Today’s Tip of the Day in inspired by our TA meeting earlier this week, in which we were looking at the importance of praising effort rather than just attainment, in order to help learners to develop a growth mindset which encourages persistence with learning.

See if you can spot opportunities today to praise students who are making great effort, and be explicit about how you know they are doing so – the clear signs of this – such as being able to see:

• Absorption in their learning;
• Willingness to improve the quality of work they produce;
• Taking pride in their work;
• Taking time on their work;
• Asking questions to develop their thinking and understanding.

This is vital for learners with SEND, who sometimes see intelligence as fixed and therefore can be prone to disengagement when they see the attainment of their peers. It is also important in avoiding the complacency of some high attainers!

Here is a really interesting little clip that you could use with students or just for your own interest, to help explain and summarise why growth mindsets are so useful for learning:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-_oqghnxBmY&feature=youtu.be

If you are interested in reading more about growth mindsets, here are a couple of useful links:

http://mindsetonline.com/whatisit/about/

http://www.brainpickings.org/2014/01/29/carol-dweck-mindset/

Contributed by Pippa Whittaker

Pippa, who leads inclusion within the Academy, has recently had a book published. Please click on the image below to get more information on this.