Growth Mindset: I Have A
Changing Brain…and So
Do YOU!!
Michelle Perry
Buncombe County
Governor’s Teacher Network
Action Research
Using Action Research
To Empower North Carolina Educators
A Race to the Top Initiative
NC Department of Public Instruction
Educator Effectiveness Division
What is Action Research?
A systematic research process to:
1.Identify an area of focus (critical, challenging issue)
2.Develop an action research plan
3.Implement action research plan in classroom/school
4.Collect, analyze, and interpret data
5.Share findings to inform practice
Mills, Geoffrey E, Action Research: A Guide for the Teacher Researcher,
2014
Problems of Practice
GoSoapBox
Action Research Plan
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Purpose - The purpose of my study is to examine the effect of implementing direct
instruction of perseverance, effort, brain malleability, and goal setting on student
achievement and discipline referrals.
Participants - The participants will be a class of demographically diverse first grade
students. These students range in academic and social skills. Several of the
participants demonstrate challenging behavior.
Study Variables – Direct Instruction, academic achievement, discipline referrals
Research Questions –
Can classroom teachers use strategies to change a student’s mindset?
Will infusing and explaining the words: grit, perseverance, and yet into daily
classroom language make a difference in a student’s mindset?
Will teaching perseverance, effort, brain malleability, and goal setting change a
student’s mindset?
Will teaching perseverance, effort, brain malleability, and goal setting improve
student achievement and student behavior?
Will setting goals and giving process feedback (praise on effort and strategy)
improve student achievement and behavior?
My Project: Growth Mindset
• Students with high level behaviors (verbal and physical
aggression towards peers and staff) are easily
discouraged, unmotivated, or unable to persevere with
academic and social tasks in the school setting.
• Some teachers are not sure how to help these students
and there are very few free resources available.
• Staff, students, and parents can all benefit from this
research.
• Students will develop a life long positive mindset.
Literature Review
• NCWiseOwl
• EBSCO Host
What Does Peer-Reviewed Research
Say About My Focus Area?
“Recent research has shown that students’ mind-sets have a
direct influence on their grades and that teaching students to
have a growth mind-set raises their grades and achievement
test scores significantly” Blackwell, Trzesniewski, & Dweck, 2007;
Good, Aronson, & Inzlicht, 2003. “In addition, studies demonstrate
that having a growth mind-set is especially important for
students who are laboring under a negative stereotype about
their abilities, such as Black or Latino students or girls in
mathematics or science classes” Blackwell et al., 2007; Good et al.,
2003; Aronson, Fried, & Good, 2002.
What Does Peer-Reviewed Research
Say About My Focus Area?
“Students may not realize the influence that effort can
have on achievement. One way to help them
understand this is to explicitly teach it and share
examples” Marzano, R. J., & Dean, C. B. 2012. Classroom
instruction that works : Research-based strategies for increasing
student achievement.
Survey
http://nigelholmes.com/graphic/two-mindsetsstanford-magazine/
Set a Goal!
Intervention/Implementation
- Direct Instruction
• Once a week – 30 minutes (Morning Meeting –
Responsive Classroom)
• Changing Brain
• Cool Strategies
• Ask for Help
• Never Give Up
ICCAN - Gestures
• I’m learning
• I have a Changing
brain
• Cool strategies
• Ask for help
• Never give up!
Direct Instruction- Changing
Brain
• Brain Models- Scholastic’s MindUp
Curriculum & Dr. Dan Siegel hand model
of the brain
• Brain Language
• Neurons & Dendrites
• Good Choices
Resources
Direct Instruction – Cool
Strategies
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Soup breathing
Hook ups (Brain Gym)
Square breathing
Visualization
Superman/woman
Academic strategies
Routine strategies
Direct Instruction – Ask For
Help
• Who, what, when, where, how do
we ask for help
• Sign language
• Raising hands, visuals
• It’s okay to ask for help!
Direct Instruction-Never
Give Up
• It’s important to never give up, but we
must have a strategy if things are not
working!
• Who uses strategies?
• It’s okay to make mistakes
• Mistakes are how we learn
Intervention/Implementation Goal Setting
• Every student set academic and/or behavior
goals
• Daily check in on goals with all students.
• Staff used the language of the goals.
Goal Setting
• Some students checked their goals throughout
the day.
• Students and staff monitored progress of their
goals
Classroom Implementation
Classroom Video Clip
Lessons
• Videos- Michael Jordan Failure, He Touched the Butt!, Meet the Robinsons.
