Coaching Growth Mindset
Did you watch the Week 2 lectures? Promise? Ok, start reading.
Quick mindset recap:
Teachers with growth mindsets are more coachable because they are
more willing and able to accept feedback. They seek out feedback and
are unafraid to process it because it enables them to be better. They can
separate out description of their ineffective practice from commentary
on who they are as a person.
People with a “fixed” mindset, on the other hand, have trouble
separating self-identity from their performance, which means they tend
to react badly to feedback and failure.
A fixed mindset leads teachers to avoid getting feedback and gathering
data on their teaching because of the emotional risk it poses to them.
Less feedback and less data means a less effective teacher.
The Four Horsemen of Fixed Mindset
In our experience, teachers with fixed mindsets
about their own teaching react to critical
feedback in one of four poor ways. We call
these ways the Four Horsemen of Fixed Mindset.
1. “You're right, I suck.” Teachers who give some form of this
response beat themselves up and take critical feedback as
commentary on themselves, rather than on their teaching
performance. Any constructive criticism is a major event, and
even the most well-intentioned feedback cuts and stings.
2. “You're wrong, I rule.” In which teachers dispute the feedback as
inaccurate, becoming defensive, and insisting on separate
narrative of what happened...one which doesn't pose a threat to
their self-image.
3. “Blame it on the Rain” In this case, teachers dismiss the feedback by
blaming external factors for their own performance. i.e., “The kids
were in a weird mood today,” “Fractions are boring,” etc. Like
1 “You're wrong, I rule,” it prevents teachers from having to ever
engage with a narrative about themselves that would pose a risk to
their self-image.
4. “Optimist Without a Cause” With this response, teachers just let the
feedback bounce right off them—they never even hear the
messages they’re being given. I suck? Awesome. Kids were out of
control? Cool. Nobody learned anything? Right on, I hear you.
The first step to taking feedback is actually listening to it.
Before we get into how to deal with fixed mindset, we should talk a little
bit more about each of the four ways that teachers can poorly read data
on themselves and their teaching—here’s a brief rundown.
The first two, You’re Right I Suck and You’re Wrong I Rule, come from a
very similar place. In both cases, people who do these read any piece of
data on themselves as being Personal (It’s my fault), Pervasive (This is
me in a microcosm), and Permanent (There’s nothing to be done about
it). The difference between the two behaviors is that people who go to
You’re Wrong I Rule have built up some nice defensive mechanisms
that outwardly deny the validity of the data, while internally feeling the
sting. If it didn’t hurt—if it wasn’t dangerous—the data wouldn’t
engender such powerful responses.
While those two horsemen are defined by giving the data too much
power, the next two are united by the way in which they don’t give the
data enough. With both Blame it On The Rain and Optimist Without a
Cause, the data never makes its way in. In both cases, it gets dismissed
a priori to the teacher having to ever really grapple with it as being
useful or valid to their practice. This happens in two different ways.
Optimists Without a Cause deny the weight of the feedback by
minimizing it relevant to all of their other strengths. It’s not that the
data is wrong—it’s just that it’s really not that big of a deal. Problems are
small, solutions easy. People who go to Blame it On the Rain, on the
other hand, are willing to admit that the critical feedback is important,
but compartmentalize it and treat it as so specific to circumstance that it
defies generalization. In other words, it may have been a big deal on
that day, with those kids, but long-term—nothing to worry about.
2 We believe strongly in the power of the simple act of sharing these
named behaviors with teachers. As we’ve discussed, we’ve seen this go a
long way towards normalizing these behaviors, starting a “difficult
conversation,” and providing a taxonomy with which to discuss fixed
mindset in a lower stakes way.
However, as you try to curtail fixed mindset behaviors that prevent
feedback from happening in a coaching session, we also recommend
promoting more productive behaviors. The following section is aimed at
teachers; we distribute it to our residents here at Match!
Other Strategies for Coaching Growth Mindset
Growing Your Growth Mindset
In the following sections, we’re going to cover some strategies for
growing your growth mindset and making sure you stay open and
receptive to feedback. In the short term, for many of you, this probably
means faking it. Which is cool. As long as the feedback makes its way
in, as long as you remain highly coachable—we’re all good.
