Growth Mindset
At Bizzy Bees, our children love to learn! They embrace challenges, strive for the best, and learn from their mistakes. This is because they have a growth mindset!
A growth mindset means we understand that we can achieve the highest levels of abilities and skills by putting in the effort and adopting the right strategies. No one is born with a fixed set of abilities or skills; it's through training, effort, focus, tenacity, finding the best strategies, and suitable coaching that one can reach the highest standards.
Whether it's the Austrian composer Mozart, the American NBA champion Magic Johnson, the Belgian footballer Eden Hazard, or the Nobel Prize in Physics winner Albert Einstein, they all excelled in their fields by working hard to achieve their goals. Many of them faced setbacks and failures, and at times, their peers were better, but they didn't give up. They learned from their mistakes, adapted their learning strategies, got inspired by the best, and, step by step, became the successful people we know today!
At Bizzy Bees, we foster a growth mindset in our children through a range of techniques, activities, and positive language. Here are some examples:
Encouraging Kids to Try: Our teachers support and help children try new things and develop new skills. Whether it's learning to hold a spoon, changing clothes, trying a new painting technique, or learning to count backward, it's always exciting to learn something new.
Turning Mistakes into Learning Opportunities: When a child makes a mistake or hasn't yet achieved their goal, the teacher talks with them to encourage learning from the experience. They discuss what went wrong, why it happened, what could be done differently next time, and how to improve.
Reflecting on Tasks and Embracing Challenges: We ask children to reflect on their tasks and encourage them to take on more challenging ones. We say things like, "Was it easy or difficult? How about trying something a bit more challenging? It will be fun!” or “Wow, you did it well. Maybe you should try something more difficult, like the bigger kids!”, or “Do you want to help me with something more challenging?"
Teaching About Growth Mindset: We explain to children how brain neurons are like muscles—training them makes them better.
Leading by Example: Teachers model growth mindset by pretending to make mistakes and then showing children how they learn from them.
Promoting a Positive Approach: When a child says, "I don't know how to do it," teachers respond with, "You don't know yet, but we're going to try together, step by step."
Using Encouraging Language: Teachers never discourage children by describing their work negatively. They will never say, "You failed," "It's not good," or "What is that? Do it again!" Instead, they use words that encourage personal development, helping children understand they are on a lifelong learning journey.
Celebrating Improvement and Effort: Teachers praise children for their efforts with phrases like, "I can see you worked hard on this task, well done!"
A growth mindset is also developed through other key characteristics of learning at Bizzy Bees, such as curiosity, self-confidence, tenacity, and grit. We use positive discipline and consider each child as unique, with their own needs, interests, and ways of learning. We also encourage parents to foster a growth mindset at home for an exciting lifelong journey of discovery, learning, and development.
