Incorporating Growth Mindset Practices to Empower Students
General description of the project
Strong evidence supports the positive effects of a growth mindset in empowering students to develop adaptive beliefs about learning and school. In colleges which serve students from traditionally marginalized and minoritized backgrounds, the returns on such an investment can be significant. At Eugenio Maria de Hostos Community College, growth mindset principles were incorporated into a dental hygiene clinical program primarily by constructing a learner centered syllabus.
Technologies
Zoom was utilized to conduct an online meeting to review the syllabus. Google forms was used as the primary form of assessment for the initiative.
Explain project results
Students were surveyed immediately after their participation in the online syllabus review session and overwhelmingly reported positive feelings about the syllabus and their understanding of their responsibilities in the course. On the basis of this preliminary initiative, changes to the following course (which is also a clinical dental hygiene course) will be reviewed in this presentation. In this way, attendees can see how easy, and fruitful, incorporating growth mindset can be in college level courses.
Why it should be considered best practice?
Very strong evidence now exists to support the incorporation of growth mindset principles in institutions of higher learning. However, instructor incorporation of these simple techniques, especially at community colleges in urban locations, is slow. Part of the reason for this is lack of understanding on behalf of faculty. This presentation will review growth mindset principles and offer specific activities faculty can implement in order to expand their pedagogy and improve student learning outcomes.
Highlights of your proposed presentation
Highlights of this presentation include sharing of best practices, i.e. specific activities which faculty can incorporate into their coursework; learning how to create a simple assessment on Google forms; access to plethora of evidence-based information regarding growth mindset in urban higher education institutions; and, most importantly, a passionate and high-energy presentation delivered by an educator sincerely devoted to improving her teaching.
The Evaluation Committee will evaluate submitted proposals based on the following criteria. Each area will be rated on a scale from 1 to 7 (1= non-satisfactory; 7 =outstanding), for a maximum of 63 points.