Enrichment Workshop: Positive Reinforcement

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On November 19, ten mentors attended the Enrichment Workshop on Positive Reinforcement hosted at Austin Partners in Education. This meeting focused on techniques and strategies to encourage our students to reach their full potential instead of giving up when facing challenges.

As an introducation, the mentors went around the table and shared the best compliment they had ever received. Compliments ranged from a grandson who admired his grandfather to a mentor being named the most ethical person in her department. I appreciated how open the mentors were because this really set the tone for our discussion.

The goal behind this strange introduction was to show that we all receive compliments in different ways. A word of affirmation from a person we do not trust or respect will not have the same impact as the same compliment from someone we value. Compliments are also more significant when they are relevant to our situation. For example, if someone had complimented my amazing speed on the soccer field when I was in high school, it would have been meaningless to me because (while I appreciated the generosity) I would have known it was not sincere.

After our introductions, we began our discussion on Two Mindsets, as discussed in the book Mindsets: A New Psychology of Success by Carol S. Dweck, Ph.D. Mentors were asked to review four statements and choose which ones their students would agree with. The first two statements reflected the “fixed mindset” which means that students believe their qualities are carved in stone and no amount of effort will change their abilities. These students feel that everyone is born with a certain amount of intelligence, personality traits, and moral character. Situations and people are viewed as a dichotomy — failure vs. success, smart vs. dumb, winner vs. loser.

Many students with the “fixed mindset” will use a defense mechanism known as Low Effort Syndrome to protect themselves from being judged when they feel inadequate. This mechanism usually manifests when the student is faced with a challenge that they do not believe they can accomplish. Instead of giving their best effort, they do not try at all because they do not believe effort will change the outcome.

On the other hand, the third and fourth statements reflected students with a “growth mindset”. Students with this mindset believe that everyone can change and grow through application and experience. For these students, learning and facing challenges is the real adventure. However, this mindset is not without it’s flaws either. Students with the “growth mindset” can become extremely discouraged if they are not able to change their situation. Looking back at “what could have been” or missing an opportunity can be devastating.

After this discussion, the mentors divided into three teams. Each team was given a scenario and were asked to discuss how a student with each of the mindsets would react and what their response as a mentor would be to each student. When they were finished, each group presented their discussion.

One group’s responses really stood out to me. They were given the scenario: Your student’s boy/girlfriend breaks up with your student because he/she says they don’t have anything in common. Of course, the father in the group immediately said that his response to the student would be that he/she should not be dating! But after further discussion, they made some very good points in their presentation.

This group felt that students with a fixed mindset would focus on the other person’s flaws or make absolute statements that they would never date again. In response, the mentors would encourage the students to talk about what they are looking for in a boy/girlfriend and discuss all the qualities they could contribute when they are in a good relationship.

The interesting part of this discussion was that the mentors believed a student with a growth mindset would be more devastated after a break up than a student with a fixed mindset. Students with a growth mindset may dwell on what they could have done differently or how they could have been a better partner in the relationship. These students may get stuck in unhealthy relationships because they believe they can change the other person. On the other hand, students with a fixed mindset may be quicker to dismiss a relationship that isn’t working because they don’t believe it can improve.

Over the last few minutes, the mentors discussed ways that they could implement positive reinforcement in their relationships with their students. The mentors were encouraged to think about a behavior that they would like to encourage in their student and plan ways to reinforce this behavior. Because the mentors were given a handout with blank spaces to fill it, the question was raised whether they were supposed to complete this with their student. While students with a growth mindset may be up for the challenge of completing a goal, students with a fixed mindset may be intimidated and turn away from what appears to be an opportunity for failure. We decided that for most students, it would be more appropriate for the mentor to reinforce the behavior without explicitly discussing their intentions with their student. Once the goal is achieved, the mentor can congratulate the student for a job well done and if the behavior is not increased, the mentor can re-evaluate their methods without having to discuss disappointment with their student.

I greatly appreciated the contributions provided by the mentors in this discussion and look forward to further workshops in spring 2010. For more information about mentor events, visit http://www.austinpartners.org/mentor-resources.

by Christin Alvarado, Campus & Community Programs Manager

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