The Growth Mindset Playbook Chapter 8 Reflection

    Chapter 8, Fostering a Happy, Collaborative Classroom, talks all about the overall environment one has in their classroom and how that can alter the success and attitudes of the students. This chapter starts off by referencing an experiment with chickens conducted by William Muir, a genetic professor and researcher at Purdue University, where the most productive chickens in the flock were picked out and placed in their own individual group while the rest of the chickens were in a separate group. The thought was that placing all the most productive chickens in one group will essentially create a "superchicken" group that would be more productive than the group of all the chickens. At the end of the experiment, however, the result was that the most productive chickens kept trying to out-produce the others, and even killed off each other, resulting in less production. Whereas the group of not-so-productive chickens did not feel pressured to be better than the rest, they were able to work in harmony and ended up being more successful than the "superchickens" (Pages 110-111). This experiment was used in this chapter to further explain how in a classroom, the students who outperform the rest should not be isolated from the rest and given special rewards. This essentially makes school more about "winning." Those who "lose" then feel worthless. In addition, those separated into a "superstudent" group will be pressured, just like the chickens, to continue to be the best of the best. This overall does not make for a productive environment for students, and it is best to avoid that kind of environment if you want your students to flourish. This chapter suggests that schools steer away from categorizing certain students as "superstars" based on their grades and intelligence, because "this model often breeds fixed mindsets" (Page 111). Fixed mindsets arise not only for the students who feel meaningless compared to their "superstar" peers, but also for the kids considered to be the "superstars" because they feel pressured to remain that way.

    This chapter also leads on to talk, which is in relation to previous chapters, about establishing strong relationships within the classroom. Strong and trustworthy relationships between teachers and students, and even amongst students, creates the most productive environments. Teachers also need to be reliable towards their students, and be mindful of their reliability towards students, as this could impact their attitudes towards them and the classroom. In addition, along with strong relationships in the classroom, all of those relationships should interconnect to form a classroom community. This chapter gives many useful tools to help establish a community in the classroom, such as to collectively create class rules and procedures, allowing students to connect with one another based on similarities and differences, and even start-of-the-year ice breaker games to help students get to know one another. Pages 114 and 115 provide a nice chart of classroom Get-To-Know-You Strategies that are very useful. Especially since students "come to us in every possible way and combination of ways" (Page 114), it is essential that a classroom community where everyone gets along with one another is established.

    This chapter, relating to the classroom community, also talks about effective goal setting. Setting realistic goals for the schoolyear is essential for every student (and even the teacher!) This chapter suggests the use of SMART Goals (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Timely) in order to effectively plan how one wants to take advantage of their school year. With the use of these goals, this chapter also suggests students connect with one another on their goals. They can discuss their goals with one another and hopefully spark inspiration in each other, they can chunk their goals into smaller portions and work their way up, and they should continuously keep track of and remember the goals that they have set (Page 116). Individual goal setting is a great way to create a classroom community.