Portswood Teaching Alliance Inclusion
Conference 2017: ‘
“Is your mind set ...?”
What does mindset theory say about
setting and grouping practices in
schools?
Prof Barry Hymer, University of Cumbria
www.barryhymer.wordpress.com
“There is no requirement for the
communication - if it is to be
‘successful’ - to reproduce in the
‘receiver’ what was in the mind of
the ‘transmitter’. Indeed, exact
reproduction of the communicator’s
intention is often regarded as a noncreative ‘failure’.
Testlands Hub Studio
20th January 2017
(Alan Rayner, 2007)
Surrendering objectives, a few
alternatives to WALT & WILF:
‘Ability’:
•
•
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www… (We Were Wondering …)
AWOL (Another Way Of Looking …)
WISE (What I’m Still Exploring …)
IQ (I’m Questioning …)
The Normal Distribution
© Barry Hymer, 2017
“A vernacular construct that has
been transformed into a tool
used for comparison within the
education system.”
(Cremin & Thomas, 2005)
Percentage of English schools
grouping children by ability by age 7
Year
%
Research
1964
74
Jackson, B.
2013
78.8
Campbell, T.
1
“Ability appears to be the
consequence, not the cause of
differences in what students learn
from their classroom experiences”
(Nuthall, 1999 p. 213)
See
http://www.nuthalltrust.org.nz/publications.shtml
“Intelligence is not a fixed
quality, determined at birth by
one's genes. Rather, it is a
variable that can be developed
at every stage of life.”
(Reuven Feuerstein)
‘The cognitive hypothesis’:
“We pass through this world but once.
Few tragedies can be more extensive
than the structuring of life, few
injustices deeper than the denial of an
opportunity to strive or even to hope, by
a limit imposed from without but falsely
identified as lying within.”
“The belief, rarely expressed aloud
but commonly held nonetheless, that
success today depends primarily on
cognitive skills – the kind of
intelligence that gets measured on IQ
tests ….”
(Paul Tough – How Children Succeed)
‘The non-cognitive hypothesis’:
“In the past decade …, a disparate
congregation of economists, educators,
psychologists and neuroscientists have
begun to produce evidence that calls
into question many of the assumptions
behind the cognitive hypothesis ...”
The non-cognitive hypothesis cont:
“What matters most in a child’s development
… is whether we are able to help her develop
a very different set of qualities, a list that
includes persistence, self-control, curiosity,
conscientiousness, grit and self-confidence.
Economists refer to these as non-cognitive
skills, psychologists call them personality
traits, and the rest of us think of them as
character.”
(Paul Tough – How Children Succeed)
© Barry Hymer, 2017
2
Integrating the cognitive and
the non-cognitive hypotheses:
Nurturing non-cognitive qualities to
support the growth of cognitive (and
other) skills
4 Myths About Ability, Success, Praise
& Confidence: (Carol Dweck: Self Theories)
Prof Carol S Dweck, Stanford University
Mindset:
Fixed
• Students with high ability are more
likely to love learning
• Success in school makes children love
learning
• Praise, especially intelligence-praise,
leads to a love of learning
• Confidence in one’s intelligence is the
key to a love of learning
Growth
Gumption (early 18
Your belief:
Intelligence is a fixed
trait
Intelligence is
cultivated through
learning
Your
priority:
You feel
smart:
Look smart, not thick
Become smarter,
through learning
Achieving easy, low
effort successes and
outperforming others
Engaging fully with
new tasks, exerting
effort, stretching and
applying skills
You avoid:
Effort, difficulty,
setbacks, higherperforming peers
Easy, previously
mastered tasks
© Barry Hymer, 2017
th
century, Scottish)
• Fortitude – strength of mind to “endure
adversity with courage”
• Determination and tenacity
• “Boldness of enterprise”
• Resourcefulness
• Initiative and audacity
• Sound practical judgment (phronesis)
• Nous
3
Edu-gumption (n)
programmes (def.):
“All great acts of
genius began with
the same
consideration: do
not be constrained
by your present
reality.”
