Creating a Culture That Increases Student Willingness to Investigate Mistakes as Learning Opportunities

• In Event: Sheraton Roundtable Session 16
  In Roundtable Session: Constructing Learning Opportunities Through Teacher Research

Abstract

A team of teacher researchers set out to change their students’ mindsets after reading Carol Dweck’s book Mindset (Dweck, 2006). They knew that struggling students tend to develop “fixed” mindsets and negative attitudes, locked into a perpetual cycle of try-fail-try again-fail again. Futile first attempts at intervention centered on changing student self-talk. Realizing the need for adjustments in their own teaching behavior, researchers targeted an elemental building block of such a cycle, making mistakes during the learning process. Adjusting their study, the team set out to learn how teachers can help students embrace mistakes as learning opportunities. Strong evidence in the form of student work and teacher reflections suggests that they accomplished this goal.

Authors

• Mark Cote, CPM Educational Program

• Ilene Kanoff, The Newton School

• Penny Ann Smits, Unified School Dirstrict of De Pere

• Thor Tillberg, Bushwick Leader's High School