I appreciated Dr. Totonchi’s presentation on mindset this was a good reminder of how central this is for learning. I have very little in my class about this subject. I am planning to make it more central for all my classes. She also spoke about how minority groups can experience stereotype threats when they are underrepresented in a setting, though City College is such a diverse College, most of the psychological reach articles and textbooks are authored for a much different population than my students. I will continue to find sources that my students can see themselves, though, this will be a challenge. For now, I will make this observation clear to my students.
In my welcome letter and in Blackboard I have materials for information and how to deal with stereotype threat and impostor phenomenon. I will add these as part of one class at the begging of the semester. I will be using the assessment Dr. Summers provided in her presentation. Informally, at the end of the semester, I will have a poll to check students’ thoughts about mindset and how helpful it was for them to know about it. I think this small addition will go a long way. Yesterday evening, in my Lifespan Human Development class I briefly said “everybody can learn” a bit about mindset, and a student commented on this and how she has noted this in her personal life and in her work with students.
Another aspect of the learning mindset was the purpose and relevance—this is something that I had had in mind to continue developing in my courses. I have group activities with good structures that the students use to run the groups, aside from the rubrics to do their assignments. That being said, I can refine assignments and practices to further promote purpose and relevance. I continually update my classes with usable tools for the students to apply. I did not have this as a student, and I committed to providing my students with tools to implement across different settings and across time.
2 thoughts on “Reflection Topic 3 Learning Mindset ”
There was so much insightful information presented and in the readings on self-efficacy and belief systems, I don’t even know where to begin! The idea of providing students with a sense of belonging is always something I strive for, whether it’s an online class or a face-to-face class. I find many students want to learn but do not know strategies for success.
In my current summer class, I am trying to apply some of these ideas. Starting with talking about Growth Mindset early in the semester. I plan to create a short video on Growth Mindset along with two examples (one from my own math experience and another non-math experience) and create a Discussion Board post where they can share a time they’ve used it in the past.
Something else that was mentioned that I found interesting was the idea of being grade focused. We want students to love the material as much as us but sometimes our class is just a barrier they have to get through unwillingly. I had a few students tell me they looked forward to getting a good grade in the class. Realizing this class is a prerequisite and not something they may have actively chosen to take makes the idea of finding purpose extra challenging. I use the Discussion Board as a way to relate the topics to the students’ live as much as I can, but what can we do for students who actively resist or just want to get through the class while doing minimal work as possible.
This is a critical conversation to have, not only with ourselves but also with our students. I want every student that enters my classroom to feel welcome and capable of contributing to our conversations about the content. However, this topic called on me to think more concretely about what I am currently doing to create this environment and what changes I may need to make.
When thinking about self-efficacy and growth mindset, I not only want to make students aware of these areas, but I also want to give them the tools needed. In other words, not only do I want to teach growth mindset but I also want to teach strategies that they can leverage to improve in areas that they may be struggling with. Here, I want to restructure the way I scaffold the content. As well, I want to focus on more consistently sharing the “why” with students.
One specific area that I want to adjust is the opportunity for students to rework and resubmit specific assignments. A challenge here surrounds the reality that this will likely not be feasible for every assignment. However, it is my plan to be strategic with when this option will be available and further, how this can be reflected in the way points are distributed throughout the course.