Jonny Gaze Report Crombie Lockwood Vero Liability Study Award Report 2014

Over the course of 2014 I undertook a study into the topic of success and achievement and sought to understand what can boards do to nurture success and promote the right mindset, character and success.

Through the course of my research I kept in mind how this study will help boards do their jobs more effectively i.e.

• Raising awareness of a key issue • Building greater understanding of the governance role • Identifying good examples of best practice • Opportunities for developing practical resources for boards

My research involved the review of dozens of research reports, books, scientific reviews and articles on the topics of talent, character, mindset, achievement, success and mastery. I distilled this in to a succinct assessment of what the keys are to promoting success within the school environment.

Various themes came through in the literature review:

• The myths of the talent theory of mastery and success • The importance and value of purposeful practice in improving skills and abilities • Character strengths that are important to achieving success • How mindset plays an important role in whether we succeed or not • How an understanding of the brain and the malleability of intelligence and skill

development helps develop the right mindset • Practical tools, activities or interventions that have proved valuable in developing

successful outcomes • The value of effort, hard work and resilience • How failure is a positive component in achieving success • The value of providing the right type of praise and feedback

Throughout the research process a number of gems shone through - the works of Carol Dweck and colleagues on Mindset; Angela Duckworth’s growing research on the character traits of grit and perseverance; and the various psychologist and educators who have spent their lives focusing on how success is achieved and how we can all play a part in fostering this in the young lives we engage with.

The research led me down a meandering path and opened my eyes to the opportunities for boards to nurture success.

The key appears to be in developing the right mindset; as from the output of our mindsets, the right character traits grow, and the desire to learn, grow, produce effort, practice, make mistakes, persevere and learn some more. With learning comes improvement, and with improvement we all continue on the journey of success. The research supports the value of developing the right mindset in the early stages of this lifelong quest for success in the fields we work in. Believing that all children can succeed with effort, persistence and motivation is at the heart of the growth mindset.

Our mindsets are sets of beliefs and way of thinking that affects our behaviours and attitudes. People with a Growth Mindset believe in the growing mind and have the tendency to try harder, they find trying more enjoyable, they enjoy learning more for its own sake, and are more interested in the processes involved- “learning how to learn”.

Those with a growth mindset:

• Believe intelligence can grow with effort, application, experience • Bounce back better from failures • Persevere through adversity • Work longer and harder at tough problems • Learn more • Build character skills (and other skills)

The right mindset starts with the governors of our schools, who lead and strengthen schools with modelling the way. Setting the culture and values, and encouraging learning, effort and growth starts with the board, and this filters though to all areas of the school community.

Our schools need to provide opportunities, communicate high expectations, provide challenges, and develop enriching environments that help deliver the outcomes of the NZ Curriculum in our schools. To cultivate a school environment where the right mindset is prevalent, where performance character traits are taught and learnt and used, the leaders of our schools must first and foremost model these behaviours. Boards must give importance to the philosophies of growth mindset in areas of curriculum, teaching practices, personal development, technology, and activities both in and out of school.

As Boards and education leaders, we can assist our management, staff, students and parents to understand the key aspects to achieving success, and the character traits that the school values. Practical tools can be developed that:

• Help parents understand the importance of effort and persistence • Provide information about mindsets, encouraging resilience, grit, perseverance • Provide information on the brain, neural connections, malleability of the brain and

intelligence • Provide guidance on the most effective type of praise • Provide supportive environments to learn and grow • Provide support on the language of growth mindsets

Opportunities to assist our school communities are numerous- and range from information evenings, newsletters, information on school websites, the language used in school communications - both written and oral.

The research process has been an enriching experience, expanding my knowledge in an extremely interesting area. The practical opportunities to put the research findings into practice that have flowed from the research are numerous, simple and available for all. I challenge all boards of trustees to challenge themselves, and review how they can continue to foster success in their schools and to continue to lead and strengthen school governance in New Zealand.

ACHIEVING SUCCESS- UNLOCKING THE SECRETS

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

This study looks deeply in to current research and real life examples of success, and asks a number of questions about what success is, how do we find it, what are the key components that deliver success, and how with an understanding of the answers to these questions we can then provide the opportunities for our children to succeed.

Exploring the topics of Talent, Purposeful Practice, Our Brains, Character, Mindset, we look at various factors that impact on performance, achievement and success.

I identify practical opportunities for Boards of Trustees, educators, and parents to tap in to the leanings from the research on these topics, and develop some practical ideas that can be utilised across the breadth of our school communities.

The ultimate outcome is to assist all of us to understand how we can achieve and be successful, unlocking some of the secrets as we travel on the journey of learning, and assist Boards in answering what he role of governance is in promoting achievement, character and success.

SUCCESS

What are the secrets to success? What are the factors in successful achievement? What is the impact for education – our teachers, management, Boards, parents? What is the role of schools in developing “success”?

I started out with some key thoughts, and wanted to explore achievement and success. What does success look like? What does talent mean, and is this important? Is our intelligence important or is it a restrictive factor? What about character traits? How important is our mindset in achieving success? This report will break down these components and explore what they mean in the area of achievement and success.

The world is becoming more complex, technological, competitive, and multicultural- and our children will need skills to thrive in this ever evolving world. As Tony Wagner discusses in his book The Global Achievement Gap, we must adapt to this changing world, and provide children with the skills to succeed in the global knowledge economy, where we use new information to solve new problems, where the next generation have different motivations driven by the challenges of the changing world they are emerging in to- curiosity, multi-tasking, needing immediate gratification, being connected and creative (Wagner, 2014).

Our understanding about great performance and achievement has developed over the last few decades. More research has been focused into unlocking the factors that drive success. Often

we see people achieve a level of mastery and think that they were born with an innate talent, something that the very few are gifted with, and this explains their success. So is this really the case?

TALENT

Talent can be identified and classified in many ways, for example sporting, musical, leading people, artistic or scientific endeavours. The elite few that excel in these and other areas garner our admiration at the levels of mastery they have achieved. We may have the belief that they were simply born with something special and that we don’t have it.

Talent for the purpose of this report is best described as learned or developed skills and abilities, at increasing levels of mastery. Talent is not something static, and it is not something you have or you don’t. While factors such as genes and body shape and size or muscle makeup may play a part in the achievement of physical skills, it is not necessarily the final decider in reaching success. Author and business advisor Rasmus Ankersen lived and trained with the world’s best athletes and their coaches to discover the secrets of high performance. One of his insights was that “genetics won’t tell us who will be star performer. Good genes might be the entry ticket to world class performance, but they are not the decisive factor of who will win. Don’t overrate the importance of in-born talent” (Ankersen, 2012).

The achievements of those at the peak of their craft have usually been tied to innate talent or some form of giftedness. This is known as the talent theory of success. But is this the real secret to success? Examining a few examples of achievement presents an interesting story.

Wolfgang Mozart

Is Mozart the greatest example of natural “talent”? Whilst it is true that he was composing music at age 5, and produced hundreds of musical works during his short life, look a little closer and you will see that his success is not the result of some magical inborn skill: His father was at the time a highly competent and well known composer and performer. Mozart was trained intensively in music composition and performing from the age of three by his father, who was also accomplished as a teacher. Mozart’s initial works were not original, but copies of works previously produced by other composers. Mozart’s original works are not judged as great pieces of work. In fact his first piece that was measured as a “Masterpiece” was written when he was 21, i.e. after 18 years of continual practice. There is no magic or romantic conclusion. Mozart worked extremely hard.

Tiger Woods

Tiger started training at the age of 7 months- watching his father, Earl, practice golf for hours on end, then hitting golf balls himself from the age of two. His father had worked hard himself to achieve a single figure golf handicap, and was equally capable in teaching/ transferring his learned skills to Tiger. Earl was actively teaching Tiger from an early age. Tiger’s performance can realistically be judged as world class or outstanding at around age 19. At that stage he had been practicing golf intensively for 17 years. Tiger clearly identifies that his father was the key to his success: “Golf for me was an apparent attempt to emulate the person I looked up to more than anyone: my father” (Londino, 2006). Again we see a picture of continual learning, practice and gradual improvement over time.

