THE EFFECT OF TEACHING COOPERATIVE LEARNING SKILLS ON DEVELOPING YOUNG STUDENTS’ GROWTH MINDSET
Keywords:
cooperative learning techniques and skills, growth mindset, primary studentsAbstract
Some people see difficult issues as setbacks, as problems, as setbacks that will stop them from reaching their goals. Other people see the same kinds of issues as natural challenges of life and approach these problems as opportunities to grow. People like Dweck (2006), Duckworth (2013), and Johnson and Johnson (2013) believe that students can be taught to approach hurdles in life with positive and productive attitudes. They believe that students can learn how to approach issues in their academic in different ways. Student intelligence, talents, abilities, and potential are not written in stone at birth and through strategic effort and perseverance students can change their attitudes and perspectives on difficult issues. In this study we utilized cooperative learning techniques (Johnson & Johnson, 2013) to observe and analyze student data to determine whether or not young students were willing to contemplate their perspectives in relation to working through complex academic challenges. The results indicate that young students are willing and able to change their mindsets from a fixed to growth perspective. The results also indicated that those students who began the process with a positive mindset maintained their positive outlook and approaches to academic challenges. These results engender promise for our ability as instructors to help students learn to be strong willed and approach issues with a mindset to strategically work as hard as they have to learn and become successful.
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