Teenagers at their lockers between classes at school.

What does it mean to be “smart”?

I began my educational experience in a Montessori program where student voice, choice and individual learning pace was valued.  When I was in third grade, I moved to a public school setting.  Initially excited to finally be in a “normal” school, I quickly realized that I might not be “normal”.  During these early years in public school, I began to develop a fixed mindset about intelligence; believing that smart was simply something you were born with and I didn’t have it.  I resented the “smart” kids who got to do fun projects and have extended visits in the library, while I did worksheets and made up work during recess.  Part of my resentment also came from an inner struggle I was having with the belief that I wasn’t smart.  There was a small part of me that believed there might be more to that definition.

Tracking

When I was 12 or 13 years old, I was attending a tracked middle school program. About halfway through the year, our class was split into two classes, creating a new track.  In my perception, they had created a “smarter” track and to my surprise, I was placed in it.  I quickly befriended one of the smart kids that I had hated all through elementary school and got some assistance on my science homework.  She taught me how to study and gave me some great strategies that could work for anyone.  I realized that she wasn’t really born smarter than me, but she had a hardcore academic work ethic; an ethic I would not choose to emulate.  I’m a hard worker, but getting straight A’s just didn’t seem like a priority to me. I was not willing to give up my friends and all the fun I had in my life just to get good grades, especially when the work we were engaging in at school wasn’t particularly meaningful.  I think after these seemingly small events, I began to develop more of a growth mindset, a belief that intelligence changes and grows over time based on the experiences you have in your life and the effort that you put into something; and maybe it has to do with more than just getting good grades or being able to learn quickly.

Beliefs

These experiences and many others I had at school, although small, helped me develop the beliefs that frame everything I do as a teacher today.  I believe that every student should be provided with learning opportunities that are just a little bit hard for them, so they can always be learning something.  I cringe when I hear teachers talk about honor’s students or special education students; “your” students and “my” students.  What does this mean and how does it help students have meaningful learning experiences?  I want all students to know that if they put in a solid effort, they will learn and grow and be fulfilled and feel “smart”.  Many of you are probably parents.  Can you imagine if it was your kid who felt like the not so smart kid?  It is really heart wrenching when you think about it from a student’s perspective.

The Smart Kids

Fixed mindset beliefs about being smart don’t benefit those for whom learning comes easily either.  If students believe that intelligence is something that one is born with and cannot be changed, then when they do struggle, they can feel unsuccessful and frequently give up so they will not appear unintelligent.  They fear failure because it might mean they are not smart, so they may not reach their potential for lack of trying.

The ideal learning situation is when students are working slightly above their comfort zone.  Just like when you exercise, you want to be a little uncomfortable or you won’t get faster or stronger.  There are structures that allow heterogeneous groups of students to experience challenges in the same physical space.  All groups are heterogeneous, but I mean that they are heterogeneous in the sense that they have mixed perceptions about their “smartness”. This allows all students to realize what I realized and learned so much from in the early eighties; everyone has strengths and weaknesses.  Once students realize that this rule applies to everyone, they can be free to learn.  They won’t give up because they think they will never be able to do it anyway or because they are afraid of failing.  Through more flexible grouping, they will begin to understand that they can improve when they put in a lot of effort; they will not always be relegated to the same group.

This does mean that, as teachers, we need to do some soul searching and figure out how we may need to change our beliefs and how we will communicate a new set of learning expectations to our students.  “Smartness” has to be related to behaviors rather than speed; smart people ask for help, persevere when things get hard, try multiple strategies, collaborate and fail.  The key to making this happen is constantly trying to discover strengths in students who seem to struggle with everything and find places where we can challenge those for whom everything seems to come so easily.

Not every student will make it, but it isn’t for us to decide who will and who won’t.  We are in a powerful position.  Kids listen to us.  They pick up on the meaning of what we do.  Or, like I did in 8th grade, they have perceptions about what we do whether it is accurate or not; they are perceiving something from our actions.  We need to make sure that we give them the impression that they can do anything and maybe they will. Find strengths in those who struggle and challenge those who don’t; kids feel “smart” when they succeed at a challenge.  What messages are we sending with our actions?

I obviously have been thinking about this and developing these ideas over my lifetime but Carol Dweck has done an extensive amount of research on this topic and worked with many students who have shared similar experiences and views about their mindsets, so if your interested in reading the research behind my personal experiences, I highly recommend her work.  If you want to learn more about this topic, consider my self-paced course Teaching Achievement.