Learning of Development

• Mindset Theory of Learning

  Theory developed by Dweck that explains how students can achieve success in their learning
• Types of mindsets


  • Fixed mindset
  • Growth mindset
• Fixed mindset

  Students believe their intelligence is unchanging and genetic, with nothing they can do to change it
• Growth mindset

  Students believe their intelligence can be increased through hard work and effort
• When a student is faced with a challenge


  The type of mindset they have will affect how they deal with it
• Fixed mindset student


  Will give up very quickly
• Growth mindset student


  Will keep on trying, which will increase their chances of succeeding
• Types of praise


  • Person praise
  • Process praise
• Person praise


  The student is praised for their intelligence
• Process praise


  The student is praised for their effort and the processes they use in completing a task
• Students who receive person praise


  Believe their successes and failures are something beyond their control
• Students who receive process praise


  Believe their successes and failures are due to the amount of effort they put in
• Online maths game

  • Gave feedback on effort, strategy, and progress, rather than just a score
  • Students made more effort, used more strategies, and persevered for longer than they usually did
• The type of praise a student receives has a big impact on their learning
• Dweck's Mindset Theory of Learning- evaluation

  Theory that helps us understand how students can increase their exam grades
• Dweck's Mindset Theory of Learning- evaluation

  • Informs teachers that mindsets can be changed
  • Explains how teachers can change mindsets
• There are studies to support Dweck's theory, which suggests the findings are accurate
• Self-efficacy


  The belief in your own ability to succeed at a task
• Student with strong self-efficacy


  • Puts in effort to achieve goals
  • Challenges themselves with difficult tasks
  • Likely to be successful
• Student with low self-efficacy


  • Believes they will not be successful
  • Unlikely to try
  • Avoids challenging tasks
  • Less likely to achieve goals
• Students can increase their sense of self-efficacy by


  1. Being successful at something

  2. Observing other people succeed at something due to their effort

  3. Being persuaded they can achieve by a role model such as a teacher

  4. Being guided through a task
• Visual, Auditory, and Kinaesthetic (VAK)


  Three learning styles
• Visual learners


  • Learn best by reading or seeing pictures
  • They like to see what they are learning
  • They remember things by what they look like
• Auditory learners


  • Learn best by listening
  • They like to hear something, or speak it to learn it
  • They remember what they have heard
• Kinaesthetic learners


  • Learn best by doing something
  • They like to move or make what they are learning
  • They remember best when some type of physical activity is involved
• Verbalisers


  Learners who process information verbally
• Visualisers


  Learners who process information visually
• Verbalisers


  • Prefer to learn from using written information
  • They like to write things down
  • They think using words
• Visualisers


  • Prefer to learn from pictures and diagrams
  • They think using pictures
• Belief in Learning styles

  The belief that if you teach a student in the way they learn best (their preferred learning style), then they should learn better
• Learning styles


  • Kinaesthetic learner - lesson involves them doing something active instead of sitting still and listening
  • Visual learner - lesson involves pictures and diagrams to illustrate concepts
• Willingham's view on learning styles

  • He disagrees with the idea of learning styles
  • There is no experimental evidence to support their existence
  • Teaching students in their preferred learning style has no effect on their exam results
• Willingham's view on visual/auditory memory

  • Students may have a better visual or auditory memory, but it does not help in the classroom
  • Teachers usually want students to remember what things mean, not what they sound or look like
• Whether the information is presented visually or audibly, the student needs to extract the information and store its meaning
• A student's ability to store information is more important than how they learned the information
• Willingham's view on teaching methods

  • Students should be taught using the best method for the content being taught
  • In a lesson on structures of the brain, all the students need to see a diagram of the brain, not just those with a visual learning style
  • In a language lesson, all students need to hear how words are pronounced, not just those with an auditory learning style
  • If a student has difficulty taking in a particular type of information, they need to be given the opportunity to practise dealing with that type of information