Developing Academic Mindset

 I was first exposed to Zaretta Hammond's book, Culturally Responsive Teaching & The Brain, about two years ago through our staff book club. We were a small group--just myself, our school social worker, and one 8th grade science teacher--but we had a rich conversation about both the science and the practical application of Hammond's book.  In the spring I decided to dig back in and reread the book in its entirety and I've been carrying it around with me all summer, slowly digesting all it has to offer.

I was particularly drawn to Ch. 7, "Shifting Academic Mindset in the Learning Partnership: Restoring Students' Natural Confidence as Learners." Hammond cautions against teachers focusing on surface level engagement from students in which we try to coax students into being interested in the lesson, hoping that if we do this repeatedly students will eventually develop positive academic mindsets. In reality, she says, we need to first focus on developing our students' academic mindsets in order to help create independent learners. I had never seen the term academic mindset described in as much detail as Hammond uses in the graphic below. One thing I really appreciate about these components is that it requires reflection on both the student and the teacher when one of these components is lacking.

Hammond, (2015) P.111 Figure 7.2

Many Dependent Learners do not have strong or positive academic mindsets and as a result they don’t take the initiative or persevere through challenging tasks as independent learners do.  We cannot, however, attribute lack of academic mindset to social class, race, gender or other parameters over which we have no control.  Part of our job as teachers, in learning alliances with students, is to help students cultivate an academic mindset and believe in themselves as learners.

After reading about the different components of academic mindset, I had an idea to create a series of statements to help students and teachers identify their current academic mindset and maybe identify the areas where they feel stronger or weaker. The purpose of these statements is to get a sense of where students are in terms of their academic mindset to help us determine how much and what kind of work we need to incorporate into our content instruction.  If we fail to acknowledge students’ current academic mindset, or lack thereof, we will not be able to develop independent learners.

The statements are still a very rough draft but I'd love to hear other teachers' thoughts on getting a temperature on students' academic mindsets, the idea of using statements like this with students, or feedback to improve the draft.  Any and all feedback is welcome!