“Educational enterprises which serve
explicitly to promote and nurture those
largely non-cognitive character
strengths that are the antecedents of
achievement in all domains of human
endeavour, and which are characteristic
of individuals with growth mindsets.”
(Leonardo)
Aids to personalisation of
goals – sentence stems
When grouping practices give way to
edu-gumption practices:
• Minimising the use of praise and other
extrinsic reinforcers (stickers, prizes,
grades)
• Maximising the use of ‘ring true’ feedback
(task, process, self-regulation)
• Operationalising ‘must work harder’ and
other effort-focused strategies (e.g. taskanalysed, learner-owned effort grades)
When grouping practices give way to
edu-gumption practices:
• Substituting performance language for
mastery language (e.g. work, ability and G&T
becomes learning, skills and SIG)
• Detoxing failure and toxing effortless success
• High-challenge strategies (e.g. Bloom, openended tasks, 50:50 ratios)
• Linking to established, ‘attitude-focused’
initiatives (e.g. Habits of Mind, BLP, P4C, AfL)
© Barry Hymer, 2017
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“I want to know …”
“I’d like to find out more about …”
“A puzzle I’d like to crack is …”
“A challenge I’m determined to overcome
is …”
• “The aspect of this topic that I’d like to
master is …”
• “I’d like to achieve … by …”
The discourse of mindset
Fixed overtones
Ability, more able, highly able
Growth overtones
Skills, more skilled, highly skilled
Work (something we do – probably Learning (something we choose to do
reluctantly – for someone else)
for ourselves)
Gifted and talented (implied
High achieving (possibly as a result of
genetic providence)
grit and opportunity)
Rewards (heavily behaviourist and
Recognition (warmly affirming but
weighted towards compliance)
weighted towards learner autonomy)
Results, performance data,
Learning, learning, learning
outcomes
4
Typical features:
“Children develop only as the
environment demands that they
develop.”
(Sherman & Key, 1932)
Edu-gumption
Edu-grouping
• Learning focus
• How to think (process)
• Strategies for mastery of
knowledge/skill domains
• High levels of learner
autonomy
• Emphasis on ‘noncognitive’ factors
• Under-engineered lesson
outcomes (AWOL, IQ,
WISE, www…)
• Performance focus
• What to think (content)
• Strategies for gaming the
examination system
• High levels of teachercontrol
• Emphasis on predictive
value of ‘capacity’ factors
• Over-engineered lesson
objectives (WALT, WILF,
WILMA)
“And if you really must ...”:
6 setting and grouping practices for
supporting growth mindsets:
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Keep groups flexible
Keep groups task-specific
Aim for some degree of pupil-led grouping
Avoid praising speed of completion
Avoid labelling practices
Ensure high levels of challenge for all
“What we make of the future is defined
not only by our past but by how well we
understand and make use of that past.
Our pasts create a map not only of
where we come from, but of where we
are going. But the most wondrous thing
about this map is that it is not engraved
in stone. With insight and effort we can
shape it to our will.”
(Kasparov, How Life Imitates Chess)
© Barry Hymer, 2017
“The hallmark of successful individuals is
that they love learning, they seek
challenges, they value effort, and they
persist in the face of obstacles.”
(Carol Dweck, 2000)
Overwhelmingly popular
explanations
Occasional
explanations
Vanishingly
rare
explanations
Effort - Support from others Perseverance - Determination Risk-taking - Having a go Patience - Coping with obstacles Practice - Planning - Persistence Making a strategy - Encouragement
- Self-belief - Positive self-talk Trying a different approach Thinking about times I’ve achieved
difficult things before - Advice Bouncebackability - Interest in it Imagining myself doing it - Working
to repay others’ faith in me Proving others wrong - Constructive
feedback - Modifying my goals Breaking it down into small steps
Luck Chance Faith Realism Cheating
Natural ability Intelligence Aptitude - A
gift or talent Tubeless tyres
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