Coaching Growth Mindset

Did you watch the Week 2 lectures? Promise? Ok, start reading.
Quick mindset recap:
Teachers with growth mindsets are more coachable because they are
more willing and able to accept feedback. They seek out feedback and
are unafraid to process it because it enables them to be better. They can
separate out description of their ineffective practice from commentary
on who they are as a person.
People with a fixed mindset, on the other hand, have trouble
separating self-identity from their performance, which means they tend
to react badly to feedback and failure.
A fixed mindset leads teachers to avoid getting feedback and gathering
data on their teaching because of the emotional risk it poses to them.
Less feedback and less data means a less effective teacher.
The Four Horsemen of Fixed Mindset
In our experience, teachers with fixed mindsets
about their own teaching react to critical
feedback in one of four poor ways. We call
these ways the Four Horsemen of Fixed Mindset.
1. You're right, I suck. Teachers who give some form of this
response beat themselves up and take critical feedback as
commentary on themselves, rather than on their teaching
performance. Any constructive criticism is a major event, and
even the most well-intentioned feedback cuts and stings.
2. You're wrong, I rule. In which teachers dispute the feedback as
inaccurate, becoming defensive, and insisting on separate
narrative of what happened...one which doesn't pose a threat to
their self-image.
3. Blame it on the Rain In this case, teachers dismiss the feedback by
blaming external factors for their own performance. i.e., The kids
were in a weird mood today, Fractions are boring, etc. Like

You're wrong, I rule, it prevents teachers from having to ever

engage with a narrative about themselves that would pose a risk to
their self-image.
4. Optimist Without a Cause With this response, teachers just let the
feedback bounce right off themthey never even hear the
messages theyre being given. I suck? Awesome. Kids were out of
control? Cool. Nobody learned anything? Right on, I hear you.
The first step to taking feedback is actually listening to it.

Before we get into how to deal with fixed mindset, we should talk a little
bit more about each of the four ways that teachers can poorly read data
on themselves and their teachingheres a brief rundown.

The first two, Youre Right I Suck and Youre Wrong I Rule, come from a
very similar place. In both cases, people who do these read any piece of
data on themselves as being Personal (Its my fault), Pervasive (This is
me in a microcosm), and Permanent (Theres nothing to be done about
it). The difference between the two behaviors is that people who go to
Youre Wrong I Rule have built up some nice defensive mechanisms
that outwardly deny the validity of the data, while internally feeling the
sting. If it didnt hurtif it wasnt dangerousthe data wouldnt
engender such powerful responses.

While those two horsemen are defined by giving the data too much
power, the next two are united by the way in which they dont give the
data enough. With both Blame it On The Rain and Optimist Without a
Cause, the data never makes its way in. In both cases, it gets dismissed
a priori to the teacher having to ever really grapple with it as being
useful or valid to their practice. This happens in two different ways.

Optimists Without a Cause deny the weight of the feedback by

minimizing it relevant to all of their other strengths. Its not that the
data is wrongits just that its really not that big of a deal. Problems are
small, solutions easy. People who go to Blame it On the Rain, on the
other hand, are willing to admit that the critical feedback is important,
but compartmentalize it and treat it as so specific to circumstance that it
defies generalization. In other words, it may have been a big deal on
that day, with those kids, but long-termnothing to worry about.

We believe strongly in the power of the simple act of sharing these

named behaviors with teachers. As weve discussed, weve seen this go a
long way towards normalizing these behaviors, starting a difficult
conversation, and providing a taxonomy with which to discuss fixed
mindset in a lower stakes way.
However, as you try to curtail fixed mindset behaviors that prevent
feedback from happening in a coaching session, we also recommend
promoting more productive behaviors. The following section is aimed at
teachers; we distribute it to our residents here at Match!

