Growth Mindset

Today we were reflecting on how we felt we had changed as learner whilst in Year 6.  When we started talking about ways we felt we have changed as mathematicians some students starting talking about past experiences with needing to answer maths number questions really quickly.  It reminded me of the Stanford University growth mindset video someone had shared on Twitter yesterday, so we watched it together.

It's a really fascinating way for children to reflect on their previous maths learning experiences and to understand that it is perfectly alright where they are at mathematically.  We often talk about building neuron pathways in our class as a means to understand why we might be doing particular learning activities in class and this video reiterated that nicely too.


Boosting Maths YouTube Link



After watching the video together, I asked how it made us feel and why.

Some of our feelings:

° inspired

° makes me feel better about who I am as a mathematician

° excited to learn

° more positive

° makes me want to hug myself and tell myself sorry for making myself feel bad in the past



We then watched the video again on our laptops and paused to record our thoughts using the Visible Thinking Routine:  Connect - Extend - Challenge

Student sample:

We then began creating a symbol and inspiring catch phrase that we learnt from the video which we will hang from our classroom ceiling as a reminder of being positive mathematicians.