Learn, Unlearn, Relearn — Teaching to Learn

This quote immediately made me think of the power of the growth mindset. I have been continually thinking about this concept over the course of the school year and now especially in the light of our current educational situation as brought on by social distancing. If our students are to be literate in the 21st century how will they employ a system of learning, failing, building from their previous mistakes, and relearning? Research suggests that children whose parents and teachers focus on ability and performance instead of learning and growth tend to believe that their intelligence is fixed. Not able to be changed or grow (Haimovitz & Dweck, 2016). So acceptance of failure must be a key in the critical unlearning that Toffler speaks about.

This is not to say that we as educators are not looking at the outcomes of our teaching. In fact, quite the opposite. An effort by the students that is unproductive is not a good thing and we are not rewarding that unproductive effort. Rather, we can focus on and emphasize the parts of the process that create growth. Such things as trying new strategies, asking for help from others, and making the best of setbacks (Dweck, 2016). Jessica Grose (2020) gives four practical ways for me to incorporate this idea into my philosophy.

First she asks us to ask questions about the process. Praise for effort is ineffective if fleeting and superficial. Asking questions about the process and giving sincere feedback is more effective than simply saying “good work.” We should also closely observe our students to give this feedback. If we are assessing and observing closely, we can give specific and useful feedback on the process. We can also model the persistence that we would like to see from our students. I am specifically seeing this in the teachers at my school in light of the current situation. I believe that our general ability in the last month or so to pickup, try, and fail will be a great example to our students. Finally, she asks us to create a safe space for learning, in other words a next generation learning ecosystem (Colorado Springs School District 11, 2017).

References

Colorado Springs School District 11. (2017). Next generation learning ecosystems. Retrieved from https://www.d11.org/Page/5315

Dweck, C. (2016, January 13). What Having a “Growth Mindset” Actually Means. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2016/01/what-having-a-growth-mindset-actually-means

Grose, J. (2020, January 14). Teach Your Kids to Fail. New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/08/parenting/teach-your-kids-to-fail.html?auth=linked-google1tap

Haimovitz, K. S., & Dweck, C. S. (2016). Parents’ Views of Failure Predict Children’s Fixed and Growth Intelligence Mind-Sets. Psychological Science, 27(6), 859–869. Retrieved from https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0956797616639727