Spencer's Thinkpad

A Dozen Tools to Foster Growth Mindset and Prevent Learned Helplessness - Page 3

11. Immunize Against Helplessness

In both the animal studies and human studies of helplessness, about two thirds of the subjects who receive inescapable shocks or aversive sounds fall into helplessness. What about the other third? Seligman and his colleagues speculated that life experiences had immunized those subjects against helplessness. That is, they had a sufficient number of experiences of learned effectiveness prior to the experiment so they did not fall into helplessness. They had learned that what they do makes a difference. They were resilient.

Thus was born the concept of immunizing against helplessness. The theory: Provide an animal or student many experiences in which effort improves outcomes so that when they experience a situation of helplessness they will not generalize to a conclusion that effort is ineffective. Essentially immunization against helplessness is training resilience.

In support of this theory is the observation that following a devastating life event such as death of a loved one or loss of a job, some individuals fall into depression (a form of helplessness) and others do not. The explanation, those who are resilient and bounce back from devastation have had life experiences in which they have learned their efforts make a difference. In contrast, those who fall into a deep, prolonged depression have not had sufficient experiences in which their efforts improved their outcomes. Support for this interpretation came from an additional experiment: Dogs were raised singly so they had little or no experience in controlling anything.³⁵ These dogs were far more susceptible to helplessness: it took half as many experiences of inescapable shock for them to fall into helplessness.

To test the theory of immunization, dogs and rats were given escape experiences prior to receiving the inescapable shocks.³⁶ The result: immunization worked! That is, those animals who had learned that their efforts controlled their outcomes, did not fall into helplessness. Animals who had earlier experiences of control made far more assertive efforts at escaping the shock.

Thus there is support for providing students many experiences in which they can control their outcomes. This can take many forms in the classroom. Some possibilities:

• Provide student choice over how to be evaluated: Essay, performance, test, video production….
• Provide student choice over reading material.
• Teach a skill no student has mastered in a way all students can master it, and then celebrate how effort led to mastery.
• Have students write on the topic "A Skill I Am Proud of Mastering."
• Allow make-up tests, essays, and performances, and then celebrate improvement.
• Have students reflect on and share with teammates how effort lead them to mastery in areas like swimming, riding a bike, tying their shoes.

12. Teach with Kagan Structures

Many Kagan Structures inoculate students against helplessness and provide experiences that promote a growth mindset. Here we will overview just three: Team-Pair-Solo, RallyCoach, and Numbered Heads Together.

Team-Pair-Solo
Team-Pair-Solo is an outstanding example of a Kagan Structure that inoculates students against helplessness. Progressing through the steps of the structure, students have an immediate experience reinforcing the belief that effort leads to mastery.

Student teams are presented a problem beyond the capacity of most students. They are encouraged to work as a team to solve the problem. When the team can readily solve that type of problem, the team of four breaks into two pairs. Working in pairs students take turns solving the same type of problem, receiving help from their partner if necessary. When pairs can readily solve that type of problem, the partners separate to solve the same type of problem on their own. If an individual falters, they rejoin their partner to solve additional problems as a pair until they can confidently solve the problems working solo.

Students discover that with effort they can do on their own what prior to Team-Pair-Solo they could do only with the help of teammates. The structure causes students to see that effort improves outcome.

The steps of Team-Pair-Solo are detailed in our basic book of cooperative learning.³⁷

RallyCoach
RallyCoach is one of the most popular of the Kagan mastery structures. In the mastery structures students receive guided practice that ensures success. Instead of working alone on a worksheet that can lead to a fixed mindset ("I am not smart enough to do these problems"), in RallyCoach students work with a partner, taking turns solving problems. The student watching their partner solve a problem provides coaching if necessary and celebrates success with growth mindset praise like: "Your effort is making you smarter!"

Students working alone on a worksheet, either in class or for homework, too often don't receive the coaching or support necessary to promote a growth mindset. Students too often discover at home they don't know how to solve the worksheet problems and don't know where to turn for help, promoting helplessness. Even in class some students are too embarrassed to ask for help, and sit with their pencil on the paper while their mind wanders, or worse yet, practice an entire sheet of problems wrong. A student receiving negative feedback after the teacher has had time to grade her worksheet is likely to conclude, "I am not smart enough." This cannot happen in RallyCoach as the students receive immediate corrective feedback. They see that with corrective feedback they can improve. They acquire a growth mindset.

The steps of RallyCoach are detailed in our basic book of cooperative learning.³⁸

Numbered Heads Together
Numbered Heads Together is a great antidote to class review sessions in which the teacher calls on one student at a time to answer teacher-generated questions. That traditional format often devolves into a conversation between the teacher and the high achieving students in the class because the low achievers don't raise their hands to be called upon. Low achievers in that structure are likely to feel they are not smart enough to answer, promoting a fixed mindset.

In contrast, a class review using Numbered Heads Together holds each student responsible for responding to each question. After the teacher asks a question there is silent think time followed by each student writing her or his best answer. Then each student in turn shares their answer with their teammates. After that, teammates discuss their answers and reach consensus on their best answer. Students have a number, usually 1 through 4, and in the next step of the structure the teacher calls a number. Each student with that number stands up to share her or his best answer, usually using simultaneous response modes, like holding up their answer board.

Following the use of Numbered Heads Together, achievement increase dramatically and over 80% of students agreed to the statement, "Other students thought I was smarter."³⁹ Why? In Numbered Heads Together all students are engaged and each responds to each question. Students who think they are not smart enough to respond when the whole class question-answer approach is used become fully engaged, and in the process others come to appreciate their intelligence.

The steps of Numbered Heads Together are detailed in our basic book of cooperative learning.⁴⁰

Conclusion

Seeing fixed mindset as creating helplessness in the face of intellectual challenges deepens our understanding of both mindset and helplessness. Exploring the links between the two theories provides additional tools both for fostering a growth mindset and for preventing helplessness.

Two additional theories are linked to mindset and helplessness: Internal vs. external locus of control⁴¹ and Self-efficacy.⁴² These theories are quite similar theoretically to the theories of fixed mindset and learned helplessness. Further, empirical studies demonstrate that an external locus of control, as well as a lack of self-efficacy predict diminished academic achievement. For example, the Coleman Report, perhaps the largest study of schooling ever conducted, found a simple measure of belief in internal vs. external control predicted school performance better than IQ and better than a combination of many other predictors of achievement.⁴³ Support for the relation of external control and lower school achievement comes also from a large review of the literature on locus of control and academic achievement.⁴⁴ Similarly, lack of self-efficacy, not believing one’s actions can produce desired outcomes, is strongly associated with diminished academic achievement.⁴⁵

To an important extent these four theories provide different languages to describe the same phenomena: Students achieve more when they feel what they do makes a difference, when they are optimistic, confident, and feel that with effort they can grow their brain. There is perhaps one word that best captures what these theories are pointing to: Resilience. These theories inform us what causes a student faced with a challenge to either wilt or step up to the challenge.

Applying these theories allows us to improve school achievement. But more importantly, applying these theories gives us the power to promote resilience—one of the most important life skills and character virtues. As educators we have the power to foster resilience. Our students can feel empowered, confident, and optimistic. And to the extent we foster this expectation of success in our students, the more likely they are to succeed not just in school, but also in reaching their life goals. To the extent we foster resilience in our students, an optimistic "can do" attitude, our students are destined to have happier and more successful lives.

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