We’re going to run you through eight Strategies for improving/affecting
Growth Mindset. All of them are useful—none of them are mutually
exclusive with each other—but some are particularly well suited for one
type of horseman. We identify those at the beginning of each minisection.
Strategy #1: Smiling
Particularly Useful: You’re Wrong I Rule, You’re Right I Suck, Blame It on The
Rain
No, really. We’re actually serious. If you force yourself to smile, you put
yourself in a better mental state to take critical feedback. Why? Because
forcing yourself to smile actually keeps you in a better mood. Better
mood=less likely to Freak the Mighty when you get critical feedback.
We’re sure this sounds silly, but it’s actually true. There’s a long writeup of it in Malcolom Gladwell’s Blink. If you physically force yourself to
smile, you actually make yourself happier.
But wait, there’s more…according to researchers at the University of
Wisconsin, people who have had Botox treatment, when exposed to sad
3 or troubling stimuli, are actually happier when compared to those who
people who haven’t had the treatment.
Why? Because their faces are chemically frozen into smiling all of the
time. True Story. We. Are. Not. Making. This. Up. Google “Botox+Facial
Feedback Hypothesis.”
Which is really exciting. Maybe your school/district has money in the PD
coffers for elective Botox therapy! But in the short term, if you’re feeling
the stress/anger/sadness, try to fight it off in part by physically smiling
through it.
Strategy #2: Body Language
Particularly Useful: You’re Wrong, I Rule, You’re Right I Suck
Like smiling, your body language is a two-way street with your emotions.
Not only does it show what you’re feeling—it also affects how you’re
feeling. Which makes it all the more important to be aware of how
you’re feeling and catch yourself if you’re slipping into
angry/sad/detached posture. Sit up, lean forward, make eye contact,
stay active and engaged.
A few common problems we’ve seen with body language:
1. Covering up/withdrawing. Like every minute of the debrief is
causing you physical pain.
2. Tension. In your arms, neck, and face. Like you’re about to
explode.
3. Disengaged. Looking around the room. Zoning out.
How do you deal with poor body language? The single best strategy is
just to be aware of it…checking yourself for it. Do that and your 90% of
the way there to solving the problem.
Strategy #3: Watch Your Voice
Particularly Useful: You’re Wrong I Rule, You’re Right I Suck, Blame It On
The Rain.
Like with body language and facial expressions, your voice is a two way
street. When you sound negative you build negative energy. When your
sound positive, you build positive energy. Are we telling you to fake it?
Yes. Absolutely. It’ll make it easier in the moment to hear the feedback
by not making the debrief all angsty. If you’re really upset about
4 something, save it for later. Find one of us or put it in your Zoom…but
don’t let it tank a coaching session.
What should you avoid? Everything that Olivia did in the “Four
Horsemen” videos: sad (YRIS), whiny (BioTR), aggressive (YWIR).
Your coach will call you on this, but you should definitely practice—
listen to yourself in stressful situations. Are you measured and
controlled or is your voice one giant poker tell? Being aware of how you
sound is a huge step in making sure that you get everything out of your
feedback sessions that you can.
Strategy #4: Remind Yourself of Your Coach’s Job
Particularly Useful: You’re Wrong, I Rule; You’re Right, I Suck.
Feel like your coach is always criticizing your teaching? That’s because
they are. In fact, we pay them to do it. When coaches have only come
with buckets of praise, tossing out compliments like they’re on a parade
float…their teachers have struggled.
If they weren’t telling you how to improve, they wouldn’t be doing their
job. They’re not out to get you.
Strategy #5: Remind Yourself of Your Coach’s Expertise
Particularly Useful: Blame it On the Rain, Optimist Without a Cause
Your coaches are experts. That’s why they got hired. Plus, as we wrote
up top, it’s a poor use of your teacher brain to be constantly vetting the
quality of the feedback while at the same time thinking about its
application to your teaching.
If you picture your brain like a computer, that’s like trying to stream an
episode of The Daily Show from Hulu while you’re also downloading a
movie from Itunes, uploading videos to Facebook, and playing World of
Warcraft. Thinking about teaching is hard work, and you’ve only got so
much processing power. Don’t waste it.
