The Arts Teach the Growth Mindset in Math
I investigated the issue of how the arts can help develop the growth
mindset towards math.
Mindset starts developping at an early age, even before school
starts.
The local, national and global phenomenon relates to previous academic perfomance, gender, and socio-economic status.
When stakeholders in education align their purpose, growth mindset is fostered for all students.
The arts can teach students to explore multiple solutions to problems, dismiss perfectionism, work on projects over time and learn by doing, experimenting and collaborating.
Take the survey about mindset languageHere
Take the survey about mindset behaviorsHere
Where does the fixed mindset come from?
1) HOME: Attitudes towards math start early even before students enter school. Usually kids enter school with more readiness for reading, writing, speaking and listening than math. At home, math is viewed as a special ability. Add to that that parents and some teachers praise the student and not the effort. “You’re smart instead of your effort is outstanding”.
2) THE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM: Schools reinforce this belief with multiple choice tests that stress results over the process or the effort. Tracking students and GATE classification reinforce the idea that some students are born with an aptitude for math while others are not. Students in middle school and high school develop fixed mindset behaviors when they avoid them on the basis of the class being too hard or just for advanced abilities.
3) MEDIA: Media is also responsible in part in for generating and sustaining damaging stereotypes about people who are good in math. First, TV shows such as the Geeks, Freaks and Geeks, Big Bang Theory and Abed plant the seeds of fixed mindset by portraying people who are good at math not only as a finished product, but also as an eccentric, exclusive group. The result is not normalizing math skills and attaching unchangeable (fixed) traits such as social awkwardnes and giftedness to it.
Is the fixed mindset affecting only part of the country?
The work of Carol Dweck, the author of “Mindset, the new Psychology of Success” and Jo Bolaer, the author of "Growth Mindset in Math" focused on students’ strategies to solve problems and they sampled students from all around the country.Their findings point to the profitability of growth mindset education across gender, socioeconomic status and academic achievement.
For example, the authors found that growth mindset benefits both high achieving and low achieving students. For students who succeed at school with minimum effort, they may lapse into the fixed mindset and attribute success to talent or giftedness. They may start avoiding high challenging tasks to maintain success. They may feel dejected by challenging tasks and start avoiding them so that they are always right. Similarly, underachieving students give up too soon for they have developed a belief that math is not for them.
Besides, Nature Magazine conducted the largest experiment on growth mindset in the country in November 2019 which confimed the positive effects of the growth mindset interventions. A sample of 12,500 students participated. According to the national study, teaching students about the language and behavior of growth mindset was a low-cost intervention that had a promising effect on students in general and math classes in particular. Richer as well as poorer students received an average of 3% improvement in their grades and were more motivated to tackle challenging questions. Beside academic achievememnt and socioeconomic status, geneder plays a role in how children are praised, with girls receiving less praise for efforts and more for ability. However, the study noted that emotional, psychological, social and academic interventions work together to nurture the growth mindset. Such interventions include teaching students about the different types of intelligence, the various learning strategies, the value of effort in overcoming difficulties, and specific academic skills.
Read more about the study by Nature magazine: Here
Did Other Countries Use the Growth Mindset in Schools?
Implementing the Growth Mindset Program partially resulted in little to no impact. However, implementing the growth mindset program FULLY had POSITIVE results felt around the globe. Full implementation means teaching the language and the behaviors of growth mindset, along with academic interventions such as project-based teaching, integrating the arts and considering the different learning styles. Peru reported having success with this approach. 800 Peruvian schools saw increase in achievement especially in math classes after fully implementing the Growth Mindset model. So did Chile, Norway and Hungary.
Read more about the Growth Mindset at Scale: here.
Research by Nature Magazine shows that fixed mindset is one of the reasons that students underperform in school, and specially in math. For students who have always done well, it may be easy for them to lapse into the fixed mindset of talent and ability. They therefore either stop working hard, or do not develop the resilience and the organizational skills required for more challenging tasks. Also, they may reject feedback, and view failure as a result of declining ability or resort to self-victimization. On the other hand, students who struggle develop the same type of fixed mindset. 20% of students give up before they finish high school. Girls and minority students are more likely to develop the fixed mindset. The trend is most influential in the transitional years between elementary and middle school, and into high school. This demographic is at higher risk for poverty, poor health and early mortality. According to the Lancet, the Medicine Journal, education is the single best investment in future health and well-being. Intervention can help nurture growth mindset and boost achievement. These strategies include social attitudes that view learning as a process, academic strategies that target specific skills and emotional-psychological strategies that teach positive self-talk, the value of learning from mistakes and the importance of creative thinking and seeing multiple ways to solve problems.
Read more about the Lancet Journal study on adolescent health and well-beingHere
The students in my Gold Award workshops were asked to take a quiz to find out what kind of mindset they have towards math and art. Their answers were the starting point for my lessons. I wanted to teach the students the language that precedes the growth mindset behaviors. Learning about math through art was a great combination. THE ARTS TEACH GROWTH MINDSET. The arts including visual arts, film, music, dance and photography were beaming with the Growth Mindset strategies. Artists across different media seek multiple solutions to problems. Artists learn by doing. Artists embrace failure as a way to improve. Artists dismiss perfectionism. Finally, artists collaborate and work on projects over time. Students are expected to internalize the art strategies when working on math concepts. A short survey is introduced after the lesson to measure the growth.
You can take the quiz here.
This website is a documentation of my Girl Scout Gold Award project. I designed a curriculum that teaches math through art, and shows how math is part of every day life. I delivered the program through online workshops to students in elementary and middle school levels. In the process, my belief in the growth mindset was reaffirmed , as I myself had to experience it in order to succeed at presenting my program. First, I had to adapt to the fact that the pandemic caused school closures and restictions on gatherings. Second, I had to grow my presentation toolkit to include videoconferencing apps such as Zoom. Additionally, I wanted to reach more students, and when Girls Who Code graciously offered me a summer immersion class, it was the ultimate test of the growth mindset that I am advocating for. I had to experience the discomfort of tackling a new subject (web development) to grow. I had to push myself beyond my comfort zone. I had to ask questions and take feedback. In a nutshell, I had to use growth mindset in order to learn how to develop a website. Girls who Code helped me develop my confidence and supported me with their time and resources. I am thankful!