{"id":831,"date":"2019-03-29T08:55:34","date_gmt":"2019-03-29T12:55:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/themontessorichildrensacademy.com\/blog\/?p=831"},"modified":"2019-03-29T08:55:34","modified_gmt":"2019-03-29T12:55:34","slug":"believing-in-growing-montessori-minds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/themontessorichildrensacademy.com\/blog\/2019\/03\/29\/believing-in-growing-montessori-minds\/","title":{"rendered":"Believing in Growing Montessori Minds"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Alex Chiu<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/a>\"\"\u00a0\u00a0<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Montessori Practical Life – Pouring Exercises<\/em><\/p>\n

We continuously hear new buzzwords regarding child development, education, and personal growth, and one buzz in recent years has been about \u201cfixed mindsets\u201d vs. \u201cgrowth mindsets\u201d. In their simplest terms, a \u2018fixed mindset\u2019 is the belief that your intelligence and abilities are what they are and can\u2019t be developed or improved, whereas a \u2018growth mindset\u2019 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<\/em>, 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 \u2018mindsets\u2019 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 \u2018belief\u2019.<\/p>\n

Not surprisingly, once again the Montessori Method beautifully dovetails with this relatively current idea. After all, Dr. Montessori\u2019s 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 \u201cbelieving\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

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:<\/p>\n

\u2022 Putting Forth Effort
\n\u2022 Responding to Feedback
\n\u2022 Taking Time for Self-Reflection
\n\u2022 Persisting Despite Difficulties
\n\u2022 Embracing Challenges<\/p>\n

Many of these things automatically and naturally occur in the Montessori classroom. Children put forth the effort<\/strong> to make their work choices and do the work from start to finish. Children receive immediate feedback<\/strong> because the Montessori materials and lessons have built within them a \u2018control of error\u2019. Children know when they\u2019ve 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<\/strong> 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<\/strong>. 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<\/strong>, 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.<\/p>\n

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 \u2018good job\u2019. 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\u2019s not critical or judgmental\u2014it 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.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

For more information about growth mindset, you might like to explore these resources, some of which were used in creating this article:<\/p>\n

Brice\u00f1o, Eduardo. \u201cGrowth Mindset: Clearing up Some Common Confusions.\u201d Mindshift<\/em>, KQED Inc., 16 November 2015, https:\/\/www.kqed.org\/mindshift\/42769\/growth-mindset-clearing-up-some-common-confusions.<\/p>\n

Dweck, Carol S. Mindset: The New Psychology of Success<\/em>. New York: Random House, 2006.<\/p>\n

Dweck, Carol S. \u201cRecognizing and Overcoming False Growth Mindset.\u201d Edutopia<\/em>, George Lucas Educational Foundation, 11 January 2016, https:\/\/www.edutopia.org\/blog\/recognizing-overcoming-false-growth-mindset-carol-dweck.<\/p>\n

Eidens, Alexandra. \u201cTop Growth Mindset Resources for Parents and Educators.\u201d Big Life Journal<\/em>, 8 September 2017, https:\/\/biglifejournal.com\/blogs\/blog\/growth-mindset-resources.<\/p>\n

Freibrun, Marine. \u201cMaintaining a Teacher Growth Mindset.\u201d Tales from a Very Busy Teacher<\/em>, 31 December 2016, http:\/\/www.talesfromaverybusyteacher.com\/2016\/12\/maintaining-teacher-growth-mindset.<\/p>\n

Heggart, Keith. \u201cDeveloping a Growth Mindset in Teachers and Staff.\u201d Edutopia<\/em>, George Lucas Educational Foundation, 4 February 2015, https:\/\/www.edutopia.org\/discussion\/developing-growth-mindset-teachers-and-staff.<\/p>\n

Whips, Merri. \u201cI Can Do Hard Things.\u201d Montessori Blog<\/em>, MariaMontessori.com, 7 March 2014, https:\/\/www.mariamontessori.com\/2014\/03\/07\/i-can-do-hard-things.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Alex Chiu \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 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 \u201cfixed mindsets\u201d vs. \u201cgrowth mindsets\u201d. In their simplest terms, a \u2018fixed mindset\u2019 is the belief that your intelligence and abilities are what they are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1],"tags":[205,26,144,54,145,140,147],"coauthors":[13],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7icff-dp","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":806,"url":"https:\/\/themontessorichildrensacademy.com\/blog\/2019\/03\/06\/celebrating-montessori-education-week-at-mca\/","url_meta":{"origin":831,"position":0},"title":"Celebrating Montessori Education Week at MCA!","author":"Alex Chiu","date":"March 6, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"By Alex Chiu \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 A sampling of MCA student projects on display at local libraries for Montessori Education Week We at The Montessori Children\u2019s Academy celebrate Montessori education each and every day, but for one week out of the year, we join together with schools from around\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Early Child Education"","block_context":{"text":"Early Child Education","link":"https:\/\/themontessorichildrensacademy.com\/blog\/category\/early-child-education\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":717,"url":"https:\/\/themontessorichildrensacademy.com\/blog\/2018\/08\/13\/farmers-markets-and-montessori\/","url_meta":{"origin":831,"position":1},"title":"Farmers Markets and Montessori","author":"Alex Chiu","date":"August 13, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"By Alex Chiu August is perhaps one of the most colorful months of the year, especially if you take some time to visit any number of local farmers markets in the area. 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