Encouraging Students' Effort and Persistence

In 2010 Cognitive Psychologist Daniel Willingham authored a book that asked Why Don’t Students like school? His answer? Thinking is hard. It’s hard for everyone, but especially young learners who are still developing habits and strategies that will help them remain engaged. Willingham writes that the human brain naturally reduces engagement during routine activities, as though it's taking a vacation from the effort required to think deeply. Yes, thinking and learning is hard, but it’s also never been more important. The kindergarten students that learn in 2014 classrooms will retire around 2074. Is there any doubt our schools are preparing students for a future we can’t predict? As Dylan Wiliam says, today’s learners must be capable of success in situations for which they are not specifically prepared.

It is because our brains are not wired to think and learn that teachers need to act in ways that encourage their students to persist.  To be clear, I am not arguing that it is a teachers job to motivate students. Rather, I believe teachers are responsible for creating the conditions by which students motivate themselves. We can begin to create these conditions by first eliminating the unintentional things we’re doing that discourage students effort and persistence.

 1. Grading student performance inaccurately and inequitably
 Traditional grading methods rank among the greatest drains on students’ effort and persistence. Reeves (2010) argues that grades elicit an emotional response and wrongfully signal an end to learning. Worse, letter grades provide poor feedback on learning. If you disagree, ask an “A” student to list their academic strengths. Many will struggle to specifically articulate learning strengths, mostly because the primary feedback they receive is in the form of a single letter. Even when teachers litter student work with all kinds of feedback, most students won’t read much past the letter grade atop the page. When that letter grade is consistently average or below, students develop a mindset that they’re “just not that smart,” thus reducing effort and persistence.

 2.  Focus on weakness
Schools are conditioned to focus on students’ weaknesses rather than their strengths. Yvette Jackson (2010) writes of the Pedagogy of Confidence, and states that student motivation to learn is directly affected by teachers' confidence in their students' potential. We show confidence in students when we work to illuminate their strengths and help show them that learning is a talent developed over time, as opposed to some innate attribute that some are born with and some are not. If educators don’t act in ways that express belief in their students’ capacity to learn, their kids will likely opt-out right at the moment when sustained effort and targeted practice would stretch them most.

Mindset in the Classroom.

Today's submission comes via Dr. Mary Sande, Instructional Strategies Facilitator and College Chemistry teacher at Irondale High School. Dr. Sande is leading the Professional Learning of teachers at Irondale around Growth Mindset. Follow Dr. Sande on Twitter at @mesande9 

Mindset in the Classroom

“I’m a terrible artist.”

“I’m just not a science person.”

“Speak English.  I don’t understand Spanish.”

“This is too hard.”

Have you heard these comments from students in your school?  Chances are high you have heard these types of comments because they are not uncommon in classrooms.  Many students, as well as their parents and teachers, believe that intelligence is a fixed trait that does not change over time.  This is a misconception.  Dr. Carol Dweck exposed fixed and growth mindsets in her groundbreaking book, Mindset,The New Psychology of Success. 

Dr. Dweck states that a fixed mindset is characterized by a belief that each person has only a “certain amount of intelligence, a certain personality and a certain moral character“(p. 6).   A person with a fixed mindset wants to appear intelligent, in calm control of the situation (as, of course, do we all).  Working to solve a problem, on the contrary, might appear to be an admission of weakness or inadequacy; much better to quickly give up on a difficult task and move on to something easier.  People with a growth mindset believe that a “person’s basic qualities are things that can be cultivated through effort” (p.7).  A person with a growth mindset is driven to improve.  Thus, effort, seeking out challenges, and persisting in the face of difficulty are welcome activities.  I certainly do not want to hear “I’m just not a science person” in my classroom.  I want my students to expend effort, persist in the face of difficulty, seek out different strategies, work with their classmates, and love the act of learning.  Only students with a growth mindset have the qualities I long for in my classroom.

But, not all of my students come to my classroom with a growth mindset.  How can I help my students foster a growth mindset?