The expansion of growth mindset in schools in England in the past ten years has been exponential. Corridors, entrance areas, classrooms, sports halls and even dining rooms are adorned with motivational posters and photographs extolling the virtues of famous sportsmen and women who have overcome personal tragedy or setbacks and show resilience and resolve.
However, in my own experience as a teacher, headteacher and adviser, a good deal of CPD in schools on approaches like growth mindset, learning styles or cognitive load theory fail to have a long-lasting impact on teachers’ practice.
Teachers’ professional learning is often viewed through the lens of the immediate impact on students’ performance rather than on their own professional and or personal development. This is understandable but somewhat limiting. The impact we should be seeking first is in the teacher’s day to day practice, any impact on outcomes will come later. Here’s what I think needs to change to realise this.
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1. Challenge existing paradigms
When schools first launch a growth mindset programme they tend to make the assumption that all teachers sign up to the idea that the young people they teach have the capacity to substantially change their intelligence through greater effort and application. It is unclear what this assumption is based on and my own research indicates that a significant number of teachers do not appear to be wholeheartedly convinced that intelligence is a malleable entity. This needs to be challenged from the start.
2. Dedicate proper time and resource
CPD programmes like the growth mindset need to be three- to six-term programmes that are adequately resourced and prioritised and not single sessions timetabled into a busy Inset day. This is often why teachers become so disillusioned about CPD as it can sometimes feel as though it has come out of nowhere and rather rapidly goes nowhere.
3. Remember to encourage staff
As well as focusing on students we should seek to help instil, encourage and develop the growth mindset of teachers in relation to their own professional development. No teacher is the finished article, all can improve, especially when they believe that they can improve.
Improving schools is not easy and any school improvement strategy that does not focus on how to improve the quality of teaching and learning is unlikely to be effective. It was the social psychologist Jeff Howard who in 1985 stated that “smart is not something that you just are, smart is something that you can get”.
Mike Ion is the education director at Avanti Schools Trust, a former DfE education adviser and has recently completed a masters in learning and teaching at the University of Oxford