Pablo Picasso

Picasso is often cited as an example of creative genius. However Picasso spent his early years painting eyes and the human body. Picasso was a machine, churning out 12,000 works of art. His father was a painter, and he spent many hours with young Pablo. Picasso began formally studying art at the age of 11. His father groomed the young prodigy to be a great artist by getting Picasso the best education the family could afford and visiting Madrid to see works by Spanish old masters. Soon, Picasso lost all desire to do any schoolwork, choosing to spend the school days doodling in his notebook instead. His first pieces of work regarded as Masterpieces were not painted until he was 21, after many hours and years of practice

The skills we need to produce excellence are learned and perfected over time, even by the masters of their craft. Over time, researchers have found few signs of achievement before the “talented” have begun intensive training. American educational psychologist Benjamin Bloom conducted a major study into the development of exceptional “talent”. The results of the study indicated that successful individuals had very similar learning and development phases. He found in his study of world class pianists, neurologists, swimmers, chess players, mathematicians and sculptors, that “only a few were regarded as prodigies by teachers, parents or experts. Rather, accomplished individuals worked day after day for at least 10 or 15 years to reach the top of their field” (Bloom B. , 1985)

Talent theory of success is a flawed answer when attempting to unlock achievement: Mathew Syed, two-time Olympian, broadcaster and author of the book Bounce: The Myth of Talent and the Power of Practice, in which he looks to unlock the secrets of top athletes, writes: “Why would any individual spend time and opportunities seeking to improve if success is ultimately about talent? Why would we leave the comfort zone for the rigours of the learning zone if the benefits accrue only to those with the right genes?” (Syed, 2010)

In a landmark research experiment, conducted by Swedish psychologist K. Anders Ericsson on memory, he and his team found that “we see again and again the remarkable potential of ordinary adults and their amazing capacity for change with practice” (Ericsson, Chase, & Faloon, 1980). In this experiment, a randomly selected college student was tested on a standard memory test, in which a researcher reads out a list of random digits, and after a break of 20 seconds the subject recalls and repeats as many digits in order as they can remember. After 230 hours of training over a period of two years, the subject of the research experiment was able to recall 82 random digits, having started with a base recall level, similar to most other people, of around 7 digits.

Mathew Syed agrees: “Most of us are living under flawed assumptions: in particular we are labouring under the illusion that expertise is reserved for special people with special talents, inaccessible for the rest of us”. He goes on to summarise that so called child prodigies do not have unusual genes, “they have compressed thousands of hours of practice into the small period between birth and adolescence”. (Syed, 2010)

For a long time, the belief was held that talent seemed to be about inheritance, about the set of genes that gave rise to some particular skill. Einstein had the physics gene, Beethoven had the symphony gene, and Federer had the tennis gene. As we have seen the intrinsic nature of talent is overrated – our genes don’t bestow specific gifts. Clinical psychologist Oliver James in a 2008 article in The Guardian goes further: “Simply holding the belief that genes largely or wholly determine you or your children can be toxic” (James, 2008)

What we are seeing instead in the examples and research above are an “iceberg illusion” – the end result of many years of purposeful practice. Is it therefore conceivable that anybody can achieve the same results with dedication and opportunity? Accepting that talents are made and not born has two results, as it means that we are all responsible for our own levels of achievement and at the same time it means that we also have the power to change.

So innate so called “talent” or genes may not necessarily be the secret of success, and our perception of “talent” is in fact tied to the power of consistent effort over time, so then what part does this aspect of continual, deliberate practice play?

PURPOSEFUL PRACTICE

In 1991, K. Anders Ericsson and colleagues at Florida State University conducted the biggest research into performance and expertise.

Ericsson’s study was an attempt to find out why some pianists and violinists were better than others. The study assessed musicians at the Music Academy of West Berlin. They found that the difference between the musician’s ability, success or performance was that some chose to practice more. All had begun playing at roughly five years of age with similar practice times. However, at age eight, practice times began to diverge. By age 20, the elite performers had averaged more than 10,000 hours of practice each, while the less able performers had only done 4,000 hours of practice. It always took numerous years to achieve success. Ericsson concluded “the search for stable, heritable characteristics that could predict or at least account for the superior performance of eminent individuals has been surprisingly unsuccessful”. Their findings on excellence concluded that it is practice not talent that matters. “The difference between expert performers and normal adults reflects a lifelong persistence of deliberate effort to improve performance”. (K. Anders Ericsson, 1993)

Following on from this study, another stark example of practice and persistence being the key to expert performance, rather than “talent”, lies with the story of the Polgar girls. Laszlo Polgar, is a Hungarian psychologist, and he believed that great performers were made not born, that expertise is achieved through practice. He was certain that “he could turn any healthy child into a prodigy”. He conducted an experiment with his own children to prove his theory. Laszlo and his wife dedicated their life to teaching their three daughters chess- their schooling (home school) consisted largely of chess instruction, hours of it every day, alongside regular tuition. By the age of 17, their oldest daughter, Susan, became the first woman to qualify for the Men’s World Championships; at 18 she was the top ranked woman chess player in the world; at 21 she became the first woman to be ranked as Grand Master. Their second daughter became the 6th ranked woman in the world. Their third daughter became a grand champion at the age of 15, the youngest person ever to achieve that highest rank in chess and also became the number one ranked woman in the world. The success of the Polgar girls in a real life experiment validated what their father had theorised, that innate talent is irrelevant in achieving success.

John Hayes, a cognitive psychology professor at Carnegie Mellon University has studied the most talented creators in history, like Picasso and Mozart. Hayes started his research by examining successful composers and developed a list of 500 pieces that were considered to be the “masterworks” in the field. These 500 popular pieces were created by a total of 76 composers. Hayes mapped out the timeline of each composer’s career and calculated how long they had been working before they created their popular works. What he discovered was

that virtually every single masterwork was written after year ten of the composer’s career ( with three exceptions, which were written in years eight and nine). Not a single person produced a masterwork without putting in a decade of practice first.

Professor Angela Duckworth, from the University of Pennsylvania, conducted a study of US Spelling Bee participants and identified that the conducting of purposeful practice activities like studying and memorizing words while alone, or the solitary study of word spellings and origins, rather than other activities such as being quizzed by others or engaging in leisure reading was a better predictor of performance in the contest. This is despite the spellers rating these tasks less enjoyable, and requiring more effort than other activities. (Duckworth, Kirby, Tsukayama, Berstein, & Ericsson, 2010)

What we uncover is one aspect that separates the best from the rest, which is the right type of practice (called deliberate or purposeful). Whilst hard work makes you better, purposeful practice makes you great. Well designed training, full concentration, and feedback loops all contribute to the search for mastery. This holds true all areas of learning, from sport, music, art, to educational achievement.

The more time invested in deliberate or purposeful practice, the further developed and refined our performance becomes.

The elements of purposeful practice are:

• Activity is designed to improve performance (usually with the help of a teacher or coach),

• It is meant to stretch the individual beyond their current level of achievement • It involves repeatable activity (and lots of it!), • Feedback is continuously available • It is highly demanding mentally (and physically too if in a sports

environment)- requiring applied focus and concentration • It isn’t fun- it involves working on things you are not good at.

Deliberate or purposeful practice enables performers “to perceive more, to know more, to remember more than most people” (Colvin, 2008). Skills are developed through the struggle to improve and achieve beyond our current levels. Constant challenge, effort and persistence are key. This type of practice requires adjusting execution over and over to get closer to you goal, allowing for errors as you increase your limits. It requires well designed training and full concentration and feedback loops to recognise errors and correct.

However it is also important to note that “A performance environment should never be too comfortable. You must nurture a feeling of positive discomfort, in particular the discomfort that comes from being stretched to the limit” (Ankersen, 2012)

So why is practice relevant to achieving success, and what happens when we practice?

PRACTICE AND THE BRAIN

The brain has the ability to develop throughout life and it grows neurons on a daily basis. This growth is known as neuroplasticity. The brain is like a muscle; it changes and gets

stronger when you use it. When people practice and learn new skills, areas of the brain become larger and denser with neural tissue

Any kind of human ability or skill, whether it’s learning a new language, football or golf, playing the piano, learning mathematics or creating works of art, develops when nerve fibres carry tiny electrical signals to muscles and other areas of the brain, and subsequent memory patterns develop. When we learn, neurons make connections in the brain. These connections become stronger with practice and effort. When we practice, our brains respond by wrapping layers of insulation (myelin) around the relevant neural circuits, with each layer adding more skill, more speed and more memory through this process called myelination.

As we have seen, purposeful practice involves practicing skills that are just beyond your current reach or ability. To be effective you must practice frequently, and get lots of feedback so you practice correctly; and practice with intensity and concentration. The process of failing and fixing, making small adjustments and then trying over and over and over again is precisely how you build more myelin. Daniel Coyle, author of The Talent Code puts it this way: “Practice makes myelin and myelin makes perfect”. The thicker the myelin layers become, the better it insulates, and the faster and more confident our thoughts and movements become. The faster and more precise these connections are, the more able we are to perform complex tasks.

