Public Group active 1 week, 3 days ago
CUNY Learning Mindset Modules Group
This Discussion Forum for CUNY Learning Mindset Modules Group is visible to the general public. Anyone on the Internet can see the comments and discussion threads. But only Academic Commons members can join and leave the group, and participate in the discussion.
Admins:
1.8 Course Policies & Activities (Required to earn certificate)
-
Posted by CUNY Mindset Initiative on March 11, 2024 at 11:01 am💬 Reflection/Discussion:
- Which specific policies and activities do you intend to try in order to create a growth mindset-supportive learning environment? Why?
-
-
I would love to explore helping students set SMART goals with their educators at the beginning of the semsester (or without). This seems like a very concrete tool that can give them ownership over their learning.
-
This is an exciting idea, but I imagine it would take significant discussion and investment on the part of the educator to help ensure that each students’ chosen goals are within the scope of the course. Can anyone chime in who has done this with their students? What does that goal-setting process look like?
-
I think that goal setting is so important. In this context, it could be helpful to have students learn not only about how to develop and follow through on achievable goals, but also to have students understand the science of setting goals – basically the research that supports the use of goal setting to increase motivation and more.
I also wonder if it might be helpful to ask students to set goals for the course specifically (which can evolve as they learn) as well as a larger student and/or personal goal?
-
I do an activity related to this at the beginning of the semester. I call it “class expectations” and here’s the template. It’s not quite about goals but more about what students most hope and expect from me, from each other and from themselves. For the last part, they don’t write it in the collaborative document but in their own notebook, and I invite students to share strategies for success. I’m thinking now this could also be combined with SMART goal-setting.
-
This is a really interesting activity, Casandra! For the last part, do you determine the top three expectations in each category together as a class, or does each student individually choose their own top three? What kinds of responses from students have you seen when carrying out this activity? Maybe one way this could be combined with goal-setting is once you have determined the expectations, ask the students to outline some specific goals/habits/practices that will contribute to their expectations being met throughout the semester.
-
A concept that could also be emphasized along with goal-setting is the habits/practices that students develop as part of their routine throughout the semester. In academics and many other areas of life, we may have lofty goals and high expectations, but it is the daily and weekly habits and routines that we practice that often make the difference in whether or not we reach those goals. For more on this, I recommend the book Atomic Habits by James Clear.
-
For the last part, students choose their own goal/s. Common themes I’ve noticed are time management and putting in all the effort needed to succeed in the course. I like th idea of outlining specific goals/habits/practices. I’m thinking now this could be a good place to emphasize the aspect of Growth that has to do with seeking/getting help from others – e.g. office hours, resources on campus, peer support.
-
Hi Cassandra-
I also have a community agreement/class expectations at the start of class, but run it with all the students present. Do you find it better to ask the students in advance individually?
I too am thinking of how to incorporate SMART goals into the start of the semester (it’s part of my marketing class, but not until the third week).
-
-
I have found it quite helpful to create experiential learning opportunities for my students and allow them to revise their assignments to boost their grades. They usually respond positively when I create assignments that challenge them to connect what we are learning in class to developing strategies for addressing specific issues in their communities (i.e., identifying problems, mapping resources, and developing advocacy plans). Doing so gives them a sense of purpose in their learning.
-
This really resonates with me as I am always looking for ways that students can engage in experiential opportunities that allow them to apply course learning in real-life contexts. If you have any examples of any of the work your students have done on the Open Lab (or other places) and are willing to share, it would be interesting to see!
-
I support the idea of providing students with the opportunity to connect concepts with issues that are important to them, as it will also promote civic engagement. Yesterday’s workshop mentioned that when learners see purpose and relevance in what they are learning, they are more likely to engage and put effort into mastering the content.
-
-
I find that growth mindset fits very well with the concepts of standards-based or mastery grading, and I’ve begun offering frequent quizzes in my college algebra classes that assess specific content standards. Students receive a grade of “Check-Minus”, “Check”, or “Check-Plus” and can retake a different version of each quiz at any point in order to show me that they have improved their understanding of any given standard. I tweak this process a little bit each semester, but at this point, I still convert the mastery grades into a numerical grade at the end of the semester based largely on how many of the standards students have mastered.
