Limitless Mind

Which of the ideas Jo mentions – of opening minds, opening content and embracing struggle – seem important to work on? Where is your school - Do people around you have open minds? And encourage the opening of content and the valuing of struggle? How do you see the limitless approach to collaboration applying to your life? How might you try out the strategies of opening minds and embracing uncertainty in your interactions with friends and family? Where do you "glow" and where can you "grow" in your collaborations? 

Describe a time when you felt as though you were not a good learner because you were not thinking or working quickly enough. Share your thoughts on replacing speed with flexible thinking. What personal experiences have you had with this? Can you think of any learning experience you had (inside or outside of school) where speed was not emphasized? What did those experiences look/feel like?

 What is an example of a subject / topic where you can use a multi-dimensional approach? What would multidimensional learning look, sound or feel like? Describe a time, if any, when you experienced a multidimensional approach to learning (inside or outside of school)? What strategies or resources do you use in school or work to promote multi-dimensional learning?

 Which of the research findings about growth mindset surprise you, it any? Describe your personal experiences as a child or adult with the word "smart." What are your thoughts about using the world "smart" to describe children? Jo shared that Carol Dweck has changed her thinking around mindsets, realising that "we all have different mindsets at different times and places" (P. 97). Describe a situation in which you held a growth mindset? Describe a situation in which you held a fixed mindset?

DISCUSSION QUESTION We have all failed at something at least once. What have you failed at and how did it make you feel? Did it help you in the long run? Jo compares US math classrooms to those in Japan and China" while US teachers typically give students 30 repetitive problems to practice, teachers in Japan and China that she has seen gave no more than three problems to investigate and struggle through understanding (p. 53-54). In what ways, do either of these depictions resonate with your experiences when you were in school? How do you define struggle with respect to learning? How does your view of struggle influence your learning (in work and in life)? How can we support children (or others) to accept mistakes as a learning opportunity? Given that it's a whole cultural change, how can we help everyone around us learn to love mistakes, struggle and failure? After reading this chapter, in what ways do you feel more prepared to embrace struggle in your learning?

What research or anecdote stood out to you in this chapter? How will this information alter what you once believed to be true and/or how will it inform your work or practice? In this chapter, Jo describes how the hippocampus grew for the London cab drivers during their learning and years of service, and then after they retired the hippocampus actually shrank, not from age but from lack of use: Did this or any other evidence she shared about how our brains grow and change surprise you? Can you think of a skill or knowledge area that you have gained or lost because of practice or lack of use? Have you ever heard someone say they are not a "math person" or thought the same about yourself? How does our society p9icture someone who is a "math person?" Has any of the evidence Jo shared changed your view on this topic? After sharing research on giftedness (P. 32-34), Jo asks, "If the idea of giftedness is harmful to adults, how do you think it affects children?" ...