All skill and talent is developed through effort, hard work, and determination. When children learn to walk they first crawl and then progress to the point of being able to stand up. They take their first unsteady steps only to fall down. They stand again, take a step and fall. This process is repeated over and over again until with determination and great effort they develop the skills necessary for walking. What these children are actually doing is growing the neural circuitry necessary for performing a new skill – walking.

Research shows that an increase of neural connections in the brain obviously occurs when we are working and learning in the classroom and this leads to increased IQ test performance. Neuroscientists, led by Sue Ramsden, tracked 33 students during their teenage years. For many students, they found substantial changes in performance on verbal and non-verbal IQ tests. When assessing the neural activity they found an increase in neuronal connections in the brain accompanied an increase in IQ-test performance, while a decrease in neuronal connections in the brain accompanied a decrease in IQ-test performance (Ramsden, et al., 2011).

In a further study, Dr. Guinevere Eden and her team at Georgetown University Department of Pediatrics provided intensive training in word sounds and word parts to dyslexic readers. After eight weeks, not only did the dyslexic readers improve their reading but their brain scans also showed changes in how their brains functioned. It appears that specific kinds of practice can change not only the structure of the brain but also how it functions. (Eden, et al., 2004)

An understanding of the brain and how it works, of the process of neuroplasticity and building myelin, can aid us in how we can approach learning and instruction; this knowledge will lead to increased motivation, ready acceptance of new challenges, and a positive response to failure. Believing that traits like intelligence, skills and abilities can be developed encourages endless possibilities.

So is the process of practice the key to success? What drives the desire to practice, stretch ourselves, in an environment that is not necessarily all fun, in the desire to learn and improve, succeed and master?

More and more research and study is focusing on non-cognitive skills, also referred to as performance character, executive functions, or social emotional learning. While such traits have little or nothing to do with intelligence (as measured by IQ scores), they often explain a larger share of individual variation when it comes to life success. It is clear that children in the 21st Century need a broader range of skills than just recalling learnt information in a test situation. Historically academic discussions around development and achievement had focused on cognitive ability. There is a growing body of research suggesting that non-cognitive or character skills (like persistence, curiosity, problem solving, grit, self control etc.) play a more important part in children's success in school and beyond.

We will now delve in to the importance of these factors in success at school and in life after school, as we travel on the journey to achievement.

CHARACTER

When we talk about character in this context we refer to performance character, rather than moral character. These traits have practical benefits, a set of attributes and strengths that guide our personal actions and drive to achieve. The famous American basketball coach john Wooden says “Ability can get you to the top, but it takes character to keep you there”. Wooden constantly reminded his players that having the strength to learn, practice and maintain the right character traits will result in success.

Angela Duckworth, who is pioneering studies into the importance of the character traits of grit and self control says “Learning is hard, true learning is fun, exhilarating and gratifying, but often daunting, exhausting, sometimes discouraging. Educators must recognise that character is at least as important as intellect”. (Tough, 2012)

Economist and Nobel Prize winner James Heckman was one of the pioneers of research into non-cognitive attributes and their influence on success in education. Heckman has found through his years of study that non-cognitive skills had a lasting impact on children’s lives “Achievement test scores predict only a small fraction of the variance in later-life success…Achievement tests do not adequately capture character skills such as conscientiousness, perseverance, sociability, and curiosity, which are valued in the labor market, in school, and in many other domains…Skills are not set in stone at birth. They can be improved. Cognitive and character skills change with age and with instruction. Interventions to improve skills are effective to different degrees for different skills at different ages. Importantly, character skills are more malleable at later ages” (Heckman & Kautz, 2013)

Many researchers, writers, economists and psychologists have tried to identify and bottle down the key character strengths required for successful achievement. For example:

As far back as 1892 researcher Francis Galton collected biographical information on a cross section of high level achievers. He concluded the high achievers were blessed “by ability combined with zeal and with capacity for hard labour” (Galton, 1892)

More recently, there have been more and more studies and examples from real life examples that attempt to bottle the alluring character traits that deliver success. Christopher Peterson and Martin E. P Seligman conducted a comprehensive study into positive character strengths across history, in to provide a framework to assist in developing practical applications for positive psychology. They indentified 24 strengths they believe to be universal, qualities valued in every society and generation. They assess these character traits as skills and abilities that are malleable over time. They are skills you can learn, practice, teach and develop. (Seligman M. E., 2004).

In an attempt to bottle these down to a practical list for schools to focus on, Peterson later indentified a set of strengths that were likely to predict high achievement:

• Grit • Self-control • Zest • Social intelligence • Gratitude • Optimism • Curiosity

Meanwhile Tony Wagner in his book The Global Achievement Gap identified 7 Survival Skills (Wagner, 2014), skills for today’s workplace, “the new basic skills for work, learning and citizenship in the 21st Century” that need to be built into academic curriculum:

• Critical Thinking and Problem Solving • Collaboration, Leading by Example • Agility and Adaptability • Initiative and Entrepreneurialism • Effective Oral and Written Communication • Accessing and Analysing Information • Curiosity and Imagination

In another recent example, in 2006 research conducted by the Consortium on Chicago School Research, led by Melissa Roderick, identified the critical factors of college success being “non cognitive academic skills” broken down into the likes of study skills, work habits, time management, help-seeking behaviour and problem solving skills. (Roderick, Nagaoka, & Allensworth, 2006)

In 2012 the National Research Council in America, summarized the findings of the research that investigates the importance of 21st Century skills to achieving success in education, work, and other areas of adult responsibility. They identified three core domains of competence – cognitive, intrapersonal and interpersonal. The Intrapersonal skills included Initiative, self-direction, responsibility, perseverance, productivity, grit, professionalism/ethics, integrity, citizenship, career orientation. (National Research Council, 2012)

Whilst there is differences on how these character attributes are named it is clear then that there is alignment on what the literature identifies as important factors for achievement and success. We will review these character skills and abilities, attitudes, behaviours and strategies:

Perseverance/ Persistence

In many studies over the past 20 years, the research has shown that you can be smart and “talented” but still not reach your potential if you don't also develop a capacity to work hard and persist through setbacks over time.

To achieve success, developing learners must accept challenges and persevere in the face of obstacles

American psychologist Lewis Terman’s study of genius and gifted children was a lifelong passion, and he summarized his research: Persistence differentiated “gifted” from less successful boys. “The results indicated that personality factors are extremely important determiners of achievement…The four traits on which [the most and least successful groups] differed most widely were persistence in the accomplishment of ends, integration toward goals, self-confidence, and freedom from inferiority feelings. (Terman, 1959)

Joseph Renzulli, director of the U.S. National Research Centre on the Gifted and Talented – also identified that perseverance, endurance and hard work – task orientation - is a critical element of what we typically call giftedness

Even those we think as talented or smart agree - After seven straight years of intense work—more than 15,000 hours, Andrew Wiles was completing one of the most extraordinary accomplishments in the history of math - Fermat's Last Theorem, a seemingly simple problem that had stumped mathematicians for 350 years. The Princeton professor attributes his accomplishment not to his brains but to his persistence. "For me, it was the main thing," he says.

Daniel Pink, in his book Drive identified that the most successful people are “working hard and persisting through difficulties because of their internal desire to control their lives, learn about their world, and accomplish something that endures” (Pink D. H., 2009)

Grit

Grit is a passion for a single mission, dedication to achieving the mission. Defined as “ The importance of working harder without switching objectives” (Duckworth, Peterson, Matthews, & Kelly, 2007),

• Studies by Angela Duckworth have found that student’s ability to stay focused and engaged with a difficult task and not give up predicted their scores on school tests twice as much as their IQ did. Grit rather than IQ or test scores is the most accurate predictor of college grades.

• It involves personal ownership of learning or training, and encompasses a suite of additional traits and behaviours:

• Goal directedness (knowing where to go and how to get there) • Motivation (having a strong will to achieve identified goals) • Self-control (avoiding distractions and focusing on the task at hand) • Positive mind set (embracing challenges and viewing failure as a learning

opportunity) (Goodwin, 2013) • Grit is built on the characteristics of frustration, pain, failure and setbacks.

Self Control

• Self-control is defined as the ability to avoid distractions and focus on the task at hand.

