Growth Mindset and Educational Technology: My Wonderings

This week, I did some research to see if I could answer some of the questions that came to me after reading Richardson's book, Why School.  My search for information on growth mindset and educational technology was not as easy as I thought it would be.  I made an assumptions in my last blog post that the literature would support the idea that educational technology and mindset could be linked to increased learning in students. Also, I thought I may find instances where the type of technology may have an effect on mindset. This was not the case.

So, I had to change my thinking.  I decided to look for examples of how some educational technology could be used to foster growth mindset.  I began with looking at video games.  I found a fascinating article regarding the use of incentives in educational games. The study found that rewarding growth mindset behaviours rather than achievement, resulted in increased time spent on the game, more levels completed and more mindset growth behaviours being used by players.  It was encouraging to see that game designers intentionally are making games that teach growth mindset ideas to students and allow students to practice growth mindset strategies while playing the game. One study focused on an 'off the shelf' game which was adapted for classroom use by adding on of paper pencil tasks, such as concept maps, do have an effect on mindset.

I also decided to try looking at makerspaces.  Last week, I wondered how and if makerspaces could foster growth mindset. Prior to today, I had almost no knowledge of what a makerspace was.  I found out that makerspaces are tool and technology rich, spaces where people may gather to tinker, collaborate and create items to solve problems.  Two sources I found helpful in understanding what makerspaces were this Edutopia video and this post.  I found a new study on design based maker-spaces that looked at how they may influence growth mindset.   Design-based makerspaces are makerspaces with scaffolding to help students meet curricular goals and activities are based on the steps of the design process.  They have more structure than regular makerspaces.  This study suggests that growth mindset can be enhanced through the use of design-based makerspaces and that the growth is not short term.  

Looking ahead to my next post,  I would like to thoroughly read over the articles that I have found to gain a better understanding of how games and makerspaces influence growth mindset.  I know little about either and am curious if I will prefer one over the other to help foster the mindset objectives I set for my students.