Using Brain Facts and Growth Mindset as a Springboard for Teaching — Top Tips for Growth Mindset in Mathematics
In our last few blogs we’ve shared how Growth Mindset is the belief that with the right instruction, practice and effort, anyone can improve their ability. Research reveals that students with growth mindsets achieve higher than those with a fixed mindset. Therefore, when students change their mindset — their achievement changes.
One of the core aspects of growth mindset is brain plasticity (neuroplasticity).
Neuroplasticity means that the brain can grow and change. Recent neuroscientific studies reveal that the brain doesn’t stop growing at a certain age, and we can learn new things that we might find challenging.
When it comes to learning new things, teachers, parents and students perpetuate several different myths. For instance in math, a damaging myth is that either you have a ‘maths brain’ or you don’t.
Growth mindset research and neuroscience research (specifically about brain plasticity) challenge this myth.
The findings that come from this research are:
- When teachers believe that everybody’s ability can grow, and they give all students opportunities to achieve at high levels, students achieve at high levels. A teacher’s mindset is critical.
- When students believe that everybody’s ability can grow, their achievement improves significantly. Student mindset matters.
- Ability and intelligence grow with effort and practice. Brain plasticity is now proven.
Now that you’ve heard this brain-bending knowledge, some top tips for cultivating a growth mindset in math are:
- Examine your own mindset and beliefs about learning.
- Teach explicitly about growth mindset. Explain what that means in concrete terms (E.g. There is no such thing as fixed ability, we can look for different paths to a solution, finishing tasks quickly doesn’t make us seem smarter.)
- Teach explicitly about the brain and how we know it can ‘grow’. Gone are the days of believing you either have a talent for math or not. When you struggle with a concept, it’s just your brain growing!
- Don’t group abilities in math. Allow kids to work collaboratively.
- Praise the process, not the outcome. Praise the grit and determination of students who don’t give up.
- Normalise mistakes. Resist the urge to console students when they make mistakes. Mistakes are not ‘bad’. Promote mistakes as a natural and necessary part of learning.
- Offer a variety of instructional strategies and activities to maximise interaction with the subject.
Is any of this information new to you? Is there anything about growth mindset that you can reflect on in your own practice? Which small first step might you take to work towards becoming a growth mindset teacher or parent? In the next blog, we’ll share how to help your students become creative problem solvers.
Eduten is embedded with growth mindset methods. Introduce Finland’s number #1 digital learning platform into your classroom today. Sign up for a free four-week trial here.
Hey, did you know that we also have a podcast about Finnish Education Perspectives? All of our guests are the best experts in Finnish education, including Dr. Kirsi Tirri who speaks all about growth mindset pedagogy in Finnish education. Listen to it through your preferred podcast channel here.