• Walter Mischel’s famous marshmallow test and his subsequent follow up of test subjects, showed a correlation between resisting temptation and later academic success. (Mischel, 2004)

• A recent study assessed American 8th grader’s self control, and proved highly effective in predicting students’ final grades and achievement test scores. Self-control was an even stronger predictor of success than the students IQ score. (Duckworth & Seligman, 2005)

• A Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation report- Academic Tenacity: Mindsets and Skills that Promote Long-Term Learning states “In an age in which children encounter more and more distractions, the ability to turn off distractions and focus on a difficult academic task may become increasingly important for success and skill and life”

• In a New Zealand study, a three decade long research across more than a thousand people showed clear links between childhood self control and adult outcomes. The lower the child’s self control, the more likely he or she at 32 was to smoke, have health problems, poor credit rating, and have been in trouble with the law (Moffitt, et al., 2011)

Resilience

• Defined as the capacity to rise above difficult circumstance, and move forward with optimism and confidence

• In 2007 Warren Bennis, pioneer in the study of leadership behaviours stated “I believe that adaptive capacity or resilience is the single most important quality in a leader, or in anyone else for that matter, who hopes to lead a healthy, meaningful life” (Bennis, January 2007)

Passion

• The more energy we bring to a task the more powerful and productive we become. We need to choose to be involved in an activity before any form of success can be achieved.

• Passion develops, rather than emerging suddenly (Colvin, 2008). The passion to become world class takes time and perseverance. Passion and perseverance are linked in a cyclical manner, each building on the other.

• If the idea that passion builds perseverance holds true, then this is important to understand this: If achievement is a factor of passion, then it's important for parents to expose their children to a wide variety of academic, artistic and athletic activities. Helping children find their passion may be more important than addressing their academic weaknesses.

Belief

• We pick up ideas, attitudes, and convictions from the world around us. What we chose to accept forms the basis of our belief systems. Successful people have a belief that doesn’t limit opportunities for them.

• “Beliefs determine your expectations; and your expectations determine your actions” (Maxwell, 2007). If you have the belief that your performance is limited by innate talent or lack of abilities, you won’t succeed. If you believe that putting in the right work will overcome obstacles then you have a chance to achieving great performances

• Thomas Edison once said, “If we did all the things we are capable of doing we would literally astonish ourselves” , whilst Michael Colvin in his book Talent Is Overrated summarised: “what you really believe about the source of great performance becomes the foundation of all you will ever achieve” (Colvin, 2008)

• Rasmus Ankerson travelled the world looking at what the secret to success in athletic performance was, and whilst spending time with the great Kenyan runners, the world leaders in middle and long distance running he found one of the secrets to their success was belief: “People come here looking for special genes…but what they find is people who simply do not believe they can lose” (Ankersen, 2012)

Curiosity/ Drive

• Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi of the University of Chicago identified that successful creative people tend to have two things in abundance, curiosity and drive. They are absolutely fascinated by their subject, and while others may be more brilliant, their sheer desire for accomplishment is the decisive factor. (Butler-Bowden, 2006)

• Benjamin Bloom’s research on talented individuals concurs: “Parents encouraged the curiosity of their children at an early age and answered their questions with great care” (Bloom B. S., 1985)

• Curiosity connects with learning in two important ways. It is a source of motivation, and it’s powered by questions.

Motivation

• Harry Harlow, the pioneer of behavioural science found through his research that intrinsic motivation was an important driver of human behaviours and performance. “It would appear that this drive…may be as basic and strong as the other drives. Furthermore there is some reason to believe that it can be as efficient as facilitating learning” (Pink, 2009)

• Whilst extrinsic motivators, in the early stages can be important i.e. the teacher/ parent pushing the child to practice and push through the challenges of deliberate practice, over time however “the students increasingly became responsible for their own motivation” (Bloom B. , 1985)

• Researchers at Cornell University have identified the “Multiplier Effect” in developing motivation. Small improvements spark events that produce far greater advantages than the individual event. The satisfaction gained from being better than average, may lead the individual to “practice more, try out for teams, get professional coaching, watch and discuss games and so forth. Such an individual is likely to become matched with increasingly enriched environments. Factors cascade over time because they multiply the effects of earlier factors” (Ceci, Barnett, & Kanya, 2003). Over time the multiplier effect helps develop the motivation of students “As they began to receive recognition for the talent, the children’s investment in the talent became greater. No longer was the prime motivation to please parents and teachers. It now became the individual’s special field of interest” (Bloom B. , 1985)

• The leader in study of mindsets in its impact on achieving success, Carol Dweck states:“Motivation is the most important factor in determining whether you succeed in the long run. What I mean by motivation is not only the desire to achieve, but also the love of learning, the love of challenge, and the ability to thrive on obstacles. These are the greatest gifts we can give our students.” (Dweck C. S., 2006)

• John Hattie’s Visible Learning research identifies that motivation [effect size = 0.48] is highest when students are competent, have sufficient autonomy, set worthwhile goals, get feedback, and are affirmed by others.’ In contrast, factors that might de-motivate students include ‘public humiliation, devastating test results, conflicts with teachers or peers… [and] ability grouping with very little chance of promotion.’ (Miller, 2013)

Creativity/ Imagination

• An important aspect in the drive to succeed is the visualisation of what you want to achieve.

• One of the things required in the workforce is adaptation and flexibility so developing skills in creativity and imagination is important.

• Creativity is required in solving problems, and teachers can encourage these skills in the classroom

• However an overloading of limiting information can stifle imagination and drive. This is most prevalent in the education sector. Sir Ken Robinson states that “we are educating people of their creativity” (Ankersen, 2012)

• Guy Claxton identified the need for schools to develop Learning Muscles, including creativity (Claxton, 2008)

Autonomy

• Autonomy is defined as the freedom to decide • Education professors Boykin and Noguera conclude that “Being guided by self

determination while engaged in an activity results in optimal motivation levels. People are more self determined when they feel a sense of autonomy in their pursuits, rather than when they feel their pursuits are controlled by coercion, external rewards and/ or guilt/ shame avoidance” (Boykin & Noguerra, 2011)

Effort

• Mason Currey reviewed the activities of 161 inspiring minds, among them, novelists, poets, playwrights, painters, philosophers, scientists, and mathematicians, who describe how they get the work they love to do, done. "Sooner or later, the great men turn out to be all alike. They never stop working. They never lose a minute. It is very depressing." (Currey, 2013)

• Achievement involves working hard, often showing little improvement or progress. Carol Dweck summarises “Effort is one of the things that gives meaning to life. Effort means you care about something, that something is important to you and you are willing to work for it” (Dweck C. S., 1999)

• Effort is key even in creative activities. Studies of creative “genius” have shown that creative innovation “emerges from the rigours of purposeful practice. Eureka moments are not lightning bolts from the blue, but tidal waves that erupt following

deep immersion in an area of expertise” (Syed, 2010). Poets, artists, scientists all deliver their best work after years of sustained effort.

• Michael Colvin found that the most eminent creators are consistently those who have immersed themselves utterly in their chosen field, have devoted their lives to it, amassed tremendous knowledge of it, and continually pushed themselves to the front of it. (Colvin, 2008)

• In a study of 66 poets, more than 80% needed ten years or more of sustained preparation before they began writing their most creative pieces (Syed, 2010)

• Those who have achieved at the highest levels hold the same beliefs - Michelangelo: “If people knew how hard I worked to get my mastery, it wouldn’t seem so wonderful at all.”

• Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) resultsindicate that drive, motivation and confidence in oneself are essential if students are to fulfil their potential. “Practice and hard work go a long way towards developing each students potential, but students can only achieve at the highest levels when they believe that they are in control of their success and that they are capable of achieving at high levels. In Shanghai-China, for example, students not only believe they are in control of their ability to succeed, but they are prepared to do what it takes to do so: for example 73% of students agreed or strongly agreed that they remain interested in the tasks that they start. The fact that students in some countries consistently believe that achievement is mainly a product of hard work, rather than inherited intelligence, suggests that education and its social context can make a difference in instilling the values that foster success in education”. (OECD, 2013)

• “Expertise is a long term developmental process, resulting from rich instrumental experiences in the world and extensive practice” (Syed, 2010)

• Social scientist Bernard Weiner’s study focused on motivation and achievement, and he considers the most important factors affecting achievement to be ability, effort, task, difficulty, and luck (Weiner, 1974). Also known as Locus of Control, this refers to the extent to which individuals believe they can control events affecting them.

Whereas

• Successful people attribute success to internal factors- effort • Unsuccessful people attribute failure to difficulty of task or luck

“The evidence shows that the price of top level achievement is extraordinarily high. But the evidence shows also that great performance is not reserved for the pre-ordained few. It is available to you and to everyone” (Colvin, 2008)

Conscientiousness

• Big 5 personality traits have been seen as the most effective way to analyse human personality along 5 dimensions: agreeableness, extraversion, neuroticism, openness to explore, conscientiousness. Various assessments have found conscientiousness was the trait that best predicted workplace success. Brent Roberts, professor of Psychology at University of Indiana says that “it’s emerging as one of the primary dimensions of successful functioning across the lifespan. It really goes cradle to grave in terms of how well people do” (Tough, 2012).

