By Sara Lohrmann, Applied Arts
Two words, “I’m afraid,” were not something that I expected to hear in response to learning. This was my turning point. These two words got me asking more questions than I thought possible about my teaching practices. These two words followed a simple question, “Why aren’t you participating in lab today?” The student quickly responded, “I’m afraid. I am a terrible cook and I don’t want to lose points in the lab.” This single experience heightened my curiosity for new practices within the classroom to ultimately increase student willingness to embrace challenge and not be afraid to make a mistake while learning something new.
Two New Practices
There were two new practices that I tried, Evidence Based Reporting and feedback language. First, Evidence Based Reporting took the focus away from reporting points and onto student learning. Next, I wondered how I could use growth language in feedback to students, as I was afraid of inadvertently communicating a fixed mindset that could restrict their growth? I began to evaluate how I was communicating with them… and there it was in plain letters on a student progress report—a Canned Comment, “In danger of failure,” with no additional information attached to the comment.
I felt my face turn pale and looked down to think. Do they even know why they may not pass the course, was this a simple last minute scare tactic to motivate this student, or was my intention to warn the parent(s)/guardian(s)? And is failure something to be feared? Haven’t studies proven that failure does not motivate students and in fact may guide students to fulfilling this expectation? Does this statement help teach students to approach the task differently and/or put more effort into learning it? Is this statement helping to teach them that failure and mistakes can be a large part of learning and innovation?
Eliminating the Fear of Failure
So next, I did what every old cheerleader would do… made signs to encourage the spirit of learning and posted them in the room. “Learn how to cook—try new recipes, learn from your mistakes, be fearless, and above all have fun.” – Julia Child. The Family & Consumer Sciences team added projects and labs to embrace innovation, the design process, and make learning a fun challenge. We set guidelines and expectations to help students feel safe with failure and aimed to promote trying new things while reassuring them that they would be assessed multiple times throughout the semester and it was okay to learn from mistakes.
Growth Language
After changes in curriculum, instruction, and assessment, the questions circled back to rethinking feedback. Could Canned Comments using growth mindset language be developed to increase student dedication, perseverance, and willingness to learn new things? Dweck (2006) stated, “Growth mindset is based on the belief that your basic qualities are things you can cultivate through your efforts.” Creating a list of canned comments focused on student efforts that could be connected to learning target verbiage used in Evidence Based Reporting to aide in timely teacher feedback and serve as a reminder of growth language used in feedback was the next venture.
Using Canned Comments with growth language that are directly connected to course specific scaled learning targets is an efficient way to communicating student progress. For example, for a learning target related to evaluating nutrient density in our Food & Nutrition course, a teacher may give feedback as, “You demonstrated great effort to correctly read packaged food labels. Let’s continue to work on making connections about how these foods do or do not meet health recommendations.” Continuing to rethink feedback and making a shift to using growth mindset language may encourage students to continue to cultivate their efforts, embrace a challenge, demonstrate perseverance, and welcome a life of learning. This continued growth sets a clear path toward our mission, “Success for Every Student.”
Two New Practices
There were two new practices that I tried, Evidence Based Reporting and feedback language. First, Evidence Based Reporting took the focus away from reporting points and onto student learning. Next, I wondered how I could use growth language in feedback to students, as I was afraid of inadvertently communicating a fixed mindset that could restrict their growth? I began to evaluate how I was communicating with them… and there it was in plain letters on a student progress report—a Canned Comment, “In danger of failure,” with no additional information attached to the comment.
I felt my face turn pale and looked down to think. Do they even know why they may not pass the course, was this a simple last minute scare tactic to motivate this student, or was my intention to warn the parent(s)/guardian(s)? And is failure something to be feared? Haven’t studies proven that failure does not motivate students and in fact may guide students to fulfilling this expectation? Does this statement help teach students to approach the task differently and/or put more effort into learning it? Is this statement helping to teach them that failure and mistakes can be a large part of learning and innovation?
Eliminating the Fear of Failure
So next, I did what every old cheerleader would do… made signs to encourage the spirit of learning and posted them in the room. “Learn how to cook—try new recipes, learn from your mistakes, be fearless, and above all have fun.” – Julia Child. The Family & Consumer Sciences team added projects and labs to embrace innovation, the design process, and make learning a fun challenge. We set guidelines and expectations to help students feel safe with failure and aimed to promote trying new things while reassuring them that they would be assessed multiple times throughout the semester and it was okay to learn from mistakes.
Growth Language
After changes in curriculum, instruction, and assessment, the questions circled back to rethinking feedback. Could Canned Comments using growth mindset language be developed to increase student dedication, perseverance, and willingness to learn new things? Dweck (2006) stated, “Growth mindset is based on the belief that your basic qualities are things you can cultivate through your efforts.” Creating a list of canned comments focused on student efforts that could be connected to learning target verbiage used in Evidence Based Reporting to aide in timely teacher feedback and serve as a reminder of growth language used in feedback was the next venture.
Using Canned Comments with growth language that are directly connected to course specific scaled learning targets is an efficient way to communicating student progress. For example, for a learning target related to evaluating nutrient density in our Food & Nutrition course, a teacher may give feedback as, “You demonstrated great effort to correctly read packaged food labels. Let’s continue to work on making connections about how these foods do or do not meet health recommendations.” Continuing to rethink feedback and making a shift to using growth mindset language may encourage students to continue to cultivate their efforts, embrace a challenge, demonstrate perseverance, and welcome a life of learning. This continued growth sets a clear path toward our mission, “Success for Every Student.”