-
In the past, I have experimented with ungrading in some of my classes. I have explained to students that ungrading encourages students to focus on the process of learning, rather than on the grade itself. I can improve upon my implementation of ungrading by relating it directly to growth mindset. When discussing ungrading at the beginning of the semester, I can tell students that the goal is to see mistakes as learning opportunities. Students are not penalized for making mistakes or facing challenges in their learning process, but are instead encouraged to take the necessary steps to overcome challenges.
-
Ungrading is a complex process, and I appreciate how you are exploring it with your students. For me, I continue to try to shift the focus from a letter or number back to the objectives, process, and personal reflection on learning. There are some interesting resources on the Open Lab that you might find helpful, too.
-
-
On the first day of my college algebra class, I let students out of class 10 minutes early with the assignment to form groups and take a selfie of their group in front of the Math Lab, an academic tutoring center on campus, and my office door. I tell them the next day, “These are the places to get help this semester, and now you know where to find them!” The purpose of this activity is largely to help students begin to develop effective strategies for learning by giving them a point of connection with the resources that exist on campus.
I also like the idea of exam wrappers and often give one that includes asking students to reflect on their performance, describe how they prepared for the exam (and how much time they spent preparing), and make study commitments/goals as they look ahead to the next exam.
-
Seth – I love this idea! It is so helpful to students to give them in-class time to make groups and form a plan/schedule to work. That is often the hardest part – especially for students who might not know many people in the class. I have done resource photo scavenger hunts with students on the first day of class, but I like how connected this is to the current task at hand. I am going to add this idea to my toolbox. Thanks for sharing!
-
That’s a great idea Seth! We have terrific campus resources, such as the tutoring center, and I am always trying to think of ways to get students going to them as early as possible in the semester. I was planning on finishing my first class of the semester a few minutes early and walking students to the tutoring center and introducing them to some of the tutors. I think showing students the actual location will reduce that barrier.
I am also thinking about allowing students to make revisions on certain assignments so that they can incorporate my feedback and see its impact on their work.
-
-
Hello everyone,
The diversity of strategies discussed here for fostering a growth mindset through course policies and activities is truly insightful and reflects a deep commitment to enhancing student learning and engagement.
Carrie, the introduction of SMART goals at the beginning of the semester is a potent tool for giving students ownership over their learning. This approach not only motivates students but also helps them develop practical planning and goal-setting skills that are crucial in both academic and personal contexts.
Jean-Yves, your use of experiential learning opportunities and allowing revisions for better grades are excellent strategies to encourage students to engage deeply with course content. This approach not only emphasizes the learning process but also motivates students to persist through challenges, knowing they have the opportunity to improve.
Seth, your implementation of standards-based grading in your algebra classes is a practical example of how growth mindset principles can be integrated into assessment practices. By allowing retakes and focusing on mastery, you provide students with concrete evidence that their efforts can lead to improvement, which is central to fostering a growth mindset.
Danesh, the concept of ungrading you’ve explored focuses on learning as a continuous process rather than a final evaluation. This method helps reduce anxiety around grades and encourages students to view challenges as opportunities for growth, aligning perfectly with the principles of a growth mindset.
Tim, integrating goal setting for both course-specific and personal objectives can significantly enhance the relevance of learning activities for students. Your approach helps students see the connection between their academic efforts and broader life goals, making their learning experience more meaningful and integrated.
Deborah, the idea of using resource photo scavenger hunts and creating a supportive community within the classroom through group activities is fantastic. It not only makes learning resources more familiar and accessible but also helps build essential collaborative skills among students.
Each of these practices serves to create a supportive learning environment where students are encouraged to take ownership of their learning, see value in their efforts, and understand that their intellectual growth is a continual process. Thank you all for sharing such innovative and effective strategies.
-
I really have enjoyed the shares on this forum. I usually do a self-assessment for the mid and end term with specific prompts that include performance, process and also what resonated with them the most. I also look for patterns in the responses (especially at. mid-year) and build from there. For example, last term students really liked to running notes that I distribute prior to the class. I create the notes and agenda on the Google Doc, which helps them to focus on particular aspects to discuss in class. They also can post their entrance tickets right on the running notes. In several of the responses in the mid-year self-assessment, students said it was helpful. A majority of students admitted that they were having trouble keeping up with readings and wanted to do better. I am able to use the mid and end year assessments to help me know how best to teach them (I will have some of the same students again)>
-
Sounds like a great way for your students to reflect on the course and what is working for them, and also for you to practice growth mindset as you implement changes based on their comments! I take the pulse of my class in a similar way with a mid-semester survey and often ask variations of these three questions: 1) What should I (the instructor) stop doing in the class? (What is getting in the way of your learning?) 2) What should I keep doing in the class? (What are you finding helpful right now?) 3) What should I start doing in the class? (How could I better support you?). I’ve often made changes or emphasized/de-emphasized certain teaching practices based on my students’ responses to these questions.