• The National Research Council identified that among interpersonal and intrapersonal competencies, conscientiousness (a tendency to be organized, responsible, and

hardworking) is most highly correlated with desirable educational, career, and health outcomes. (National Research Council, 2012)

Optimism

• Martin Seligman, father of positive psychology movement – states that adults and children can train themselves to be more hopeful, which leads to being happier, healthier, and more successful. Pessimists meanwhile react to negative events by explaining them as permanent, personal or pervasive. “The optimists and the pessimists: I have been studying them for the past twenty-five years. The defining characteristic of pessimists is that they tend to believe bad events will last a long time, will undermine everything they do, and are their own fault. The optimists, who are confronted with the same hard knocks of this world, think about misfortune in the opposite way. They tend to believe defeat is just a temporary setback, that its causes are confined to this one case. The optimists believe defeat is not their fault: Circumstances, bad luck, or other people brought it about. Such people are unfazed by defeat. Confronted by a bad situation, they perceive it as a challenge and try harder.” (Seligman M. E., 1990)

• Dean Keith Simonton of the University of California at Davis finds optimism is extremely common among high achievers. "It helps them hang in there in times when they have to overcome all of these obstacles," he observes. "They just really believe in the end that they're going to win, and until they do, they're just going to keep on pushing, keep on making the phone calls, writing the letters, whatever they have to do." (Doskoch, 2005)

• Emotions like happiness and empathy can be developed as well: Dr. Andrew Weill discovered that through practice and effort happiness can be learned (Weil, 2011)

What we can see from the vast amount of research, anecdotes and real life examples across numerous fields of endeavour, over many decades, is that these personal character traits are a key component that drives success.

It is important to note at this point that it’s not just those individual skills but the world around us that impacts our performance, and contributes to our success .e.g.:

Supportive Environment

• No one becomes excellent on their own. Benjamin Bloom in his study of 120 top performers found the home environment played a key role. Parents believed and modelled virtues like self discipline and a strong work effort. What was emphasised over and over again was “to excel, to do one’s best, to work hard and to spend one’s time constructively” (Bloom B. S., 1985)

• Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi studied high achieving students. Students that were in environments that were stimulating and supportive, were more engaged, attentive and alert in their studying. (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990).

• Rasmus Ankerson found “Time and time again during my travels in the Gold Mines, passionate and ambitious parents turned out to be fundamental in fostering top performance” (Ankersen, 2012)

• PISA analysis shows that “parents who hold ambitious expectations for their children motivate and guide them in their learning; they create the conditions that promote academic excellence and the acquisition of skills”. (OECD, 2013)

• For John Hattie, ‘the greatest single issue facing the further enhancement of students is the need for teachers to have a common perception of progress. When a student moves from one teacher to another, there is no guarantee that he or she will experience increasingly challenging tasks, have a teacher with similar (hopefully high) expectations of progress up the curricula, or work with a teacher who will grow the student from where he or she is, as opposed to where the teacher believes he or she should be at the start of the year.’ (Miller, 2013)

• Professor James Heckman, in his speech to the White House Summit on Early Educationin 2014 stated “The way parents interact with their children, the amount of time they spend with them and the resources they have to provide intellectual and social stimulation greatly affect their children’s potential for leading flourishing lives.” (Heckman J. , 2014)

Feedback

• o Hattie’s meta-analyses of influences on student achievement has identified that feedback is among the most powerful of these influences (rank #10)

• Howard Gardner studied geniuses like Picasso, Freud, and Stravinsky and found a similar pattern of analyzing, testing, and feedback used by all of them: Creative individuals spend a considerable amount of time reflecting on what they are trying to accomplish, whether or not they are achieving success (and, if not, what they might do differently).(Gardner, 2011)

Challenging Goals

• Czikszenthmihalyi in his theory of “flow” discussed an ideal zone where challenges promote neither boredom nor anxiety, but facilitate growth (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990). Individuals are intrinsically motivated to seek out optimal challenges and are more productive and motivated in these circumstances. Where challenge meet skills

• K. Anders Ericsson found that the expert performer actively seeks out goals that exceed their current level of performance

• Goals need to “optimally challenging” – perseverance is required.

Sense of Belonging

• A sense of social belonging allows students to rise above the concerns of the moment and is linked to long term student motivation and school success (Goodenow, 1992)

Developing the right performance character allows you to reach and stay at the top. Where do the character attributes come from? These character attributes grow out of a person’s mindset, and we know that they are not fixed attributes, but things that can be developed. So how dowe develop these character skills?

If you want to change behaviours you also need to look upstream of the behaviours. Our minsets drive behaviour.

MINDSET

Our mindset is a belief about our ability, and our ability to learn and perform well. Our beliefs about ourselves determine how we interpret our experiences and set the boundaries on what we accomplish. Aiming for success is a result of the right mindset. Peter Keen a leading UK sports scientist and a key component in the success of the Great Britain cycling at the 2008 and 2012 Olympic Games talks about the importance of mindset ”I am convinced that world class performance emerges from mindset. Many of our great cyclists did not start out with obvious natural advantages, but they have transformed themselves through application. Perhaps the key task of any institution is to encourage the adoption of growth mindset” (Syed, 2010)

This constant desire to improve has been labelled as a growth mindset, urgency (John Kotter), or rage to master (Ellen Winner). Here we will label it mindset.

Carol Dweck has conducted numerous studies into the impact of mindsets on achievement. According to Dweck, individuals can be placed on a continuum according to their views of where ability comes from. She has found that people with a Growth Mindset “believe in the growing mind and try harder, find trying more enjoyable, enjoy learning more for its own sake, and are more interested in “learning how to learn”. They like challenges, and continually seek out challenges. To contrast, those with a Fixed Mindset believe their success is based on innate ability, that your intelligence is fixed. ”It’s the difference between constantly feeling you have to prove yourself (fixed mindset) and feeling free to improve yourself (growth mindset)”. (Dweck C. S., 2006).

In 1978, Dweck and colleagues assessed 330 eleven and twelve year old about their beliefs about talent and intelligence. Those that believed intelligence was fixed in stone were labelled as having a fixed mindset. Those that believed intelligence can be expanded through effort, were labelled as having a growth mindset. The students were then given a series of increasingly difficult puzzles. When facing more difficult challenges, those with the fixed mindset blamed lack of success on their intelligence. Two thirds of those showed deterioration in strategies used as tasks became more difficult. The growth mindset group, on the other hand improved their strategies during the difficult problems. “Even though they were no better than the fixed mindset group on the original success problems, they ended up showing a much higher level of performance” Those who held the belief that abilities are transformable through effort not only persevered but actually improved when faced with difficulties.

Camille Farrington reviewed the research on five categories of non-cognitive factors that are related to academic performance (academic behaviors, academic perseverance, academic mindsets, learning strategies and social skills), and summarises “Across the empirical literature, one’s belief about intelligence and attributions for academic success or failure are more strongly associated with school performance than is one’s actual measured ability (i.e. test scores)” (Farrington, et al., 2012)

Snipes, Fancsali and Stoker's review of the literature, concurs and suggests that mindsets directly "influence students' academic behaviors and strategies, which in turn facilitate academic success". (Snipes, Fancsali, & Stoker, 2012)

Reflecting on John Hattie’s Visible Learning Research, which summarises over 800 meta-analyses relating to the influences of achievement in schools- i.e. what are the key contributors to learning, we can see that mindset is identified as a key influence. What works

best for students includes an attention to challenging learning intentions, and being clear about what success means.

The greatest influence identified through Hattie’s study is “Self Reported Grades” i.e. students predicting their performance. If expectations are set low, limits may be set on what is achievable. However if challenging goals are set, predictions and achievements are likely to be higher. Carol Dweck’s research identifies how most students have developed either a growth or fixed mindset by the time they start school. If teachers and students have a Growth Mindset, then expectations can be raised. Linked to this is the practical application of the right mindset. Hattie comments “Achievement is more likely to be increased when students invoke learning rather than performance strategies” (Hattie, 2009)

A growth mindset is the belief that skills, ability and intelligence are malleable and can be increased with effort and learning. Fixed mindset is belief that ability, intelligence is a fixed quantity that you either possess or don’t. When tasks become challenging those with growth mindsets are more likely to persist.

