By Alex Chiu
Montessori Practical Life – Pouring Exercises
We continuously hear new buzzwords regarding child development, education, and personal growth, and one buzz in recent years has been about “fixed mindsets” vs. “growth mindsets”. In their simplest terms, a ‘fixed mindset’ is the belief that your intelligence and abilities are what they are and can’t be developed or improved, whereas a ‘growth mindset’ is the belief that our intelligence and abilities can grow, change, and be developed with work and effort. In her book Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, Carol Dweck shares the importance of working towards a growth mindset for better attitudes about ourselves and better success across all areas of our lives. Further work in this field of ‘mindsets’ has unfolded the importance of modeling and facilitating a growth mindset for our children, and what seems to be at the core of promoting growth mindsets in everyone centers around the word ‘belief’.
Not surprisingly, once again the Montessori Method beautifully dovetails with this relatively current idea. After all, Dr. Montessori’s very first Casa dei Bambini was a school created for the poorest, most disadvantaged children. Her expectations of what her students could do and achieve were not limited by their circumstances. She believed in their ability to learn, grow, develop, and achieve within the specially designed environment she provided for them. She believed that with careful observation, she could tune into their needs and develop materials that would allow them to overcome whatever obstacles they might have in their lives. Central to both Montessori education and a growth mindset is that very important aspect of “believing” that work and effort is important and that by putting forth that work and effort, children can learn new things, master many skills, develop a sense of self-worth and confidence, and do so with enthusiasm and satisfaction.
Experts agree that developing a growth mindset requires people to do certain things. A few practices which seem to be required for achieving a growth mindset include:
• Putting Forth Effort
• Responding to Feedback
• Taking Time for Self-Reflection
• Persisting Despite Difficulties
• Embracing Challenges
Many of these things automatically and naturally occur in the Montessori classroom. Children put forth the effort to make their work choices and do the work from start to finish. Children receive immediate feedback because the Montessori materials and lessons have built within them a ‘control of error’. Children know when they’ve completed the work correctly because of this self-correcting aspect created within the materials. For example, in the very basic Practical Life lesson of pouring liquid, if water spills, the child knows that something went wrong. The child engages in self-reflection as he or she thinks about how to do the work differently to solve the problem and do the work without spilling. Should she pour the water more slowly? Should the angle of the pitcher change? Should she concentrate more on her work than looking up at others across the table while pouring? Then, the child can repeat the work and persist despite difficulties. Through this repetition, the child comes to discover just the right way to pour water from one container to another without spilling. He or she learns the appropriate speed to pour, the angle at which the pitcher should be held, and the careful concentration it takes to perform this task. In the Practical Life area and throughout the classroom, the child is constantly invited to embrace challenges, as the Montessori materials are arranged in succession of difficulty and grow with the child, continuously moving the child forward in learning new skills. Even in this very basic Montessori Practical Life pouring exercise, the child works on developing a growth mindset, believing that he or she can do the work without spilling water with more practice and effort.
Perhaps even better is that as children work through various Montessori lessons, they are not reliant on an adult giving them praise for doing a ‘good job’. Instead, they internalize that they are making progress and doing things well because they see it for themselves! The feedback is right there for them as they do their work. And it’s not critical or judgmental—it just is. The process of children choosing their work equally stimulates a growth mindset, as they can return to lessons to refine their skills or seek out new lessons that are intriguing and very likely more difficult or complex.
Additionally, teachers prepare the environment for their students so that challenges and (internal) rewards (such as self-satisfaction, a feeling of accomplishment, and feeling a sense of success in doing the work well) are available at every turn and in every activity they choose. This type of environment motivates children to seek out challenges, learn from mistakes, and enjoy the process of learning! Just as Dr. Montessori did with her first students in her first Casa dei Bambini, today’s Montessori teachers believe in their current students and are there to guide them towards a healthy, joyful, educational experience. We believe that Montessori students can grow, persevere, and find delight in learning with their growth mindsets throughout their entire lives. This is why we believe in the Montessori Method.
For more information about growth mindset, you might like to explore these resources, some of which were used in creating this article:
Briceño, Eduardo. “Growth Mindset: Clearing up Some Common Confusions.” Mindshift, KQED Inc., 16 November 2015, https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/42769/growth-mindset-clearing-up-some-common-confusions.
Dweck, Carol S. Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. New York: Random House, 2006.
Dweck, Carol S. “Recognizing and Overcoming False Growth Mindset.” Edutopia, George Lucas Educational Foundation, 11 January 2016, https://www.edutopia.org/blog/recognizing-overcoming-false-growth-mindset-carol-dweck.
Eidens, Alexandra. “Top Growth Mindset Resources for Parents and Educators.” Big Life Journal, 8 September 2017, https://biglifejournal.com/blogs/blog/growth-mindset-resources.
Freibrun, Marine. “Maintaining a Teacher Growth Mindset.” Tales from a Very Busy Teacher, 31 December 2016, http://www.talesfromaverybusyteacher.com/2016/12/maintaining-teacher-growth-mindset.
Heggart, Keith. “Developing a Growth Mindset in Teachers and Staff.” Edutopia, George Lucas Educational Foundation, 4 February 2015, https://www.edutopia.org/discussion/developing-growth-mindset-teachers-and-staff.
Whips, Merri. “I Can Do Hard Things.” Montessori Blog, MariaMontessori.com, 7 March 2014, https://www.mariamontessori.com/2014/03/07/i-can-do-hard-things.