09 Oct 2020

Being successful is a skill!

CFBL 5ème | Year 8 pupils participate in “Growth Mindset” classes with their English teacher, Ms Watts.  

Their first task was to discover what the concept of “Growth Mindset“ means and to understand that skills and talent are not enough to be successful. 

A growth mindset is about learning that failing is part of the learning process, and knowing that learning from failure is what leads to success. This can be summed up by adding to sentences the magic ‘YET’ as in: “I can’t do that… YET.” 

5ème students then had to create their own growth mindset inspirational quotes in a digital art form, along with a sentence by one of their ‘Heroes’ that is also an example of a growth mindset!

Over 30 years ago, Carol Dweck and her colleagues became interested in students’ attitudes about failure. They noticed that some students bounced back quickly while other students seemed devastated by even the smallest setbacks. After studying the behaviour of thousands of children, Dr. Dweck coined the terms “fixed mindset” and “growth mindset” to describe the underlying beliefs people have about learning and intelligence. When students believe they can get smarter, they understand that effort makes them stronger. Therefore they put in extra time and effort, and that leads to higher achievement.

‘I have not failed, I’ve just found 10 000 ways that won’t work’. 

Thomas Edison

‘It’s not that I’m so smart; I just stay with problems longer’. 

Albert Einstein

‘There is no magic to achievement. It’s really about hard work, choices and persistence.’ 

Michelle Obama