In alignment with our current Strategic Action Agenda, we will use this space to deepen our collective understanding on the science of hope. Each edition will share insights from the field, highlight stories that showcase the science of hope across our VBCPS community, and share practical strategies we can use now to fuel our professional and personal growth.
In this Edition
The Science of Hope: A Growth Mindset Strengthens Pathways Thinking
A Personal Hope Practice: Fostering Productive Struggle
Hope Spotlight: VB Middle Art Students
The Science of Hope: A Growth Mindset Strengthens Pathways Thinking
The science of hope reveals that goals serve as a central pillar of hope. We should set goals that should stretch us, but in doing so, these goals often come with challenges. But hope goes beyond just having goals. Enter the concept of pathways—another critical component. Hopeful individuals possess strong pathways thinking. They can envision multiple routes to reach their goals, and as Chen Hellman, author of Hope Rising notes, they remain adaptable, ready to chart new courses when obstacles arise.
The more options we have, the more optimistic, motivated and hopeful we feel about reaching our goals. It's like having a bunch of backup plans, ready to go! But it’s more than just optimism; it's about having a growth mindset, another powerful indicator of strong pathways thinking. According to Carol Dweck, a growth mindset is the belief that people are designed for change and growth. It’s what fuels resilience when things don’t go as planned. A growth mindset values the process, regardless of the outcome. It’s about tackling problems, learning, and charting new courses to move forward. In contrast, a fixed mindset focuses solely on outcomes. If you encounter a roadblock or fail, it’s seen as wasted effort (Developing Growth Mindsets: Principles and Practices for Maximizing Students' Potential, Available in the VRL).
We can foster a growth mindset by:
Creating an inclusive environment where all learners feel welcome and valued regardless of gender, race, ethnicity, or other differences between individuals.
Modeling a growth mindset yourself; be open to learning and new ideas, take risks, and be willing to make mistakes and see them as opportunities for growth.
Providing frequent feedback to learners that is encouraging and points out what someone has done right, but that also includes constructive, concrete action steps for moving forward.
Connecting learning with real-world applications whenever possible so learners understand how concepts relate to everyday life experiences.
Encouraging curiosity and risk-taking by providing time and strategies that support exploration, critical thinking and meaning making.
-Adapted from Developing Growth Mindsets: Principles and Practices for Maximizing Students' Potential, Available in the VRL.
Remember, hope isn’t merely wishful thinking; it’s an active force that propels us forward on the journey to our goals. Fostering a growth mindset in ourselves and others is a great way to increase pathways thinking, helping us forge new pathways when the road gets tough.
A Personal Hope Practice: Fostering Productive Struggle
Encountering setbacks or failures on the journey can sometimes make people feel like giving up. How we interact and encourage learners affects their attitudes toward learning. As educators, we can help learners re-frame perceived failures as signals to reflect, and formulate new strategies and seek out new pathways and alternative routes (Battelle for Kids, 15 Hope-Building Strategies, 2022). We can support productive struggle, or productive persistence as the Carnegie Foundation calls it, to increase a growth mindset and help students develop tenacity and persistence to find ways around barriers, push past current limits and to see failure as learning to help forge a new path forward. Andrew Boryga states that it is all about scaffolding to ensure students reap the benefits of pushing through the difficult work. In the space between giving up and productive struggle is growth, but students need time and tools to support productive struggle and strengthen their growth mindset. We never want students to be overwhelmed by frustration because they are unclear on or unable to achieve the goal or for them to be left on their own without support.
For younger students this might look like co-creating an anchor chart that helps them understand what productive struggle or productive perseverance might look like, and what it shouldn’t look like. (Edutopia, 2024).
To support secondary students when you are tackling challenging material, give students time to independently work and make sense of the challenging material and then provide time for students to turn and talk with others or use the Ask 3 Before Me strategy to allow students time to ask one another questions, make new connections and see each other as learning tools. When we sense discomfort in the classroom, teachers can be quick to explain and provide steps to follow. But removing the struggle for students also removes the cognitive heavy lifting that leads to deep learning and understanding, says Shannon McGrath (Edutopia, 2019).
Gifted Visual Arts students at Virginia Beach Middle School recently worked on an art project that definitely required productive persistence and strengthened students’ growth mindset. As teacher Jessica Provow prepared students to work with resin, she shared a few of her own success stories, and a few unsuccessful stories too, about working with resin. She explained to students that this project was going to involve exploring and understanding a new media and that during that process might come failure...but failure always brings growth and they would overcome challenges together.
Then students began using resin and mold to create necklaces, keychains, rings, earrings, and more. And just as Mrs. Provow had explained, it was not so easy. Things didn't quite work out as expected on attempt 1…. or attempt 2! We failed, and then we failed again, said Provow. Resin takes one class to fill the molds and pour and then 24 hours to harden...the hardening part is where we were unsuccessful. Although the students were disappointed, we didn't give up, we didn't just move on to another project deeming this one too hard. Together we failed, so together we problem-solved ideas to hopefully make this project a success. It meant a day was spent cleaning gooey resin off the molds and another was spent recreating, repouring, and then waiting. It took two failed attempts, but we learned our magic number with resin...mixing the resin and hardener for a solid fifteen minutes allowed us to create beautiful works of art that were not malleable but a solid, beautiful form. When we were finally successful, it was such a celebration for all of us.
“I speak a lot about dealing with perfectionism with my gifted artists and how we can make attempts to help elevate some of this pressure. When speaking to my students. I am transparent in my own failures and I share how I overcame them. During this project I shared my students' disappointment alongside them, but I also created an environment in which we could express our frustration and open up a space to problem-solving ideas to hopefully find success---and we did! This has been a new project for us all and it has been such a fun journey going through it together ” says Provow.
Students' resin works turned into necklaces, keychains, rings, and earrings. Next up, these students will be creating screen-printed t-shirts and bags, digitally designed stickers, and prints of our paintings and drawings, along with their resin necklaces, keychains, rings, and earrings, to offer at their very first sale at the Old Beach Art & Eco Market on April 20.
