What Does "Growth Mindset" in Dance Education Mean?

I've started on this book called "Mindset: The New Psychology of Success", written by Carol Dweck who is the Professor of Psychology at Stanford University.

This book dives deep into Carol's research on "growth" versus "fixed" mindsets among individuals and organisations. I would highly recommend this book, if not this article where she summarises her findings in a single post. I highly recommend reading this if you haven't, or have been thinking about it but not yet! A good place to start would be this TED Talk. Trust me, you could potentially be quite invested and interested with her findings!

A few pages in, and it got me thinking about my environments in daily life - what revolves in it, who is in it, and are my environments a cultivating catalyst for Growth Mindset (GM)? So today, I'll be sharing my two cents worth of perspectives on what Growth Mindset means to me, and how I try to implement (in some shape or form) these GM processes into my own classes and environments.

For simplicity sake, I will be using the following acronyms from time to time:

FM: Fixed Mindset

GM: Growth Mindset

"It doesn't matter how slowly you go, as long as you don't stop."

- Confucius

Key Differences between Fixed Mindset & Growth Mindset

First, let's unpack the key differences between a Fixed Mindset and Growth Mindset:

Fixed Mindset

One who believes that talents and intelligence are fixed.

Keywords: fixed, static

Growth Mindset

One who believes that talents and intelligence can be changed.

Keywords: improved, increase

Table of Differences between FM & GM. Taken from https://www.mindsethealth.com/matter/growth-vs-fixed-mindset

Let's break it down in a very simple example: a kid scores 90/100 for a test (perhaps you can relate to this)

Kid with Fixed Mindset: "I've tried so hard in this test, but I only got 90/100... Maybe I only have this amount of smartness in me."

Kid with Growth Mindset: "I've given this test a go, and got this score! No worries, I'll work a little harder and try to study this topic a little more"

How Carol describes a fixed mindset is that of people who "believes that they have a certain amount of [intelligence] and that's that, then their goal is to look smart all the time and not look dumb in front of other people."

On the contrary, people with a growth mindset "understands that not knowing or being good at something is a temporary state, that their talents and abilities can be developed overtime through effort, good teaching and persistence."

Translating this to the Classroom... What are some benefits of a Growth Mindset?

The classroom is a crucial environment to cultivate a student's mindset. Studies by Dweck and others have shown that Growth Mindset has a positive effect on motivation and academic performance.

Some additional benefits of GM includes:

- reduced burnout

- fewer psychological problems, including depression and anxiety

- fewer behavioural problems

Studies have also shown that students who endorse/advocate Growth Mindsets got higher grades in their academic performances.

If I applied this to the dance context, the idea of getting into a professional touring company is deemed as success was drilled into my brain at a very young age. Therefore, I kept trying to audition and they were often not successful. In these cases, I can get quite anxious because I saw myself as a failure and would beat myself up for it. It affected my mental and emotional health for a while. Over time, through the right support and feedback loop, I slowly turned failures into learning lessons that I could take with me for the next opportunity. Ironically, this shift has helped me to not only progress as a dancer, but also as a person when tackling challenges.

Applying this to the Dance Studio.

Now. This is tricky business, because how do you impart these growth mindset processes into the dance studio context? Between technique and mindsets, technique is unarguably much easier to teach because it's a skillset that has been refined and honed through time, effort and consistent persistence. The softer, more psychological skills are much harder because:

1. Not everyone will get it (and that's totally okay)

2. Depends on the age group & maturity level

3. Experience level (not just in technique but also through life)

Here's what I believe a growth mindset in dance is:

A growth mindset in dance is about helping the people that we encounter see the effort behind the successes, and that through smart work, consistent and failure, they will eventually get better and improve.

Turning "I can't" into "I'll try" is a huge achievement for me whenever I teach my classes, regardless of ages. I firmly believe in empowering individuals and communities through dance and movement, and growth mindset helps to reinforce and develop that sense of grit over time.

Throughout my dance journey, my teachers and mentors have always shared with me the following sayings:

"Work smart, not hard."

- Honestly, this took me a while to understand because I had absolutely no idea what this means. After many years of figuring it out, my understanding of this quote is to:

"Work hard on the things that helps you to grow and improve over time. Don't waste your time on the small insignificant things"

"Fall as many times as you need to, but it's important that you get back up on your own two feet"

One of my favourites till this day was through a conversation I had with my mentor during a period of time where I felt really insecure about myself and my capabilities.