-
-
Has anyone ever used the Stamford videos by Dr. Stephen Chew as a resource for their students? Someone recently mentioned them to me, and I am considering how I could incorporate them into a class discussion or assignment on growth mindset.
-
I’m not a big believer in grading. How can we quantify learning? But I do know that grades are a commodity in education and students care about them. In all of the classes I teach, I only give grades on major assignments after several steps or stages that include peer and instructor feedback and opportunities for them to reflect on their learning and ask questions about the process. As I go forward, I’m always trying to make this process more meaningful and more transparent to students so they see learning for what it is–a process (of trial and error … and success).
-
I incorporate several of those mentioned here in some of my classes, including ungrading, scaffolding and allowing multiple submissions of the same assignment.
I was advised by a mentor to use metacognition and self-assessment activities as a way to promote self-reflection and I think these contribute to a growth mindset. I ask a series of metacognitive questions for students to answer as they are reading an article, and then, give them another series of questions to answer as they are completing the assignment for a different article. Then, I give them a series of questions to reflect on to assess their own assignment (not for a grade).
I also assign students to develop SMART goals for a personal health improvement project in a personal and community health class I teach. Moving forward, I will incorporate the SMART component into the goal setting process for the Writing Across the Curriculum course.
There are a lot of other ideas in the reflections in this section that I will be digging into also.
-
I love your approach of giving students metacognitive questions to consider as they read–both a way for them to reflect on what’s challenging and rewarding about close reading and a way to thread personal connections and value to their coursework.
-
-
In the upcoming semester, I intend to implement the SMART goal strategy as well as activities aimed as helping students evaluate, use, and prune resources available to them as they move through the course. Additionally, to encourage deliberate practice, I intend to design a grading system that rewards practice alongside outcome.
-
I want to implement a retake exam policy to create a growth mindset-supportive learning environment. Many students tend to perform poorly on the first exam but show improvement in the remaining exams. However, due to the initial low grade, the student is at risk of failing the course. A retake exam policy will allow students to successfully demonstrate growth and perseverance and complete the program.
In addition, I would like to introduce formative and summative student self-assessment activities. These activities will allow students to self-reflect on their performances and efforts, analyze strengths, and use mistakes as opportunities to master a task. Self-assessment is important because it creates a sense of accountability and ownership for actions and results while teaching students how to be empathetic and compassionate to themselves despite setbacks. -
I think allowing for revisions, test corrections, and the like has been great for fostering growth mindset. This is not something I have done yet myself as an adviser/instructor, but I know from my experience as a student how the process of addressing a professor’s feedback contributed to my desire to learn and belief in my ability to improve as a learner. It also sends an implicit message from the instructor that “I believe you can do better.”
An activity that I would like to try is peer review of assignments in progress. I have experienced this as a student in writing classes, and I think it can empower students and offer a different perspective on the impact of thoughtful feedback.
One other activity related to goals could involve students reflecting on how course content and skills developed in the course relate to their short- and long-term goals. I think this would be particularly helpful when the course content is no so obviously connected to a students degree program or career path.
-
I allow students to redo their assignments because it helps them learn and improve their grades. I check who has not done it and email or speak with the students.
Students appreciate this opportunity and do better in general. -
I’m doing a FYE section this semester, and the ideas of that cohort align with these a lot. I agree that SMART goals are useful. I have always talked quiet a bit about growth mindsets, both to the class and individually with students. I will continue to write notes that say things like, “In order to reach the next level…” and “Just some concentration on…” or “You’re onto something good her, but you need to adjust…” I am learning about encouraging more meta-cognition about learning for students. We’ll discuss the kind of negative thinking they can get into sometimes, and learn what to replace those ideas with. I’ll also talk about how to break through the resistance when they feel like procrastinating. I don’t believe procrastination is laziness; I believe it’s anxiety related, and students who procrastinate more are usually more uncomfortable with imperfection. This is related to a fixed mindset because they believe not knowing things means there is something wrong.