Those with a growth mindset:

• Believe intelligence can grow with effort, application, experience • Bounce back better from failures • Persevere through adversity • Work longer and harder at tough problems • Learn more • Build character skills (and other skills)

Those with a fixed mindset:

• Do not value effort- intelligence, ability is a fixed trait • Believe that if you have the ability, things come naturally • Must look smart • Avoid challenge • Are discouraged and defensive when faced with setbacks.

In the US, researchers Blackwell, Trzesniewski, and Dweck followed 373 US students across the challenging transition to 7th grade. At the beginning of the year they assessed the students mindsets, along with other motivation-relevant variables, and then monitored their grades over the next two years. Students with fixed and growth mindsets had entered 7th grade with equal prior math achievement, as the impact of mindsets does not typically emerge until students face challenges or setbacks. By the end of the first term, the math grades of the two groups had begun to separate out and they continued to diverge over the next two years (Goodenow, 1992)

Their analysis showed that the variance in math grades was the result of several factors. The students with the growth mindset were significantly more oriented toward learning goals. Students with the growth mindset showed a far stronger belief in the power of effort - that effort promoted ability. Those with the growth mindset showed more mastery-oriented reactions to setbacks and more likely to employ positive strategies, such as greater effort and new strategies, rather than negative strategies, such as effort withdrawal and cheating.

Further research also supports the notion that academic achievement is linked to mind-set; Snipes, Fancsali, and Stoker's review of the literature, for example, suggests that mind-sets directly "influence students' academic behaviors and strategies, which in turn facilitate academic success" (Snipes, Fancsali, & Stoker, 2012)

Having a growth mindset leads to trying harder, using good strategies, and an ability to handle setbacks. When faced with difficulties, growth mindset students realise new strategies are required, more effort is required, and that success is not based on intelligence.

The Positive Coach Alliance (PCA) has a concept for developing well rounded athletes within their sports organisations, called the ELM tree of Mastery. ELM stands for Effort, Learning and Mistakes. The PCA belief is that players progress toward mastery of their sport as long as they exert maximum EFFORT, continually LEARN and bounce back from their inevitable MISTAKES. The philosophies of PCA help coaches remember that the feedback that most helps young athletes develop their potential is not praise for good performance or criticism for bad performance. They have come to understand that what works best in developing a child’s potential is helping children understand that they control three key variables: their level of effort, whether they learn from experiences, and how they respond to mistakes – all factors related to the right mindset. In the book Elevating Your Game, Jim Thompson talks about how athletes do better — improve performance and win more — when they have a mastery focus rather than a scoreboard focus. The mastery focus is a function of giving attention to things athletes can control — Effort, Learning, and Mistakes—as opposed to things they can’t control — opponents, weather, bad calls, and luck, among other things.

Having this mindset for sport, in education, or in life; the mindset that treasures effort, learning and the benefits that mistakes represent, is something we can instil in our children. Success in any sphere is driven by our beliefs.

Joan Duda professor of Sport Psychology with her colleagues studied 62 athletes - 34 women and 28 men – from Norway and Denmark who competed in 15 different sports in the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia. They found that athletes who were coached in a mastery approach won significantly more medals than those coached in a scoreboard approach.

Studies have shown that these mindsets are malleable and when students are taught to have a growth mindset, they are more successful academically. (Goodenow, 1992)

Whilst the purest kind of intelligence may not be malleable, the belief that intelligence can be developed, is, and leads to success.

Those with a growth mindset value effort, and see the outcome as most important. The challenges are enjoyable – stretch and struggle means growth.

Those with a growth mindset find success in doing their best, learning and improving.

Those with a growth mindset find setbacks motivating, because this provides informative feedback

Those with a growth mindset take ownership over the processes that bring success

Students with a growth mindset are more interested in learning, eager to take on challenges, more academically successful.

However our mindsets are not fixed traits and we can learn to develop a growth mindset: “Although people may differ in every which way – in their initial talents and aptitudes, interests or temperaments – everyone can change and grow through application and experience”. (Dweck C. S., 2006)

FAILURE There are many paths to success.

Failure should be seen as just a lack of experience or skills. Mistakes are an occasion for suggestions and teac required, new approaches. As we have discovered, the right mindset allows for a constructive response to fail

Failure should be seen as a way to get feedback or reflect, and as a factor of effort and persistence. The learni resilience and grit. When students have high self-efficacy (belief in their own ability to learn and perform) ar of challenges.

Expertise is built on failure. Failure provides an opportunity to learn, develop, grow, improve Everyone who encountered difficulties along the journey to success. Some examples:

Sir Edmund Hilary was not successful on his first attempt at Everest. After the first failure, when addressing said “Mount Everest you have defeated us, But I will return. And I will defeat you. Because you cannot get a 2004) We can overcome obstacles by growing, learning.

Michael Jordan, basketball’s greatest player said “I’ve missed more than nine thousand shots. I’ve lost almos times I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over again in my life. become the best, he embraced failure “Mental toughness and heart are a lot stronger than some of the physica

Abraham Lincoln was defeated in his 1832 campaign for the Illinois State legislature, in his 1838 campaign f his 1843 campaign for nomination to the US House of Representatives. He was elected to Congress in 1846, was defeated in his 1854 campaign for the Senate, his 1856 nomination for the vice-presidential nomination, Senate, all before he became one of the greatest US Presidents.

Thomas Edison once said “If I find 10,000 ways something doesn’t work, I haven’t failed. I am not discourag discarded is another step forward”.

Maya Angelou “You may encounter many defeats but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it”.

To succeed at anything you have to work and overcome obstacles, which is demanding and causes discomfor be developed, failures don’t define them.

An important part of promoting a growth mindset is to reinforce the importance of effort and the processes of learning and improving, to give feedback and praise to assist in the ongoing growth journey.

FEEDBACK

The most powerful single influence enhancing achievement according to John Hattie is feedback, and is at its best has the following attributes:

� Quality feedback is needed, not more feedback

� Much of the feedback provided by the teacher to the student is not valued and not acted on

� Students with a Growth Mindset welcome feedback and are more likely to use it to improve their performance

� The most powerful feedback is provided from the student to the teacher

� Expert teachers constantly look for feedback from students and other teachers about their teaching

Feedback allows us to close the gap between our current level of ability and the next step on the learning path.

PRAISE

Giving praise is an important aspect of development, on the road to success

The right praise is important. Research has shown that giving students praise for their intelligence, as opposed to praise for process (such as effort or strategy) makes students think that their abilities are fixed, makes them avoid challenging tasks (so they can continue to look intelligent), makes them lose confidence and motivation when the task be-comes hard,

impairs their performance on and after difficult problems, and can even lead them to lie about their performance afterwards. Process praise (such as praise for effort or strategy), in contrast, leads students to seek and thrive on challenges. Praise effort and progress, not abilities

In a landmark series of experiments on American 5th graders, researchers Claudia Mueller and Carol Dweck found that kids behaved very differently depending on the kinds of praise they received (Mueller & Dweck, 1998).

Children who were praised for their intelligence tended to avoid challenges. Instead, they preferred easy tasks. They were also more interested in their competitive standing--how they measured up relative to others--than they were in learning how to improve their future performance.

By contrast, kids who were praised for their effort showed the opposite trend. They preferred tasks that were challenging - tasks they would learn from. Children praised for effort were more interested in learning new strategies for success than they were in finding out how other children had performed.

Children differed in other respects, too. Compared to those praised for their effort, students who were accustomed to being praised for their ability were:

• More likely to give up after a failure

• More likely to perform poorly after a failure

• More likely to misrepresent how well they did on a task

In a recent study tracking American children from infancy to grade school, Elizabeth Gunderson and colleagues found that the higher the proportion of process praise kids got during early childhood, the more likely kids were to endorse “can do” attitudes when they were in the second or third grade. (Gunderson, Gripshover, Romero, Dweck, Goldin-Meadow, & Levine, 2013)

The problem with telling children that they are smart or talented is that they become frightened of failure. They feel that they have been labelled and they don’t want to do anything to lose that label. Children praised for intelligence tend to believe that intelligence is something innate and unchangeable. (Mueller and Dweck 1998).

Dweck says “Praising children’s intelligence harms their motivation, and it harms their performance”. Intelligence based praise drives a fixed mindset- where intelligence is seen as important, not effort, through which intelligence can be developed.

