The time between the ages of four and six marks a
significant transition from home life or preschool to the start of formalized
schooling with kindergarten. For many children, this transition presents some
of their earliest experiences of peer comparison and outcome-based evaluation
(testing, grades, rankings based on performance, ability grouping). Although
young children are naturally inclined to view ability as defined by effort and
perseverance, the transition to school confronts them with a contradictory
system of testing and grades. Entering school with a growth mindset can help
buffer young children from interpreting static markers of performance, like
grades, as a sign of their "fixed" intelligence; instead, children with a
growth mindset have a critical insight into their own power to learn and the
opportunity provided at school to grow their intelligence.
Working in collaboration with Family Communications (the
producers of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood and other educational materials for
people who work with children), OCD is developing a parenting intervention
program to communicate to young children a learning orientation and the values
of resiliency, effort, and perseverance (i.e., valuing a “growth mindset”). The
focus is to develop tools, methods of support, and activities (i.e.,
games/media) for parents with children ages four to six to instill in their
children the importance of effort and the malleable nature of intelligence.