• Team building activities- Pass the pulse, pass the ball
• Hands on activities- Drop the rock, sponge activity
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Writing- Journal prompts
Drawing- Brains & diagraming, vocabulary
Reading- Salt in His Shoes, The Little Engine That Could
Math- Graphing goals and progress
• Vocabulary-
Pre-frontal Cortex, Amygdala, Hippocampus, Persevere,
Neurons, etc.
• Visuals – Posters, sticky notes, checksheets, etc.
Strategies – For the Whole Class
• Believe it and practice it in your everyday life!
• Use the language all day, everyday! Model it!
(effort, grit, yet, strategy, ask for help, goal, etc.)
• Google it! ASCD, Edutopia, Pinterest, MindUp
Curriculum, Mindsets in the Classroom, Mindset
Strategies – For the Whole Class
• Set Goals and give process feedback
(Help students set goals related to classroom rules and
growth mindset language, write these down, refer to
them often)
• Use formative assessment to help promote the
Growth Mindset
(Learning is about growth, mistakes are how we learn)
Other Strategies – Tier 2 & Tier 3
• Sticky notes with goals/tallies – self-monitoring
(timer)
• Schedule/Checksheet – self-monitoring
• Take 5 space
• Small group reinforcement
• Visuals
Data Collected
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Pre and Post Likert Scales for Students
Interviews with Students and Staff
Observations
M Class Data
Powerschool attendance and discipline data
Goal sheets
Findings
• Based on interviews and observations the classroom teacher
started with and embraced the Growth Mindset. She continued
to use the strategies throughout the Action Research. We
reflected and assessed together regularly.
• Based on interviews and observations, the majority of students
made connections and embraced the Growth Mindset.
• Interviews revealed that students could verbally give examples
of both academic and behavior strategies.
• Observations and interviews revealed a small group of students
with whom the whole class instruction was not effective in
reducing extreme challenging behaviors.
Findings
• Those students continued to receive a separate weekly direct
instruction intervention.
• Observation and interviews also revealed that the students in
the ESL program took longer to grasp the concept but by
January they were able to make connections and verbally
explain a the Growth Mindset.
• Post implementation surveys show an increase in Growth
Mindset in all but 3 of the 18 students.
• T- Scores indicate that 4 of the 8 survey questions were
statistically significant.
• Post survey data reveals that even when students believe their
brain can change they still do not like to make mistakes and
they do not like school work that is too hard!
Mindset Scores
Mindset
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53
Pre Intervention Total
Post Intervention Total
Mindset Scores
Mindset Group
PRE
POST
You strongly believe that how
smart you are is fixed and
doesn't change much. (8-14)
0
0
6
0
4
8
7
8
0
1
Lean towards thinking that
you can't change how smart
you are. You don't like to
make mistakes or work too
hard. (15-22)
Aren't sure if you can't change
how smart you are. You care
about your grades and want to
learn but you don't want to
work too hard for it. (23-28)
Think you can get smarter,
care about learning, you want
to do well and think it's more
important to learn than to
score well. (29-34)
You strongly believe that you
can change how smart you are
by learning and working hard.
You don't mind making
mistakes if you are learning.
Recommendations and Plans for
the Future
• Teachers and students will highly benefit from
implementing Growth Mindset and effort based praise.
• More research is needed in this area.
• I will add more strategies and lessons to emphasize
that hard work and making mistakes are vital in
helping our brains grow!
• I will add a parent night and parent resources.
• I will continue to implement these strategies in other
classrooms.
Follow Up
Growth Mindset Padlet
Questions???
http://gtnpd111.ncdpi.wikispaces.net/About+the+Project
denise.perry@bcsemail.org
Happy Dance!
Research Articles
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Yeager, D. S., & Dweck, C. S. (2012). Mindsets that promote resilience: When
students believe that personal characteristics can be developed. Educational
Psychologist, 47(4), 302-314. doi:10.1080/00461520.2012.722805
Downey, J. A. (2008). Recommendations for fostering educational resilience in
the classroom. Preventing School Failure, 53(1), 56-64. Retrieved
from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip,custui
d&custid=s8455861&db=trh&AN=34772226&site=ehost-live
Marzano, R. J., & Dean, C. B. (2012). Classroom instruction that works :
Research-based strategies for increasing student achievement. Alexandria,
Va: ASCD. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.gardnerwebb.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=
nlebk&AN=430964&site=eds-live
Dweck, C. S. (2010). Mind-Sets and Equitable Education. Principal
Leadership, 10(5), 26-29.