-
Leading class discussion: I ask each student to lead at least one class discussion on the assigned readings. To accommodate everyone usually two students are assigned to lead the discussions on each week’s readings. This allows them to collaborate to divide responsibilities.
-
The growth mindset would be difficult in a library instruction environment. However, I believe that the more you ask questions and keep seeking answers to your research questions, the more you will grow.
-
I teach first-year writing, and I don’t put grades on drafts, just written feedback. My department’s composition program is now putting more emphasis on reflection as we’ve moved to a portfolio model, and that’s been empowering for students too (and for me as their instructor) in terms of seeing how gradual, incremental progress and development happens over time, and is not necessarily linear. I think students often get discouraged when a piece of writing isn’t “perfect” right away (and that idea of perfection is something to analyze in class too). With the rise of ChatGPT, I think some students think that rapid production that AI does is what real writing and thinking looks like–quick and “perfect.” (I don’t think AI writing is perfect or desirable!) In response to this question, I’m also thinking about a study that a colleague shared; a professor told students “I’m expecting a lot of you with this assignment, but I know that you are capable of completing it thoughtfully and well, and I’m here to help you as you need.” Students who received this message had higher success rates in the course! This seems like a simple yet really impactful step to take with students.
-
I would like to integrate SMART goals, especially focusing on the “Achievable” aspect, start by assessing students’ current skills and knowledge. Next, I would organize collaborative goal-setting sessions where students identify what they find challenging and what they believe is achievable, ensuring that goals are realistic based on their abilities. Breaking down larger goals into smaller, manageable steps, aligning with from basic understanding to more complex application. I would also implement regular reflections to help students evaluate their progress and adjust their goals as needed. I hope this approach not only helps in setting realistic and attainable goals but also enhances students’ learning experiences by progressively developing their skills.
-
I can use it sort of like a debriefing (from simulation) such as what went well, and what might need improvement.
-
As an academic advisor, to create a growth-mindset learning environment, I would make sure by the end of the advisement session, the student leaves knowing all the information needed to succeed in their major. Whether it is what pre-req they would need, for a certain program or recommended a program that would benefit the student (ASAP, SEEK, CLIP… etc). In order to grow, they need to know what they have available for them to use/participate in.
-
I have always favored in writing assignments, having students write drafts, get feedback (and perhaps a low-stakes grade), and revise (for a higher stake grade). But in larger classes, it sometimes just isn’t practical to require this. In classes where I have multiple low-stakes grading opportunities (anything — quizzes, discussion board, very short writing assignments/response papers, etc.) I tend to drop the lowest score. So a student who just had a tough week and didn’t come to class prepared for a quiz, or who got overwhelmed in life and missed turning in a small assignment, catches a break, and I try to explain my approach here as recognizing that they may be juggling several courses, jobs, family care obligations, etc. — and that none of us is on top of 100% of things 100% of the time.
-
Scaffolding laboratory reports is a method I have used. It allows students to focus on specific sections for a few weeks – get feedback, revise and improve; before moving on to another lab report section.
-
In my writing class, I intend to try the method of ungrading and self-grading. I think this will allow students to better understand the goals of the assignment and what they can do to improve their writing.
-
To help cultivate a growth mindset, I have created assignments that follow Bloom’s taxonomy
(I didn’t know that was an actual technique until this module). Since I teach microbiology lab, students are expected to write a comprehensive report work on an unknown bacterium based on staining and biochemical testing. This comprehensive report is worth 20% of their grade. Since the majority of students taking the class have a very weak foundation in scientific writing, I have created an additional two assignments (4% each). I want to allow reflection and resubmission for these assignments in future semesters. However, these additional assignments expose students to different elements of scientific writing and builds their writing skills. Deploying the Bloom’s taxonomy in conjunction with constructive feedback, has significantly improved scientific writing to all my students. -
Reflection, reflection, reflection. And dialogue. I require students to make comments on each written assignment to highlight what they think they did well (and explain why), less well (and explain why), describe what the struggled with (and why), and ask for feedback on specific things. I also invite them to reflect on previous assignments (assignments are already scaffolded in support of this, making them compound skills they develop) while writing assignments.
-
You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
