Greetings,

One characteristic that we have tried to build in the students at Donalda School is a "Growth Mindset." Carol Dweck coined the term as she studied how children responded to being given a challenge that was beyond their ability. She noticed that some gave up quickly and became frustrated, while others made comments like "I love a challenge" and thrived on solving difficult tasks.

This week, I was reminded at how important this mindset is. In the video below, Jo Boaler, a well known math education researcher, discussed how research has demonstrated that mindset is a critical component (maybe the most critical) in whether a student excels in mathematics or not. Students must be willing to push themselves to the edge of their understanding and be alright with making mistakes and trying to build on those mistakes.

I like to compare learning with sports, since physical activities are much more visible than cognitive processes. I love waterskiing and a few years ago I decided that I wanted to improve my skills. I realized that this involved pushing myself much harder to the edge of my skills. Over the past years as I have skied much more aggressively, I have fallen way more (and harder!) but I have made significantly improvements in my waterskiing technique. We want students to push themselves and fail, and then learn from their failures. I encourage you to reflect on your own child's mindset and consider how you can support them in developing a growth mindset.

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