As I was thinking about the Grow Through Life mindset from 7 Mindsets, I was stuck in my own perspective on life. I was thinking, how do I make this relevant to high school students whose whole lives have been spent in school. They are naturally in a place of growth so this is obvious. They don’t want to think about being lifelong learners.  I was talking to some of my team about this struggle, and my secretary, with great wisdom, said “Growing through life can mean always learning from our mistakes.” And there it was… the simple truth and relevance of this mindset. Growing through life does not need to be an endless cycle of school and training, of professional development and workshops. Instead, it is a much more powerful idea that growing through life means that  we remain reflective and open to the lessons that our lives present to us. Growth opportunities are always there if we see them and capitalize on them. 

• As a teacher, this meant that I recognized when my lessons didn’t work well, taking notes on what needed to be changed and trying again next time.
• As a counselor, it has meant realizing when I’ve made mistakes or didn’t serve a student or teacher well enough and making a point to take a different approach in the future.
• As a mom, it’s been recognizing when my only human nature has been a negative instead of positive force in their development, having the humility to say “I was wrong” and trying to become a better guide to them.
• As a partner and a friend, it has been recognizing my own part in issues in my relationships and understanding that until I work on myself, I can’t expect anyone to work on themselves. 

The key to all of this is self-awareness and reflection. To grow, we must become aware of where we are falling short, have the courage to be humble and honest with ourselves and then make the necessary changes to grow in a positive direction… whether this is professionally or personally, emotionally or spiritually. This is the key to lifelong growth, in my opinion. 

I would encourage you to watch these video about Growth Mindset based on Carol Dweck’s work.

Developing a Growth Mindset with Carol Dweck

The Impact of Praise

Growth Mindset for Students

            Many of our students believe that they aren’t smart enough, and in their minds, this is a fact that can’t be changed. Being challenged by learning is a sign that they don’t have what it takes to make good grades and create positive academic outcomes. Carol Dweck points to scientific research that paints a different picture. By taking on challenging material and struggling with is, students make new connections in the synapsis of their brain and actually become smarter. Students who are working with a challenge have greater brain activity than those who give up. Hard concepts and challenging work actually makes us smarter. We can help our students by fostering a growth mindset in them. It’s more than setting goals. It’s an attitude and a process that can be supported in class. As educators, we help our kids be more motivated to work hard by:

• Helping students come to understand that “smart” is not a fixed mindset
• Telling them often that the struggle of learning will make them smarter in the same way that exercising makes them stronger. 
• Praising effort over results
• Framing failures as “Not Yet” instead of “You failed”
• Helpin students develop a “Silicon Valley Start-up Mindset” in which extol failure with the mantra “Fail fast, fail often.”

Krashen’s Theory of Second Language Acquisition: The Affective Filter

Stephen Krashen (University of Southern California) is recognized as one of the most important educational theorists working in the field of second language acquisition. He has developed a well accepted theory on language acquisition that is built around five hypothesis, including one based on the concept of affective filters. An affective filter is essentially a student’s emotional condition and reponses to learning and the learning environment that can support or inhibit second language asquisition. Krashen asserts that we must attend to the emotional conditions of language learners to facilitate the acquisition of a second language. The students’ affective filters are made up of different variables that include:

• Low Self-esteem
• Low Motivation
• Anxiety
• Personality traits such as introversion/extroversion

This hypothesis suggests a student with low self-esteem who worries about being judged will be less likely to practice newly acquired language skills than a student with high self-esteem. Emmergent bilinguals are often in high stress and low support situations that create anxiety and low self-efficacy that also inhibit learning. The theory suggests that for emmergent bilinguals to learn more quickly, educators must work to lower the students’ affective filters in the classroom environment to improve student outcomes. The following image from Seidlitz Education demonstrates these concepts.

Is the Affective Filter Unique to Language Learners?

I would say that the answer to that is NO!, and this is why….

When we look at the student issues that SEL is meant to address, I see affective filters:

• Low self-esteem
• Low self-efficacy
• Lack of motivation
• Lack of grit
• Feelings of not belonging

Is the student who doesn’t want to speak in class because he is unsure of his ability to speak English that different than the student who won’t share her thoughts becuase she is unsure of her intelligence?

Is the student who has failed to be successful in school and has thus given up trying experiencing a different type of lack of motivation based on the root cause of that failure?

Is the student who feels a total lack of self-worth feeling a different type of low-self esteem because its based on language different than one who feels it because of abuse?

It is my belief that the affective filters are the same despite different root causes, and all can act as inhibiting factors in student success. A student who walks into a class believing that he has failed before he even begins, regardless of the source of that low self-efficacy, will never be successful until we help lower that affective filter. We must help students free themselves of these mindsets and beliefs that act as sound canceling headphones in order for students to hear our messages and in order for students to enter into our converstations.

There are those who suggest that SEL is fluffy, feel good work, but for those of us who have spent years throwing seeds on untilled soil hoping for something to grow, SEL is understood to be central to the work of education. It is a struggle to help students realize their untapped potential and to help them move past their emotional turmoil into a place where learning and growth can occur.

Stephen Krashen knows about language acquisition what I know about all learning: it is hard work that requires the confidence and the emotional wearwithal to be vulnerable, to take chances and to sometimes fail. This is the role of Social Emotional Learning in our schools… to help students to develop the self-esteem to enter into the learning relationship with enough confidence to take those chances and to reap the rewards of that courage.

Reference:

Krashen, Stephen D. Principles and Practice in Second Language Acquisition. Prentice-Hall International, 1987.

https://seidlitzblog.org/