GIFTEDNESS Louis Terman, the legendary psychologist who followed a group of gifted boys from childhood to middle age "persistence in the accomplishment of ends" was one of the factors that distinguished the most successful me successful. And in the most-cited paper in the giftedness literature, University of Connecticut psychologist Jo of the National Research Center on the Gifted and Talented, argued that "task commitment"—perseverance, e work—is one of the three essential components of giftedness (along with ability and creativity). Indeed, Renz that these non intellectual factors are critical to giftedness is "nothing short of overwhelming”.

In labelling children “gifted” It is Important to understand the impact on non GATE students, and the mindse sets of children. Labelling people as gifted and talented can create the wrong mindset – they become driven b than seeking higher performance.

All people can master higher standards, and “gifted” behaviours can be developed. We all have the ability to

DEVELOPING GROWTH MINDSET

The mindset of a teacher contributes to the responsiveness of students. Writer, consultant and lecturer on education, creativity and the mind, Guy Claxton notes that ”teachers can focus on the attitudes and habits of mind that are capable of being strengthened, and to look for the best ways of stretching and exercising them. Concentrate more on helping young people develop a broad, practical, working intelligence” (Claxton, 2008)

The key for a growth mindset environment is to focus on development and improvement, as it is a gradual process.

• Create a culture of risk taking – stepping outside the comfort zone into a “learning zone”.

• Provide the correct praise i.e. praising effort, learning strategies, resilience, collaborative learning, etc, can produce very positive results

• Provide practical examples of the power of practice, and of failure as a positive learning tool.

• Emphasise the rewards of the challenge and stretch as opposed to outcomes. • Develop the understanding an application of character traits like perseverance and

grit: teach goal setting, teach growth mindset – that intelligence is malleable not static,

• Focus on the attributes and habits of the mind that can be strengthened.

IMPACT FOR TEACHING, CHARACTER AND MINDSET

The point of school according to Guy Claxton is “Cultivating knowledge, skills, habits, abilities, values and beliefs” so children can thrive in the world. (Claxton, 2008). To prepare young people for the future, we need to develop capabilities they will need in order to thrive, and the confidence to face the challenges. “If we are serious about education being a preparation for the future, it is the quality of these learning skills and attitudes that matter in the long run”. Students need confidence to face the future challenges, to be willing to engage with the world. Claxton says that schools need to develop “learning muscles” (curiosity, courage, exploration and investigation, experimentation, imagination, reasoning, sociability, reflection) to create powerful learners.

Realistically, the goal of teachers should be to raise achievement, develop lifelong learners, and prepare students for the next phase of life – to become 21st century learners.

Effective Pedagogy, as defined in the New Zealand Curriculum means teaching that we will:

• create a supportive learning environment; • encourage reflective thought and action; • enhance the relevance of new learning; • facilitate shared learning; • make connections to prior learning and experience; • provide sufficient opportunities to learn; • inquire into the teaching–learning relationship.

A Bill and Belinda Gates Foundation report (Dweck, Walton, & Cohen, 2014) looking at skills required for lifelong learning identified three characteristics to promote tenacity in education :

• Create challenges and hold high standards, • Provide cognitive and motivational support • Make children feel connected and supported.

In a University of Chicago literature review of non cognitive factors that influence school performance, they found evidence to suggest “the best leverage points for improving student performance are in helping teachers understand the relationship between classroom context and student behaviours, providing teachers with clear strategies for creating classrooms that promote positive academic mindsets in students” (Farrington, et al., 2012)

They identified 5 general categories of non-cognitive factors related to academic performance:

• Academic Behaviours – attending class, completing work, participating • Academic Perseverance – grit, tenacity, perseverance, self control • Academic Mindsets – “I belong”, “My ability and competence grow with my effort”,

“ I can succeed” • Learning Strategies – study skills, strategies and tactics, goal setting • Social Skills – interpersonal skills, empathy, cooperation

The report found “Academic mindsets strongly influence the degree to which students engage in academic behaviours, persevere at different tasks, and employ available learning strategies. Building academic mindsets and teaching them appropriate learning strategies are the best ways to improve academic behaviours and perseverance”.

The US Department of Education produced a report in 2013: Grit, Tenacity and Perseverance and they identified that these three attributes are “essential to an individual’s capacity to strive for and succeed at long-term and higher order goals, and to persist in the face of the array of challenges and obstacles encountered throughout schooling and life”. (Shechtman, DeBarger, Dornsife, Rosier, & Yarnall, 2013). Again, the research suggests these factors are just as important as basic intelligence in achieving success.

The report went on to encourage – that we must develop learning environments to promote character attributes like grit, tenacity, perseverance, and help students to develop personal resources that promote these character attributes, through academic mindset, effort control, and the strategies and tactics to deal with challenges and setbacks.

• Academic Mindsets – beliefs, attitudes, dispositions, values and ways of perceiving oneself

• Effortful control – self discipline and self control, persistence in the face of long term goals- grit. “Knowing how to control your emotions and thoughts and knowing how to plan your behaviours so you can reach your goals” (Duckworth & Quninn, 2009).

• Strategies and tactics- toolbox for dealing with setbacks and failures – 21st century skills, and processes around goal setting, planning, acting and monitoring, and evaluation and adjusting actions.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation report cites three pedagological aspects that foster tenacity and performance, sending the message that students belong and have great potential (Dweck, Walton, & Cohen, 2014):

• Create challenges to promote high standards • Providing cognitive and motivational support • Help students feel connected and supported

So how then do we develop/ teach for success?

Learning environments need to be designed to promote these character and mindset skills. Our schools should implicitly and explicitly teach these skills to students so that they have a chance to develop skills and attributes to achieve and succeed. We need to capture children at a young age and develop the powerful skills that will propel them through life.

Overall, improving learning leads to quality outcomes:

� Students become more self-motivated (i.e. they develop a Growth Mindset)

� Students are less dependent on the teacher and more resilient in the face of challenges

� Less teacher intervention helps children persevere and grow

� Classroom climate is more collaborative

� Teachers get more feedback from the students which helps improve teaching and learning

� Learning becomes more student-led and less teacher-led

To develop academic mindset and provide students with the best opportunities for success, we must therefore:

1. Teach about MINDSET and information about the BRAIN. 2. Encourage students to internalise the BELIEF that success is a result of own actions

and behaviours, not external factors 3. Teach about EFFORT and CHARACTER and positive aspects of FAILURE 4. Encourage GOAL SETTING and help students set achievable goals 5. Use FEEDBACK and PRAISE – of effort and strategies 6. Provide enriched learning environments, and build MOTIVATION

1) MINDSET and the BRAIN

Teach students about the science of brain malleability and growth and the view that talent and intelligence are dynamic attributes that can be developed.

Teach the key message that we can change our intelligence and abilities through effort.”

A teacher with a growth mindset is interested in the quality of learning, rather than the quality of the work. Promoting a Growth Mindset with students gives them the confidence to believe that no matter where they are on the achievement ladder, with hard work, perseverance and effort they can improve their intelligence, o their skill in performing a particular task.

Key mindset attributes to develop (Growth Mindset) and avoid (Fixed Mindset):

Growth Mind-Set Fixed Mind-Set Praising effort and strategies Praising pupils for being smart Formative comments that emphasis effort and application Formative comments that emphasis achievement Building robust self confidence Praising students for achievements that come easi Spending time developing intelligence and ability Spending time documenting intelligence and abili Giving pupils a strong voice in the learning process and a sense of purpose

Directing pupils to which tasks to complete

Providing constructive criticism Placing importance on grades / levels rather than l Place importance on learning rather than grades / levels

Educators should model growth mindset behaviour through their teacher-student relationships. Research shows that students’ mindsets are influenced by the interactions they have with people around them. In the meta-analyses in his book Visible Learning, John Hattie identifies teacher-student relationships as having a highly positive effect size of 0.72 (Hattie, 2009).

Teach about the power of the BRAIN:

e.g.

• The brain can grow and get stronger • Neurons make connections when we learn, and become stronger with practice • Exercise is good for it • Keep practicing – because it helps the brain get stronger • With effort and persistence we learn and become smarter

2) BELIEF

A goal should be to encourage students to believe their own actions and behaviours (not external factors) are key to their success and achievement.

If non cognitive factors are malleable, and critical to academic performance, therefore a key task for teachers is to develop these skill sets in conjunction with curriculum content.

We need to assist children to focus on their improvement instead of them worrying about how smart they are.

Develop the ideas that all children have the ability to achieve success

3) EFFORT, CHARACTER and FAILURE

Teachers, management, parents must all believe that all children can be successful. They are the ones that need to model the characteristics of growth mindset, grit and perseverance, taking risks, failing and learning. We must cultivate the qualities of mindset and character.

