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Interpreting Carol Dweck's Motivation Questionairre

Last post 25/12/10 at 00:41 by weebecka, 363 replies
Post started by mature_maths_trainee on 12/12/10 at 11:59

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  • Betamale avatar
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    Posted by: Betamale 13/12/2010 at 05:40
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    mature_maths_trainee:

    A very peripheral motivation was that I've been encouraged to carry out such surveys as part of my teacher training. I felt this one worthwhile.

    Hi,

    Thanks for your response. This was where I was going with my question. I am aware the work of Dweck is pushed/championed/encouraged in teacher training.

    IMO its an interesting read although I think to than a pupils motives, beliefs in their ability and their attitude to new challenghes is ever changing on a mirco and macro level.

    I dont think teaching 20+ hours a week 8 classes and trying to pigeon hole students into a fixed bracket is ideal.

    Ability is not a fixed point as many have shown but a positive classroom and a can do attitude without should see people through without this method.

    I feel that teacher training is teaching people more and more about the latest gizmos rather than simply getting on with the teaching.

    If you watch a child develop from year 7-11 and span so many different mindsets you may think "was I right to go down that route" One thing is for sure, if you encourage and challenege pupils then they are more likely to succeed.

    I believe spending time on such projects is nice yet not realistic with the similar ones on behaviour management, afl etc etc when you are teaching a full timetable for a 35-40 year career.
  • weebecka avatar
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    Posted by: weebecka 13/12/2010 at 10:53
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    Betamale:
    I believe spending time on such projects is nice yet not realistic with the similar ones on behaviour management, afl etc etc when you are teaching a full timetable for a 35-40 year career.
     

    Up to a point I empathise with this completely Betamale.

    I had Mike Ollterton & co for my PGCE - the king of progressive and mixed ability teaching.

    Reality hit me like a train as I found myself teachign a full timetable in a big school with setted classes, limited resources and a text book orientated POS.

     

    But I've found it useful in my career always to have had an awareness that there were alternative perspectives and and an with it some aspirations for what I wanted my maths teaching to be.  

    Broadband technology has made much more possible now than was possible five years ago Betamale.  I think teacher training should be trying to prepare students teachers for the the teaching which is becoming possible as well, of course, as learning from practical experience through placements. 

    For examply my student teachers have recently written essays on the relevance of Wolfram Alpha to mathematics teaching and I would expect this to bring them useful insights they would take with them to their work to the benefit of the schools they join.

     

  • gilbert24 avatar
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    Posted by: gilbert24 13/12/2010 at 13:51
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     This is the most interesting thread I have ever read. I'd be really interested to see what the results bring - and I intend to do a bit of my own research on this now too! Smile

  • Betamale avatar
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    Posted by: Betamale 13/12/2010 at 18:08
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    weebecka:

    For examply my student teachers have recently written essays on the relevance of Wolfram Alpha to mathematics teaching and I would expect this to bring them useful insights they would take with them to their work to the benefit of the schools they join.

    I think for once you and I would agree on something as I was discussing this as a leraning tool with my pupils the other day rather than a cheating tool.

    Anyway back to the topic...lets get all 'nouvo-pedagogy-cool' and do the following for my 8 classes of 220 kids:

    • Put all pupils down as a V, A or K learner
    • Run them all through the Dweck process to establish their drive
    • Sit them round tables, put them in groups and watch their interaction and decode if they are shapers blah etc blah
    • Factor in cross curric activities that pupils can share their learning on depending on the groups they feel comfortable in and establish the areas they can develop PLTS in
    • Make sure we run through the LO 8 thousand times and stop one less time to see if each pupil has got the differentiated work you have set before making them stick post it notes on each other to guess words

    All this BS simply hinders learning the subject we were meant to teach...mathematics

    Planning this gash and delivering 10-20 minutes of watered down maths has led to delivering a poor education (amongst many other factors)

    I have one pupil who has a statement saying he would feel better expressing his maths in pictures, not words.......please cmon.

    • Sit them down
    • teach them maths
    • teach with vigour, passion and challenege pupils
    • set a high level of expectation and discpline
    • empower pupils, support pupils and encourage success and champion those who subscribe

    Chucking sand around and rolling on the floor doesnt teach aquadratic eqautions, elbow grease and a supportive environment does. Mathematics education is not entertaining and catering for poor behaviour IMO

     
  • mature_maths_trainee avatar
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    Posted by: mature_maths_trainee 13/12/2010 at 19:01
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    Just to clarify...

    - Dweck's work has not been mentioned whatsoever in any my teacher training (I stumbled across it in my reading). But you might well be right in saying it's heavily pushed on other courses - I don't know. They've encouraged us to do other surveys (notably VAK - which is the least useful survey I can imagine (since, even if students do have a learning preference, you are advised not to teach to their bias in any case)).

     - I largely agree that such surveys aren't always realistic when you're teaching full time, which is why I'm doing it now. I've chosen a topic where I feel there's most value - which is to better understand my lower-set Year 9's.

    That's not intended to be defensive, just to explain. :-)
  • weebecka avatar
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    Posted by: weebecka 13/12/2010 at 20:21
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    mature_maths_trainee:
    I've chosen a topic where I feel there's most value - which is to better understand my lower-set Year 9's.
     

    That'll keep you nicely occupied for the rest of your career!

    But seriously - I find bottom set year 9s are quite easy to engage with growth mindset thinking.  This is partly because they've often got few inhibitions and little to lose by taking intellectual risks.  However they usually don't get access to the kinds of activities which tap into this and they miss out on the higher level maths so they can't move up.

    Personally I find set 2s (ish) suffer from the worst fixed minset issues.

    Just some things to chuck in your thought wok MMT.

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    Posted by: DM 13/12/2010 at 20:35
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    Jeepers.   What is "growth mindset thinking"?

    Have you stir-fried your own brain in that wok becks?
  • DM avatar
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    Posted by: DM 13/12/2010 at 20:36
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    I should explain that I haven't encountered the work of Dweck previously at all.
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    Posted by: scentless_apprentice 13/12/2010 at 21:08
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    mature_maths_trainee:

     (since, even if students do have a learning preference, you are advised not to teach to their bias in any case)).

     

     Quote of the year. This is an incredibly key point that most who dictate to us what we should be doing in class actually ignore.

  • weebecka avatar
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    Posted by: weebecka 13/12/2010 at 21:21
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    We had a Barry Hymer CPD session where at the end he had a competition to see who could write the best Limerick about Carol Dweck. Confused

    I couldn't get past it needing to end in 'pain in the neck' - but that was just the way he presented it.

    She's good.  There's some good stuff on youtube with her and Hymer together I think. 

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