have not known what growth mindset is but have a general idea of grit. The most common response was something along the lines of perseverance and determination, which is fairly close to the actual definition.

The second question was, "What classroom strategies are you aware of the foster grit and growth mindset?"

This question was aimed at finding out what strategies teachers were conscious of in the classroom. I got a wide array of strategies, from making sure that students know that there are multiple ways to get the same answer to giving hints to students. Interestingly, teachers were not aware that how they praise students affect they way they learn.

The third question is, "Have you implemented some strategies like the one in the previous question or have you created your own. If you have can you please explain it in detail and have you seen a positive impact on students since you began using this strategy?"

This question's purpose was similar to the last, it was aimed at finding out how aware teachers were of strategies that foster grit. Unfortunately, since this concept was new to most teachers they weren't aware of many strategies. A solution to this would be to educate teachers on strategies to teach growth mindset and grit. Perhaps they will become aware of strategies they are already using.

The next question was "Do you think sitting down with your students at the beginning of the year and have them set long-term goals for that class and then meeting with them every so often throughout the year to keep track of their progress is possible in the classroom or devoting somedays to teaching grit? What about in an AP setting?"

This was aimed at determining if teachers felt that they would actually have time to address this in their classrooms. Based off of my research, it should be possible for teachers to teach this concept through their teaching style alone. However, teachers felt like they would not have the time to meet one on one with about 20 kids per class, especially in an AP class where time is crucial.

The final question was a demographics question, "Do you see that different types of students (girls, boys, white, black, Asian, Hispanic, etc.) learn about grit differently? Have to had to make any adjustments to your teaching style to accommodate for them?"

Most teachers see a difference between how boys and girls learn, not as much across cultures and ethnicities. The general consensus was that boys are more hands on, loud, and tend to answer questions more while girls tend to be quieter and focus on their individual work.

Second Draft of Research Paper Done

Hi everyone,

So far, I have completed the second draft of my research paper! The main focus of this draft was to cut things that were not central and focused on my project. As I move into the third draft, I am going to be focusing on all things relating to grammar and syntax. It's going to be a heavy English week!

Teacher Questions Completed and Emails Sent

Hi everyone,

As of this week, I have completed the questions I am going to be using to interview teachers. Although I would like to discuss the questions I chose and why I chose them, I can't just yet in case some of the teachers I've emailed are reading my blog.

The main focus of these questions is to find out what teachers already know and don't know about grit and growth mindset. This is what would be known as an exploratory study. The reason I am taking this approach instead of going into schools and working with students is because I would not be able to present accurate results because of time restrictions.

If you recall from a few blog posts ago, I talked about the profound effect teachers have on the non-cognitive aspects of learning. For example, if a teacher is absent often, students are more likely to be absent. This also applies to grit and growth mindset, by interviewing teachers I hope to educate them on this topic and hopefully, they will implement these strategies in their classrooms.

1st Draft of Research Paper Done!

This is a big point in my project, I am officially done with the first draft of my research paper, the next steps in my project would be developing questionnaires and surveys to ask teachers and students for data all the while revising my paper.

I never realized that writing a scientific research paper would be so demanding!

Sorry for the short blog post this week, not much to update on.

Minor Setbacks and Changes

Originally, for the actual research and data collection part of my project, I planned to use the Brainology program to teach growth mindsets and grit to students. However, when I went onto their website I found that to get the program it costs 20 dollars per student and $6,000 per school. Now, I don't expect ASU or any school to match these prices because they are simply too high.

I recently read a paper on the impact teachers have on factors such as grit and growth mindset, so my new plan is to interview teachers to find out what their mindset is and what they already know about this style of teaching. Then I will go into classrooms and find out what students know about this concept and see if their mindsets are similar to their teachers. I will also poll other factors such as classroom engagement and student enjoyment of the class. Then I will work on creating my own lesson plans and curriculum to teach this mindset.

This will allow me to see how much of an impact a teacher's mindset has on the students, and if my assumptions are correct, it will allow me to create a top-down approach that will be more streamlined and effective.

The Profound Effect Teachers have on Growth Mindsets

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.

The Relationship between a Fixed Mindset and Stereotyping

So far this week I've completed three areas of my literature review, as I write them I've started to notice what parts need to be bolstered with additional research. One of those is the section I have on how grit and growth mindsets can reduce the stereotyping threat. This is when a person from a specific group feels pressured consciously or subconsciously to conform to certain norms that may not be beneficial to them.

For example, there is a stereotype that women are worse at math than men. If a girl hears this and accepts this she may attribute her low math grade to something genetic, something that no matter how hard she tries she won't be able to change or improve it. If you remember from a couple blog posts ago, this is what is known as fixed mindset. However, with a growth mindset this effect can be mitigated.

Statistically, most minorities tend to under perform on standardized tests. Researchers suspect that one of the reasons is due to the stereotype threat. This study was done with black students, they found that by working with them they could reduce this effect and raise their test scores.

Now, you may be wondering where there needs to be additional research. This is simply because out of all the articles I have looked at, there has not been one that uses the words grit and growth or fixed mindset. This is important to note because it means that I will be looking for similarities in behavior and not definitions. I'm not entirely sure if this would be considered acceptable in the scientific realm unless I could back it up with my own research.