From the Deputy Principal

“I disagree with myself.” This is what a Year Three boy said in front of his maths class during a discussion about even and odd numbers. He believed six was both even and odd. When one classmate presented counterevidence, he considered her point. “I didn’t think of it that way,” he said. “Thank you for bringing that up.” (Really, there is video evidence!)

This student was exhibiting intellectual humility—recognising the limits of his knowledge and valuing the insight of someone else. In a culture in which confidence is admired and mistakes mocked, his admission is commendable. But does such intellectual humility have any real benefits for learning? 

This fabulous story, and question, comes from a Behavioural Science publication written by Tenelle Porter from the University of California.  Porter went on to do further investigation and asked students to rate themselves in terms of their intellectual humility; their capacity to recognise the limits of their knowledge and ask for help.  The researchers found that the more intellectually humble students were more motivated to learn and more likely to use effective metacognitive strategies, like quizzing themselves to check their own understanding. They also ended the year with higher grades in mathematics. The researchers also found that the teachers, who hadn’t seen students’ intellectual humility questionnaires, rated the more intellectually humble students as more engaged in learning.  

They then wondered about how to foster this humility and hypothesised that a growth mindset might support this. After teaching students about developing a growth mindset (which is the belief that intelligence is something that can change over time) the research suggested that teaching students a growth mindset may be one way to increase intellectual humility and therefore boost its related learning benefits.  When people adopt a growth mindset, they tend to believe that even if they don’t know something, they can learn it and improve their intelligence. They believe they can get smarter, and being humble is one strategy for doing that.

So, as Porter suggests, [all of us], not just school-age children, might be a bit better off by learning to say “I disagree with myself” every now and then.

Foundation Day, Monday 14 June

A reminder that we will be celebrating the school's birthday, Foundation Day, on Monday 14 June.  Students are to ensure they are in presentation uniform for the assembly.  Please feel free to join us for this special celebration of the school's history.

Mrs Emma Franklin | Deputy Principal