Other Strategies for Coaching Growth Mindset

Growing Your Growth Mindset

In the following sections, were going to cover some strategies for
growing your growth mindset and making sure you stay open and
receptive to feedback. In the short term, for many of you, this probably
means faking it. Which is cool. As long as the feedback makes its way
in, as long as you remain highly coachablewere all good.
Were going to run you through eight Strategies for improving/affecting
Growth Mindset. All of them are usefulnone of them are mutually
exclusive with each otherbut some are particularly well suited for one
type of horseman. We identify those at the beginning of each minisection.
Strategy #1: Smiling
Particularly Useful: Youre Wrong I Rule, Youre Right I Suck, Blame It on The
Rain
No, really. Were actually serious. If you force yourself to smile, you put
yourself in a better mental state to take critical feedback. Why? Because
forcing yourself to smile actually keeps you in a better mood. Better
mood=less likely to Freak the Mighty when you get critical feedback.
Were sure this sounds silly, but its actually true. Theres a long writeup of it in Malcolom Gladwells Blink. If you physically force yourself to
smile, you actually make yourself happier.
But wait, theres moreaccording to researchers at the University of
Wisconsin, people who have had Botox treatment, when exposed to sad

or troubling stimuli, are actually happier when compared to those who

people who havent had the treatment.
Why? Because their faces are chemically frozen into smiling all of the
time. True Story. We. Are. Not. Making. This. Up. Google Botox+Facial
Feedback Hypothesis.
Which is really exciting. Maybe your school/district has money in the PD
coffers for elective Botox therapy! But in the short term, if youre feeling
the stress/anger/sadness, try to fight it off in part by physically smiling
through it.

Strategy #2: Body Language

Particularly Useful: Youre Wrong, I Rule, Youre Right I Suck
Like smiling, your body language is a two-way street with your emotions.
Not only does it show what youre feelingit also affects how youre
feeling. Which makes it all the more important to be aware of how
youre feeling and catch yourself if youre slipping into
angry/sad/detached posture. Sit up, lean forward, make eye contact,
stay active and engaged.
A few common problems weve seen with body language:
1. Covering up/withdrawing. Like every minute of the debrief is
causing you physical pain.
2. Tension. In your arms, neck, and face. Like youre about to
explode.
3. Disengaged. Looking around the room. Zoning out.
How do you deal with poor body language? The single best strategy is
just to be aware of itchecking yourself for it. Do that and youre 90% of
the way there to solving the problem.
Strategy #3: Watch Your Voice
Particularly Useful: Youre Wrong I Rule, Youre Right I Suck, Blame It On
The Rain.
Like with body language and facial expressions, your voice is a two-way
street. When you sound negative you build negative energy. When you
sound positive, you build positive energy. Are we telling you to fake it?
Yes. Absolutely. Itll make it easier in the moment to hear the feedback
by not making the debrief all angsty. If youre really upset about

something, save it for later. Find one of us or put it in your Zoombut

dont let it tank a coaching session.
What should you avoid? Everything that Olivia did in the Four
Horsemen videos: sad (YRIS), whiny (BioTR), aggressive (YWIR).
Your coach will call you on this, but you should definitely practice
listen to yourself in stressful situations. Are you measured and
controlled or is your voice one giant poker tell? Being aware of how you
sound is a huge step in making sure that you get everything out of your
feedback sessions that you can.

Strategy #4: Remind Yourself of Your Coachs Job

Particularly Useful: Youre Wrong, I Rule; Youre Right, I Suck.
Feel like your coach is always criticizing your teaching? Thats because
they are. In fact, we pay them to do it. When coaches have only come
with buckets of praise, tossing out compliments like theyre on a parade
floattheir teachers have struggled.
If they werent telling you how to improve, they wouldnt be doing their
job. Theyre not out to get you.

Strategy #5: Remind Yourself of Your Coachs Expertise

Particularly Useful: Blame it On the Rain, Optimist Without a Cause
Your coaches are experts. Thats why they got hired. Plus, as we wrote
up top, its a poor use of your teacher brain to be constantly vetting the
quality of the feedback while at the same time thinking about its
application to your teaching.
If you picture your brain like a computer, thats like trying to stream an
episode of The Daily Show from Hulu while youre also downloading a
movie from Itunes, uploading videos to Facebook, and playing World of
Warcraft. Thinking about teaching is hard work, and youve only got so
much processing power. Dont waste it.
Not only does questioning your coachs expertise prevent you from
letting their feedback in, it taxes your brain to the point that you cant

make good use of the feedback that you do hear. Save your coaching
analysis for the Zoomwe want it, but thats where it belongs.
Instead, remind yourself about how skilled they arehow much they
have to impart. If you can actively think of them as an expert resource,
it becomes much harder to block them out.

