Both Keynotes at CUE focused on MINDSETS. Listening to Jo Boaler speak about the Fixed vs. Growth mindset, I could see how far we have come as educators. George Couros was the second keynote and he took Boaler’s work one-step further to focus on an Innovator’s Mindset. From his book, “The innovator’s mindset can be defined as the belief that the abilities, intelligence, and talents are developed so that they lead to the creation of new and better ideas.” Two simple questions he asked got me thinking about our classrooms. One, is Starbuck’s out doing your learning environment? Two, would you want to be with yourself for 6 hours a day? I know my own tendency to overcomplicate and control things, and wonder if at times this stripped students of their NATURAL CURIOUSITY? Or in the stress to cover content and get high test scores, would I move on and not allow the time and space for INNOVATION?

As teachers we know the times in which we were building the innovator’s mindset because you can feel the buzz. In these moments we focus on understanding, organically allow students to direct the learning, and provide meaningful learning opportunities. Couros shared examples of students being innovative outside of schools and sometimes even in spite of schools. We limit innovation and creativity when we ask students to do what WE are COMFORTABLE WITH and NOT what THEY are COMFORTABLE WITH.  Technology has changed our students and technology continues to be transformational, but in our classrooms are we removing the barriers so learning can happen, are we showing students the possibilities and allowing them to not only be problem solvers but problem finders?

I attended a session by Future Design School. They identified a process to help students develop an innovator’s mindset starting with understanding others and empathy.  However, one of the biggest problems they discovered is that many don’t feel they are creative. There is a myth that ART IS CREATIVITY. Helping students to identify these are not synonymous is a critical component in freeing them for an innovators mindset. I often thought of myself as NOT creative for this same reason. When I realized how much I enjoyed the creative process of curriculum development and my innate desire to solve problems for people, I actually began to view myself as creative. How can we broaden our own and our students views of creativity, innovation and design?

While we can be nostalgic about the past, in this fast paced society, standing still is actually falling behind. It is our job to prepare students for an uncertain future in which the jobs of tomorrow have not been invented yet. Companies tell us they are looking for leadership, flexibility and adaptability to change. What would it look like to build these dispositions in our classrooms? Do students have opportunities to come up with multiple ideas, to be leaders, to collaborate, to learn and adapt at their own pace?

An engineering mindset, an innovator’s mindset, and a computer scientist mindset…whatever the course the shift in education is continuing to understand we do not teach content we teach thinking! Not only do we need to build mindsets in our students and ourselves, we need to force out the faulty or fixed mindsets that often hold us back from reaching true understanding and potential.