Tinkering and hard play are what happens when one embraces a growth mindset. Today’s children ( and most adults) are wired to live for perfection. We chase down A’s in school, wins in sports, and praise for our abilities. According to Maria Popova, we as educators need to stop praising students for their abilities and instead acknowledge and praise their effort in order to create hearty and resilient children. This in turn will lead students towards the growth mindset.
The growth mindset thrives on challenge and sees failure as a way to stretch our abilities. Everyone can grow through application and experience. Tinkering and hard play are the modes through which we apply our thinking skills and gain experience. As defined by Sylvia Martinez and Gary Stager , tinkering is a mindset. It is playful way to approach and solve problems through direct experience, iteration, experimentation and discovery. The growth mindset is just that, being willing to take a risk, make mistakes and challenge ourselves to solve problems.
Carol Dweck does an excellent job of describing what schools should look and sound like. Instead of failure, it should be ” I have not reached this goal yet” or ” I don’t understand yet”. This is the growth mindset rather than a fixed mindset that ” is gripped by the tyranny of now”. The notion of ” not yet” is a learning curve. A path into the future. We should be raising kids for “yet” rather than now.
” A child loves his play, not because it’s easy but because it’s hard” – Dr. Benjamin Spock
Children play for a purpose; to learn. This is a child’s way of tinkering. I believe all children are born with the growth mindset and the longing to tinker with things. Martinez and Stager explain the growth mindset well when they say” When we allow children to experiment, take risks, and play with their own ideas, we give them permission to trust themselves ( 2019, p. 40).” This is what the growth mindset is all about. It’s being OK with taking the time to tinker and play and mess about and allowing yourself to learn through your experiences. I leave you with this quote:
” The message is clear in many classrooms that there is only one way to approach learning. It’s taken on face value that science is analytical, math is logical, art is creative, and so on. Contemplation is time wasted and there is only one way to solve problems. Children hear these messages loud and clear”- Martinez and Stager
Is this really the kind of mindset we want to force upon our students? Do we want students for “now” or students who “don’t yet” understand but will through their own experiences? And lastly, which one do you think will have a longer lasting impact on these students?
– Cassie
References:
Martinez, S. & Stager, G. (2019). Invent to learn: making, tinkering and engineering in the classroom (2nd ed.). Torrance, CA: Constructing Modern Knowledge Press.
Popova, M. (2018, September 23). Fixed vs. Growth: The Two Basic Mindsets That Shape Our Lives. Retrieved from https://www.brainpickings.org/2014/01/29/carol-dweck-mindset/
The Power of Believing That You Can Improve- Caral Dweck https://www.ted.com/talks/carol_dweck_the_power_of_believing_that_you_can_improve?utm_campaign=tedspread&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=tedcomshare
Hi Cassie,
I enjoyed reading your post for this week! You brought up that when students explore their curiosity through tinkering and hard play, when they receive feedback and struggle through solving problems, they need to have a growth mindset to be successful. When students take and apply the feedback they receive, they are able to understand content at a deeper level – we want the students at the “not yet” stage because they show grit and will not shy away from solving a problem.
Nicely done!
Chelsea
Cassie,
I agree with you that the children we teach are hardwired to strive for perfection. It is expected from them from many places; school, home, sports, etc. Therefore I think it is hard for students to embrace a growth mindset, they have been taught that failure is not okay, when in reality failure is something that is needed. Failure is a teacher; it teaches one that persistence is needed to succeed and that we need to be willing to make mistakes in order to learn. Like you mentioned, it is okay to allow yourself to learn through experiences, even if those experiences are hard and filled with mistakes.
-Kelsey
This week has been all about the growth mindset and how closely it is related to making. The maker movement is all about moving society towards a growth mindset. Our maker space session this week required us to jump into tinkering headfirst as we worked to solve each others problems. It required us to use our problem solving skills to solve the issues with our circuits and to help others solve problems with theirs. It required us to look closely at our projects and to use our cooperative learning skills to help each other grow. Tinkering allows us to make mistakes and learn from them which in turn lets us grow through a growth mindset. I can’t wait to start helping my students move towards a “yet” mindset rather than a now mindset.~ Cassie