Strategy #6: Take Detailed Notes and Review Them Frequently

Particularly Useful: Blame It On The Rain, Optimist Without a Cause
Detailed note-taking is an effective way to build a growth mindset and
stop yourself from blocking feedback. You should ALWAYS take notes in
your feedback sessionsbut if youre struggling to accept feedback, you
might want to make your notes all the more detailed and then find time
to look at them during the week. Having clear evidence on paper for
what your coach is telling you has seemed to make it a lot easier for
people to focus on the details instead of how they feel about the details.

Strategy #7: Ask Clarifying Questions

Particularly Useful: Blame It On The Rain, Optimist Without a Cause
Another effective way to keep yourself engaged with the feedback is to
ask frequent, clarifying questions. Debrief sessions between you and
your coach should be conversations, not depositions. Your coaches will
do their best to get you active and talking during these sessionsbut you
should do your part too. Ultimately, the ratio should be something like
50:50.
Think back to Olivias OWaC videowe were talking, but we werent
really communicating because she was dodging every question with a
smiles and empty platitudes. Not only should she have been directly
engaging with what I was asking her, but she should have had her own
questions readylike Maura in her video.
Having a growth mindset about your teaching means interrogating, in a
professional, proactive way, every piece of data you get on yourself.
When you authentically do that, you give the feedback a chance to sink
in and work.
Some useful question stems:

What does X look like?

What should I say when Im doing X?
How do I work X into my lesson without going over time?
However, you need to be really careful not to let this shift into another
form of Blame It on The Rain. The litmus test? If youre asking a
question thats rhetorical, youre probably blaming it on the rain. I.e.
But dont you think that if I had given Orin a demerit he would have
tuned out for the rest of the lesson? Not a good question. Much better:
I was afraid that if I gave Orin a demerit he would have tuned out for
the rest of the lesson. Am I wrongor is that just OK?
This is a really fine line that largely comes down to tone. You know
what it sounds like when someone is asking a question for which theyre
not really looking for an answer. When the response youre looking for
is something along the lines of, Yeah, thats a good pointI take it
back, you shouldnt do Xthen that question probably isnt
clarifyingits challenging.

Okay, is everyone around you smiling yet? Great.

Before we sign off, a couple of resources for your promoting growth
mindset tool belt.
Below we have reproduced a couple of charts that we use with our Match
Teacher Residency teachers. The first is a reflection sheet to be used in
conjunction with the Four Horsemen videos, and the second is an
exercise used to promote fixed mindset self-awareness, and how
positive language can help you stay on the straight-and-narrow towards
growth.

Video Analysis
Horseman What does it look/sound
like?

Personal Connections?

Youre
Right I
Suck

Youre
Wrong I
Rule

Blame It
On the
Rain

Optimist
Without a
Cause

Growth Mindset Exercise: Flipping the Script

In the table below are Fixed Mindset quotes commonly heard in debriefs.
We all go there sometimes. Change each one into something more
Growth Mindset-y.
Fixed Mindset/Lack of Agency

Horseman

Growth Mindset/Agency

Ex: I just dont know if Im cut

out for this.

Youre Right I I have so many things I want to

Suck
improve. Where should I start?

Ex: I just dont think Jalene

wants to be at this school.

Blame It On
the Rain

Im having trouble getting Jalene to

buy into my class. Shes often in a
really negative mood. What do you
think I should do?

Kevin has an IEP for his

behavior. Hes been really out
of control lately.

The other teachers really

arent consistent about this
expectation, so when I
enforce it kids just get mad.
Its not effective.

10

Fixed Mindset/Lack of Agency

Horseman

Growth Mindset/Agency

I know they didnt show it on

the Exit Ticket, but I think
kids really got this from what
I saw on their classwork.

You had left by this point,

but Christopher definitely got
back on track and was
participating.

11