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What should we be teaching our students?

Learning is not solely about reading, writing and maths.  We know this, yet our education system seems to continue to go back to testing and reporting against those subject areas.  So what should we be teaching our students? What should we be focusing on?

Dweck’s notion of a growth mindset is something which has gained a huge amount of traction in education of late.  Dweck talks about a fixed mindset, being that intelligence is something you are born with and either have or dont and a growth mindset that intelligence is a quality that you can change and adapt.   The notion of a growth mindset is infact backed up by a range of neuroscientists. Uncapher (2018) talks about how teaching and encouraging the notion that your brain is a muscle and stretching and growing your brain is possible is the key to making growth mindset interventions sustainable.  I wonder how shifting our focus as teachers from academic achievement to a growth mindset will impact on our learners now and in the future.  Surely it is worth trying!!!

There are a range of clips on youtube which are helpful in learning about growth and fixed mindsets.  Here is one which was shared at a staff meeting by a colleague (Emma Lockett) recently.


My challenge to myself and fellow educators is to have a growth mindset with their classrooms.  Try to do things differently, adapt your programmes to focus on learner dispositions like growth mindset, reflect on the impact this makes for your learners and begin the cycle again!  This is teaching as inquiry!




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