Coaching Out of Deficit Mindsets

Trigger words are words that make someone pay attention; they compel a person to act. They are a tool for advertisers, and they can be an invitation for coaches.  

A trigger word that gets my attention and compels me to act is “lazy.” When I hear this word used to describe students, I first have to swallow a bit of anger that tends to rise up. I hate to hear that label applied. Children come into the world full of curiosity and energy. Sometimes schools or situations reduce that drive. But, if that’s happened, it is teachers’ job to reignite that fire. Labelling students as lazy is not a step in that direction.

The “lazy” label came up last week as I was working with a group of fourth-grade teachers. The emotions triggered by that word put my mind in such a fog that I don’t have a clear memory of how I responded. But (unfortunately), this was not the first time I have worked to coach teachers out of this negative mindset.

A couple of years ago, as a group of eighth-grade math teachers sat around the planning table, I asked, “What do you know about these eighth graders as mathematicians?”

“They’re lazy,” a teacher replied.

I probed and prompted until the teacher changed her stance: “"You know, sometimes they're hesitant because they don't have the skills. They don't remember."  This more-productive comment led to a long discussion about working memory and opportunities for practice and partner work that could strengthen students’ skills.

I later got an email from the district’s instructional leader, who had been in the room during the conversation. “I really don’t like the (teachers’) first response to be that (the students) are lazy,” she said, and continued: “Unfortunately, I think you heard a version of that in each building. You did a great job helping teachers see the students’ responses in a different light.”

Thankfully, I had been able to turn that situation around a bit. But my foggy-brained response this week got me thinking that I needed to have a well-prepared approach for coaching teachers out of negative mindsets. That’s why I was thrilled when I learned about a 4-step process for speaking up against bias. It works for that important topic, and I could see that I had unknowingly used this approach in previous conversations with teachers. Naming and knowing the four steps will help me support teachers better when they express negative mindsets about students.  Here are the four steps:

1)    Interrupt. In the conversation with eighth-grade math teachers, this meant stopping the planning conversation to address the mindset. Interrupting means taking time out to address a concerning comment before moving on.  It could sound like, “Just a second, could we back up and talk about something I heard?” 

2)    Question.  The goal here is to understand why the teacher made the comment. It might sound like, “I wondered why you called students ‘lazy’? What makes you say so?” By asking a question, you are giving the teacher a chance to explain and maybe even recognize on their own the negative mindset they are speaking from.

3)    Educate. This would be the time to explain how the term perpetuates unhelpful thinking. Related to “laziness,” I could share what Carol Dweck, who has extensively studied the growth mindset, said: “Everyone is born with an intense drive to learn…They never decide it’s too hard or not worth the effort…They walk, they fall, they get up. They just barge forward. What could put an end to this exuberant learning? The fixed mindset.” Negative mindsets, in teachers and in the students themselves, get in the way of learning.

4)    Echo. The final stepped in this process is to amplify other voices that address the issue. According to Learning for Justice, this especially means amplifying voices of those who are being negatively described. In the “lazy” example, this might mean asking students about what motivates them, or even asking how they would feel if a teacher called them, “lazy,” and then reporting these findings back to the teacher community.  I haven’t tried this step, but it sounds promising!

Now that I’m prepared with a step-by-step process to address negative mindsets, I think I’ll have a cooler head the next time I hear a trigger word that makes me want to stop a teacher in her tracks. And actually, that’s exactly what I should do! These steps can coach teachers out of judgment frameworks and into more productive frameworks for teaching and learning.

This week, you might want to take a look at:
 
What education leaders can do to reduce teachers’ stress:
 
http://www.ascd.org/ascd-express/vol15/num13/educator-stress-is-a-leadership-challenge-heres-what-leaders-can-do-about-it.aspx
 
Designing student-centered learning from an empathy-based approach:
 
https://katielmartin.com/2021/01/24/are-we-designing-for-learning-or-for-school/
 
 
Teaching activities with Jamboard:
 
https://classtechtips.com/2020/12/30/jamboard-activities/
 
 
Real books in kids’ hands during face-to-face and remote learning:
 
https://teachersbooksreaders.com/2020/11/04/choice-still-matters/
 
 
Why coaches should model learning:
 
https://barkleypd.com/blog/leaders-modeling-professional-learning/
 

That’s it for this week.  Happy Coaching!

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