It is important for students to understand that tests assess current skills and not long-term potential to learn. This is critical since many students may take their disappointing achievement test scores as a measure of their fixed, underlying ability and become discouraged about their academic futures. It is also critical for the students who do well on these tests not to begin to believe that success in standardized tests is the route to long-term success.

Encourage character traits of effort, persistence, grit. Teach students how they can engage in purposeful practice to develop expertise and build long term knowledge.

Teach the positive outcomes of failure “Experience success and failure not as a reward and punishment but as information” (Bruner, 1961). He continues,”Students need to be taught to appreciate that they're supposed to suffer when working hard on a challenge that exceeds their skill. They're supposed to feel confused. Frustration is probably a sign that they're on the right track and need to gut it out through the natural human aversion to mental effort and feeling overwhelmed so they can evolve”

4) GOAL SETTING

Giving students challenging goals encourages greater effort and persistence than providing moderate, "do-your-best" goals or no goals at all (Locke & Latham, 2006). As Carol Dweck writes “With a learning goal students don’t have to feel they’re already good at something in order to hang in and keep trying. After all, their goal is to learn, not to prove they’re smart”. (Dweck C. S., 1999)

Evaluate performance; provide feedback based on learning and growth, competence and future expectations of success

The learning environment should be adaptive to students’ performances and learning needs.

Goal setting should be based around learning goals not performance goals. Goals should be long term goals that are challenging. Schools need to provide supportive environment for achieving goals.

5) FEEDBACK and PRAISE

Feedback is a critical aspect in all learning environments.

Provide the right type of praise:

• Praise children for their strategies e.g. “You found a really good way to do it” • Praise children for specific work e.g. “You did a great job with those math problems”

• Praise children for persistence or effort e.g. “I can see you’ve been practicing” and “Your hard work has really paid off” and “I like the effort you put in. Let’s work together and figure out what you don’t understand”

• Praise children for their improvement e.g. “You really studied for your science test, and your improvement shows it.”

Feedback and praise should be specific and personal. High quality feedback will keep learners engaged, help students spot weaknesses or conversely when they are progressing well.

6) MOTIVATION

Schools can help students learn how to learn, develop their willingness to solve problems, and build their capacity for hard work and persistence. Teachers should help students to develop motivation for learning by supporting students in their efforts to meet high expectations and by encouraging students to regard mistakes and setbacks as learning opportunities.

Teachers should encourage students to engage in complex problems, and activities that stretch their current levels. Strategies such as giving students problems that require them to think for an extended time, presenting problems for which there is no immediately obvious way of arriving at a solution, and helping students to learn from the mistakes they have made, assists students to develop perseverance and openness to problem solving.

Teaching and developing growth mindsets will lead to an increase in effort and engagement. Children who have growth mindsets will enjoy the learning process increase their own levels of resilience required facing setbacks and for achieving success, and have higher levels of confidence and happiness.

IMPACT FOR BOARDS AND SCHOOL GOVERNANCE

Looking at the guiding principles of our education system, The New Zealand Curriculum includes a number of aspects relevant to the need to promote and develop non cognitive attributes, critical to student success:

• The Values, which include excellence (aiming high and persevering in the face of difficulties), innovation, enquiry and curiosity (thinking critically, creatively and reflectively)

• The Key Competencies. The NZC suggests that people adopt and adapt practices that they see used and valued by those closest to them, and they make these practices part of their own identity and expertise. These include Thinking e.g. making sense of information, experience, ideas, reflect on own learning, challenge assumptions and perceptions. Managing Self – self motivation, a “can do” attitude, seeing themselves as capable learners (growth mindset). Being resourceful, reliable, and resilient. Establish goals, make plans, mange projects and set high standards. Having strategies for meeting challenges

• Principles, which include High Expectations (encouraging students to achieve personal excellence), Learning to Learn (encouraging students to reflect on their own learning), Community Engagement (engaging support of family, whanau and communities)

The NZ Curriculum states that each board of trustees, through the principal and staff, is required to develop and implement a curriculum for students in years 1–13:

• that is underpinned by and consistent with the principles • in which the values are encouraged and modelled and are explored by students • that supports students to develop the key competencies.

Each board of trustees, through the principal and staff, is required to implement its curriculum in accordance with the priorities set out in the National Education Goals (NEG) and the National Administration Guidelines.

The NEGs are “statements of desirable achievements by the school system, or by an element of the school system" (Education Act 1989). Boards must use them to guide schools policies and practices. Boards of trustees are required to consider the implications for their schools and how they can best contribute to the goal given their local circumstances.

The NEGs are relevant in the context of developing growth mindset and non cognitive skills like persistence and grit, key factors in driving success in our children. In particular:

NEG 1:

The highest standards of achievement, through programmes which enable all students to realise their full potential as individuals, and to develop the values needed to become full members of New Zealand's society.

NEG 3:

Development of the knowledge, understanding and skills needed by New Zealanders to compete successfully in the modern, ever-changing world.

NEG 4:

A sound foundation in the early years for future learning and achievement through programmes which include support for parents in their vital role as their children's first teachers.

NEG 6:

Excellence achieved through the establishment of clear learning objectives, monitoring student performance against those objectives, and programmes to meet individual need.

Our schools need to provide opportunities, communicate high expectations, provide challenges, enriching environments that deliver the above. To cultivate a school environment therefore where growth mindset is prevalent, where performance character traits are taught and learnt and used, the leaders of our schools must first and foremost model these behaviours. Boards must give importance to the philosophies of growth mindset in areas of curriculum, teaching practices, personal development, technology, and activities both in and out of school.

Boards need to build the culture that values intellectual growth in its staff. Boards must set expectations for challenge and failure and support teachers’ learning, be responsive to honest feedback, seek to build the relevant skills, and learn from teachers.

Schools need to build growth mindset language into communications, achievement reporting and assessments. The use of growth mindset language sets the tone e.g. the simple act of saying “Not Yet” if a student says they can’t do something – is a simple habit that conveys the idea that ability and motivation are malleable.

The leaders of the school need to act as role models- in Benjamin Blooms study of world class performers he identified that the 1st teachers of those successful achievers were warm and accepting, and provided an environment of trust not judgment. (Bloom B. , Developing Talent in Young People, 1985). In a recent article Emily Diehl agreed, “When our school and district leaders model the behaviors that they ask us for, that builds trust and we want to work hard for them…When students see [adults] model the behaviors we ask them for, we build trust and open the door to sincere relationships. So above, so below: What happens at one level of our school is mirrored at all levels.” (Diehl, 2013)

In her book Mindset in the Classroom, Mary Cay Ricci (Ricci, 2013) highlights key areas to build on to develop character and mindset:

• Educators who believe that all students can achieve and be successful • Students who have a conceptual understanding of the brain, neural connections, and

that with effort and perseverance they can learn, grow their intelligence and be successful

• Teaching that meets students requirements- what they need, when they need it, how they need it

• Opportunities for critical thinking • Broadened concept of giftedness that is focused on talent development and domain

specific strengths

We need to remember it’s not about speed, but persistence and effort

• Ensure each student is challenged and respond to the student’s needs to set those challenging goals.

• Develop the culture – beliefs and values, “they way we do things”, what a school cares about. The growth mindset culture needs to run through the life and work of the school-its philosophy, language, and embedded habits, curriculum, and relationships.

• Identify and communicate values to be encouraged, modelled, and explored. Reinforce the message daily.

• Build the culture that values growth- with a focus persistence, effort, and mindset

The school community needs collective belief that all children can be successful and achieve. Set high expectations.

We should then monitor, evaluate, review school activities to see how Growth Mindset is being used and opportunities for further improvement

Boards and the individual trustees must cultivate these attributes in themselves as well. We need trustees with a growth mindset, who embrace challenge, effort, and grit, who aren’t

afraid to fail, who value feedback, and are willing to learn and improve. If we are to succeed in our governance roles, the growth mindset starts with us as individuals, modelling they way.

FOR PARENTS

As Boards and Educators, we can assist parents in understanding the keys to success, and the character traits that the school values. This in turn provides a further springboard and a mirror for our students to see the value of a growth mindset:

• Help parents understand the importance of effort and persistence • Provide information about Growth and Fixed mindsets, encouraging resilience, grit,

perseverance • Provide information on the brain, neural connections, malleability of the brain and

intelligence • Provide guidance on the most effective type of praise • Provide supportive environments to learn and grow • Provide support on the language of growth mindsets

Parents with this mindset are also more inclined to challenge themselves, persevere, and bounce back from failures.

Opportunities to assist our school communities are numerous- information evenings, newsletters, information on school websites to name a few.

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