This week we said farewell to our Graduating class of 2016. Our VCE students are now busily preparing for their exams and I know particularly over the last few weeks we have been talking a lot about the importance of a growth mindset. So I would like to focus on growth mindset this week, which is not only relevant for our year 12’s but all of us, students, parents and staff.

A Growth Mindset (Carol Dweck)

If you have a growth mindset, you believe that with work, practice and perseverance, you can improve – whether it’s your academic performance, or social and emotional skills. Those with the opposite, a fixed mindset, believe that our intelligence, traits and talents are predisposed, and either you were born with it or not.

Thanks to the great work of Stanford’s Carol Dweck, we know that not only is the growth mindset accurate, but those who hold these beliefs actually improve more than those with a fixed mindset, which makes it so important for our students.

How you can help foster a growth mindset at home:

Pay attention and verbally praise children for skills that don’t sound predetermined; hard work, persistence, rising to a challenge, learning from a mistake, etc rather than being ‘smart’, ‘brilliant’ or ‘gifted’.

Be a growth mindset role model. Be honest: how often do you say ‘I can’t’ (cook/sing/balance my cheque book)’ or ‘I’m terrible at (sports/spelling/public speaking)’ as if there’s no hope for you? Make sure you are sending the right message.

Encourage your child not to always take the easy option (where little learning is done) and instead embrace challenges. A sheet full of questions they already know the answers to won’t ‘grow the brain’ like a deeper problem to solve or new challenge (even if they don’t get the correct answer.)

Remember growth mindset isn’t just academic; it applies to many areas of life (athletic, musical, social). Having trouble getting the basketball into the net? Keep making mistakes in a guitar chord? Don’t give up.

Talk about what you can learn from others. Whilst skills may appear to come more easily to some, most often there’s a (possibly unseen) element of practice, persistence and hard work which leads to achievement.

Embracing a growth mindset isn’t always easy, but can have a huge impact on your child and perhaps even you too!

Developing a Growth Mindset

Instead of	Try thinking
I’m not good at this	What am I missing?
I give up	I’ll use a different strategy
It’s good enough	Is this really my best work?
I can’t make this any better	I can always improve
This is too hard	This may take some time

Chrissy Collins

Principal

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