"It's okay to not have all the answers. You don't need to have all the answers to be a good dancer. As long as you have the heart and willingness to try, that will surpass most who don't even try because they're scared to fail."

Here are some processes I implement (for myself or for my students)

1. The right effort can aid improvement

I try to help my students/clients know that consistent effort over time can help greatly accelerate improvement, but it needs to come from themselves. Especially towards my kiddos when they encounter something challenging, I try to approach these challenges as play, and get them to be creative in their problem-solving capabilities.

2. Changing the narrative/self-talk

There's a saying that goes "we are our own worst critics", because how we speak to and about ourselves is sometimes of a harsh and slightly negative perspective. If we are able to change the narrative on these self-talks and switch the tone, this will help to nurture a growth mindset overtime. At its very core, a growth mindset is dedicated to your belief in yourself and your potential; what you're capable of.

3. Getting out of the comfort zone

This is one of the best ways to foster a growth mindset. By trying something new, you can form new or strengthen neural pathways in your brain (scientifically proven) that can help make us smarter!

Digressing a little out of this topic, one of the best mental models that I've learnt from a dear friend is "when faced with a two options, always choose the harder and more challenging ones. Easy decision, difficult life. Challenging decision, easy life."

4. Seeing failure as a step towards success

Most people are scared of failure, mainly due to upbringing and societal expectations on us to achieve a certain level of perfectionism. What happens in the dance studio is even more prominent because THE INDIVIDUAL are being under the microscope for receiving feedback, criticism and comments.

Let's throwback to the first time you learnt something, say learning how to ride a bike or swim. Remember the struggle it took for you to be proficient at this? It's all part of the process. Most importantly, it's about taking these setbacks or failures into learning lessons/takeaways that will help you to be better next time. Enjoyment is also another huge benefit to the accelerating of a growth mindset. If we enjoy the challenge that we're faced, not only do we get creative with our problem solving, we might even sneak in a good laugh and shrug of the shoulder before we try again.

Personally, I find that it is really important to chuckle off your failures or setbacks, especially those embarrassing ones. It's good to be serious, but I like to call what I do "serious play". It's a combination of play and focus. An example would be when I teach my kiddos - that we can have fun but it's also really important to listen carefully so that you can dance beautifully! Within my own practice, I approach my craft with that same whimsical seriousness that helps me to ground when I need to.

5. Rewarding the Process, not Result

Society often rewards the accomplished and excellent outcomes, which can be a detriment to promoting growth mindset. Instead, I try to reward and compliment the process and the effort to which the students exerted to get there.

Here's a really great example: giving stickers to my kiddos after ballet class.

In this spirit, I only reward stickers to my students if they have shown a good level of focus, effort and consistency over time. I do not believe in giving stickers after every class even if they were misbehaving, as I believe this reinforcement will promote a sense of entitlement.

Real Tea: Earlier this year, I took over a class of 4 year olds. Their previous teacher would give out stickers after every class to the students to try and appease them. One of them asked me "will you be giving me a sticker today?" My eyebrows raised, and I was quite shocked to hear that. That was a statement that expressed entitlement! I told her very firmly that "Yes I will, only if you have shown me that you've listened carefully in class and you do your best." Sometimes, I don't even give stickers at all if the students were misbehaving. Over the course of a few months, she realised this, and I saw a much better attitude shift and improvement in her dancing over time. I acknowledged her effort and gave her this compliment.

"Thank you for putting in the effort to focus and try your best. I can see that you're trying, and you're doing a good job!"

She walked away with a sticker in hand and a wide grin on her face.

6. Feedback & Support

One of the quickest ways to improve is to seek progressive feedback from your peers and teachers on your progress and improvement. When a students knows where they did well, and areas of improvement, it creates internal motivation for them to keep going! Internal motivation is way better than external motivation. After all, we are all human beings.

Wrapping it Up

Growth mindset people see setbacks as opportunities to bounce back and learn from their past mistakes and failures through 'increasing' effort and the right progressive feedback. This mindset has positive influence on learning and growing, and this will serve us better through time than anything else would.