The ‘Mindset’ matters!

Learning and innovation go hand in hand. The arrogance of success is to think that what you did yesterday will be sufficient for tomorrow. – William Pollard

In gardening or farming, the soil needs to be constantly nourished in order to reap a better yield. The mindset is like the soil. A fixed mindset of educators cannot produce innovative students. The mindset needs to grow and evolve into a better one – an innovator’s mindset.

Innovative educators alone can produce innovative students. There should be opportunities for teachers to learn, create and innovate to meet the needs of today’s learners, however, if teachers are not ready to change their mindset, the efforts of the organisation will be wasted.

The following driving question can help us achieve the goal of an innovator’s mindset.

“What can we do to make students leave school every afternoon more curious than when they started in the morning?”

Here’s the first learning intention that is linked to an innovator’s mindset:

To remind students constantly about what they can do instead of what they can’t do.

What could be other meaningful mindset-related learning intentions for 2020?

To create a climate of trust so that students and co-teachers are bold enough to take risks.
To empower students by conscientiously shifting from telling to listening/facilitating.
To design curriculum in a way that the boundaries constantly expand (inquiry) as students explore content.
To constantly remind our students, colleagues and parents that twenty-first century education is not about the end product; it’s about the process.
To think differently about the things that we are used to seeing daily to create innovative learning opportunities.
To spread the news (through experiences and examples) that innovation starts not by providing answers but by asking questions
To evolve as great educators by learning to work with the constraints of the system (compliance!) and still create innovative learning opportunities for their students.
To know that learning is creation and not consumption; it is a matter of creating new meanings and new neural pathways.
To frame and ask right questions so students develop the ability to distinguish between good and better answers. Here’s an example from one of George Couros’ posts:

Gourge Couros’ book, ‘The Innovator’s Mindset: Empower Learning, Unleash Talent, and Lead a Culture of Creativity’ has been a source of inspiration for this post.

While reading this book before a year, there had been a quest to know if there is an organisation that has already started using some of the ideas listed in the book.

I was pleased to find such a learning environment and I am grateful that I made the right decision to move to St Luke’s Catholic college, Marsden Park in July 2019.

What an exciting journey it had been! There is a long way to go, however, the members of the St Luke’s learning community have initiated the change. Our students have started leaving school more curious in the afternoon than they left their house in the morning.

Personally, it was a great learning experience for me. During the period (terms 3 and 4), I had taught Science which is my area of specialisation but also endeavoured to get out of my comfort zone to support students in their English, HSIE, PDHPE, RE classes and the Pathways program. One of the requirements that is vital while teaching next-generation learners is the ability to see big ideas in curriculum through interconnected content knowledge. I saw this opportunity to co-teach in other subject areas as a way to use this ability where the skills gained in teaching Science was extended to learning areas that were not so familiar to me. It is not just me but almost all Stage 4 educators have the willingness to expand their horizon to explore new subject areas. Yes, we firmly believe that mindset matters!

At St Luke’s, we do more than just engaging students; we work towards empowering them. We build each other up to build a new-normal together.

May this summer break help us to pause, ponder and progress with greater passion, enhanced positivity and true purpose.

May the season of Christmas help us to experience a deeper understanding and appreciation of God’s immeasurable and unconditional love for us so that we grow closer to Jesus than we ever have before and begin to look at the world around us from a different perspective using our evolving mindset.