Thoughts on Ainsley Rose’s session at the International Visible Learning conference in Carlsbad, CA.
From Erin Johnson, First Grade Teacher, Carlsbad Unified School District
This session focused on how our mind frames affect our profession as educators. It was extremely interactive and hands-on. Participants were engaged, discussing, and learning throughout the entire time.
We were first shown an illustration of a large tree with children in various positions: on, under, or around the tree. Some students appeared relaxed and calm, other students were shown helping their peers up a ladder, one was sitting on an upper branch by herself, one boy was at the very top of the tree, and a few students were at the bottom of the tree, either on the ground or on the lower trunk of the tree. We were asked to determine which student we would have most identified with as a student growing up, and which one we identified with as an adult. We were in groups of three, and I found the exercise very interesting as I spoke with my tablemates.
Next, we took an online quiz to determine what our personal mindframe was. We determined whether or not we felt all students could grow and learn. These mindsets are called the fixed ability mindset or the growth mindset. This determination then led us into further discussion about the eight mindframes. Ainsley Rose provided us with excellent materials for referencing the various mindframes.
Our group chose to discuss mindframe 8: Teachers/leaders inform all about the language of learning. My partners each felt he needed to explore this mindframe because of the demographic of each man’s school. One partner was a director of a school in India, and the other had a fairly large percentage of non-English speaking parents of the students who attended his school. We discussed possibly doing home visits to increase parent involvement or offering sessions at night so parents could come to school to learn computer skills or various methods to support their child’s education.
Next, we participated in another interactive activity, in which we had to identify our style in a group setting using the “compass points” definitions for group dynamics. We learned that people have the following styles: Acting, Speculating, Caring, or Paying Attention to Detail. Upon recognizing which group we fell in, we were led through a series of questions to determine the strengths and challenges of our group type.
Lastly, we discussed how adults learn and the implications for training program design. There were so many beneficial aspects of this session. I have since purchased professional development materials on this subject and have enjoyed learning more about the powerful implications of mindframes within the educational setting.
