Introduction
It is easy for us to enjoy the things in which we initially excel. But what happens when these things become more difficult? Do we immediately give up when faced with obstacles or do we figure out how to overcome hurdles and learn from the experience? Learning how to overcome challenges in pursuit of a long-term goal is a difficult skill to acquire. It demands that a person to have a lot of confidence in their own learning process. As beginners to the learning process, many young high school students are still developing self-confidence and often lack the necessary perspective to see the benefits of perseverance.
When I started teaching I thought that I would inevitably have students that would resist overcoming mathematical challenges. Because I was working at a performing arts school, I assumed that the majority of my students would not be interested in learning math because they would only be focused on developing their artistic abilities. Yet, on the first day of school I learned that my assumption was incorrect. Actually 58% of my students said that they “like” math and some individuals even said that math was their “favorite subject” (Artifact #1A). While I was happy that the majority of students were starting off the year feeling optimistic about their math skills, I quickly realized that their positive sentiments about math were about to change.
After handing back the results of their first assessment, many of my students who claimed to “love math” started to have second thoughts about how much they actually enjoyed the subject. One student in particular was extremely frustrated with her grade and had a negative outburst in class. She said that math class was “stupid” and instead of reviewing her mistakes and figuring out what she did wrong on her test, she simply crumpled up the test and threw it in the garbage. Because she had such a negative reaction to her assessment I assumed she was one of my students who started out the year detesting math. However, after viewing their math reflection from the beginning of the year, I learned that this student was actually one of the 58% who said that she loved math and even intended to get an A in the class (Artifact #1A). But if she was someone who loved math so much, why was she throwing away her test? Why was she shying away from the opportunity to better understand the subject she claimed to love? My encounter with this student made me realize that she, along with many of my other students, did not love math because they thought the subject was particularly interesting, but because they had success with math in the past.
Thankfully, my student described earlier, who became notorious for crumpling up her math tests, eventually was able to improve her attitude and as a result has really developed her mathematical understanding. Conversely, many of my other students who initially did poorly on their first assessment have struggled to adjust their mindsets and continue to perform poorly on quizzes and tests. I started to wonder why some students were able to recover from a bad grade, while others continued to lose faith in themselves and their abilities. Why was it easy for some students to overcome academic challenges even when faced with a setback? This is something that psychologist Carol Dweck wondered during her 20 years of research. She eventually discovered that a student’s success is not dependent on their basic skills and abilities, but is actually dependent on the type of mindset a student adopts in the face of a challenging. Dweck defines mindsets as “beliefs…beliefs about yourself and your most basic qualities” (Dweck, 2006). After various experience in the classroom and reading more about Dweck’s research I decided that it would be worthwhile to spend the year trying to figure out how to encourage students to overcome learning obstacles by maintaining a growth mindset.
When I started teaching I thought that I would inevitably have students that would resist overcoming mathematical challenges. Because I was working at a performing arts school, I assumed that the majority of my students would not be interested in learning math because they would only be focused on developing their artistic abilities. Yet, on the first day of school I learned that my assumption was incorrect. Actually 58% of my students said that they “like” math and some individuals even said that math was their “favorite subject” (Artifact #1A). While I was happy that the majority of students were starting off the year feeling optimistic about their math skills, I quickly realized that their positive sentiments about math were about to change.
After handing back the results of their first assessment, many of my students who claimed to “love math” started to have second thoughts about how much they actually enjoyed the subject. One student in particular was extremely frustrated with her grade and had a negative outburst in class. She said that math class was “stupid” and instead of reviewing her mistakes and figuring out what she did wrong on her test, she simply crumpled up the test and threw it in the garbage. Because she had such a negative reaction to her assessment I assumed she was one of my students who started out the year detesting math. However, after viewing their math reflection from the beginning of the year, I learned that this student was actually one of the 58% who said that she loved math and even intended to get an A in the class (Artifact #1A). But if she was someone who loved math so much, why was she throwing away her test? Why was she shying away from the opportunity to better understand the subject she claimed to love? My encounter with this student made me realize that she, along with many of my other students, did not love math because they thought the subject was particularly interesting, but because they had success with math in the past.
Thankfully, my student described earlier, who became notorious for crumpling up her math tests, eventually was able to improve her attitude and as a result has really developed her mathematical understanding. Conversely, many of my other students who initially did poorly on their first assessment have struggled to adjust their mindsets and continue to perform poorly on quizzes and tests. I started to wonder why some students were able to recover from a bad grade, while others continued to lose faith in themselves and their abilities. Why was it easy for some students to overcome academic challenges even when faced with a setback? This is something that psychologist Carol Dweck wondered during her 20 years of research. She eventually discovered that a student’s success is not dependent on their basic skills and abilities, but is actually dependent on the type of mindset a student adopts in the face of a challenging. Dweck defines mindsets as “beliefs…beliefs about yourself and your most basic qualities” (Dweck, 2006). After various experience in the classroom and reading more about Dweck’s research I decided that it would be worthwhile to spend the year trying to figure out how to encourage students to overcome learning obstacles by maintaining a growth mindset.