Not only does questioning your coach’s expertise prevent you from
letting their feedback in, it taxes your brain to the point that you can’t
5 make good use of the feedback that you do hear. Save your coaching
analysis for the Zoom—we want it, but that’s where it belongs.
Instead, remind yourself about how skilled they are—how much they
have to impart. If you can actively think of them as an expert resource,
it becomes much harder to block them out.
Strategy #6: Take Detailed Notes and Review Them Frequently
Particularly Useful: Blame It On The Rain, Optimist Without a Cause
Detailed note-taking is an effective way to build a growth mindset and
stop yourself from blocking feedback. You should ALWAYS take notes in
your feedback sessions—but if you’re struggling to accept feedback, you
might want to make your notes all the more detailed and then find time
to look at them during the week. Having clear evidence on paper for
what your coach is telling you has seemed to make it a lot easier for
people to focus on the details instead of how they feel about the details.
Strategy #7: Ask Clarifying Questions
Particularly Useful: Blame It On The Rain, Optimist Without a Cause
Another effective way to keep yourself engaged with the feedback is to
ask frequent, clarifying questions. Debrief sessions between you and
your coach should be conversations, not depositions. Your coaches will
do their best to get you active and talking during these sessions—but you
should do your part too. Ultimately, the ratio should be something like
50:50.
Think back to Olivia’s OWaC video—we were talking, but we weren’t
really communicating because she was dodging every question with a
smiles and empty platitudes. Not only should she have been directly
engaging with what I was asking her, but she should have had her own
questions ready—like Maura in her video.
Having a growth mindset about your teaching means interrogating, in a
professional, proactive way, every piece of data you get on yourself.
When you authentically do that, you give the feedback a chance to sink
in and work.
Some useful question stems:
6 What does X look like?
What should I say when I’m doing X?
How do I work X into my lesson without going over time?
However, you need to be really careful not to let this shift into another
form of Blame It on The Rain. The litmus test? If you’re asking a
question that’s rhetorical, you’re probably blaming it on the rain. I.e.
“But don’t you think that if I had given Orin a demerit he would have
tuned out for the rest of the lesson?” Not a good question. Much better:
“I was afraid that if I gave Orin a demerit he would have tuned out for
the rest of the lesson. Am I wrong…or is that just OK?”
This is a really fine line that largely comes down to tone. You know
what it sounds like when someone is asking a question for which they’re
not really looking for an answer. When the response you’re looking for
is something along the lines of, “Yeah, that’s a good point—I take it
back, you shouldn’t do X”…then that question probably isn’t
“clarifying”…it’s “challenging.”
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Okay, is everyone around you smiling yet? Great.
Before we sign off, a couple of resources for your promoting growth
mindset tool belt.
Below we have reproduced a couple of charts that we use with our Match
Teacher Residency teachers. The first is a reflection sheet to be used in
conjunction with the Four Horsemen videos, and the second is an
exercise used to promote fixed mindset self-awareness, and how
positive language can help you stay on the straight-and-narrow towards
growth.
7 Video Analysis
Horseman What does it look/sound
like?
Personal Connections?
You’re
Right I
Suck
You’re
Wrong I
Rule
Blame It
On the
Rain
8 Optimist
Without a
Cause
9 Growth Mindset Exercise: Flipping the Script
In the table below are Fixed Mindset quotes commonly heard in debriefs.
We all go there sometimes. Change each one into something more
Growth Mindset-y.
Fixed Mindset/Lack of Agency
Horseman
Growth Mindset/Agency
Ex: “I just don’t know if I’m cut
out for this.”
You’re Right I “I have so many things I want to
Suck
improve. Where should I start?”
Ex: “I just don’t think Jalene
wants to be at this school.”
Blame It On
the Rain
“I’m having trouble getting Jalene to
buy into my class. She’s often in a
really negative mood. What do you
think I should do?”
“Kevin has an IEP for his
behavior. He’s been really out
of control lately.”
“The other teachers really
aren’t consistent about this
expectation, so when I
enforce it kids just get mad.
It’s not effective.”
10 Fixed Mindset/Lack of Agency
Horseman
Growth Mindset/Agency
“I know they didn’t show it on
the Exit Ticket, but I think
kids really got this from what
I saw on their classwork.”
“You had left by this point,
but Christopher definitely got
back on track and was
participating.”
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