James Anderson - Growth Mindsets

We worked on Thursday with James Anderson.

What a great day unpacking the ideas around Growth Mindsets.

He finished up by talking about Failure. "I failed vs I am a failure." Fail is an event not a person.

Failure as a starting point rather than as a finishing point.

Failure is the opportunity to begin again more intelligently.


James is developing a rubric to try and describe failing well. This is something about persistence and attitude to learning.

We have been left with a challenge to think about what we want to change, when we will change this by, who we will seek support from and how we will know that we have changed.

The messages I have taken from the session seem to fall under two main strands. There are the issues surrounding my own mindset and the times I have a fixed or growth mindset and what contributes to that. The other strand is the language I use that either promotes or inhibits a growth mindset in the children I work with (and with my own children).

Now I need to go back to the

book to mull this over some more.