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Praise and Feedback occupy significant spaces in the lives of our learners. It should not be surprising then that the language we use to communicate praise and feedback can enhance or hinder our efforts.

Having the right mindset is alone not sufficient for growth. I might talk the talk about a growth mindset and believe I can learn a new skill but unless I back that belief with action, it is just talk.

Our efforts to enculturate a Growth Mindset or Mindset Awareness are not wasted but the process needs to be understood as complex and demands a multifaceted action plan if it is to produce results.

chool camps are a wonderful opportunity to observe how our students handle the challenge of a different learning setting. Away from the norms and familiar settings of the classroom, we see students in a different light. For the students, camps are an exciting and for some frightening challenge. For teachers, they are an outstanding assessment tool that should inform our practices long after camp is over. 

For educators, parents and learners Carol Dweck's research on the benefits of a Growth Mindset is naturally appealing. Those who have a growth mindset achieve better results than those who don't, are more resilient and accept challenge willingly. After two years of incorporating a growth mindset philosophy we are finding that the reality of shifting a student's disposition away from a fixed mindset and then maintaining a growth mindset is significantly more complex than at first imagined.

Recently I read 'Good to Great' by Jim Collins a book that describes the processes and structures that allowed eleven companies to transition from good to great and outperform the market by a factor of three for sustained periods. One story stands out as a metaphor for a growth mindset.

The Early Industrial revolution began primarily in the Great Britain during the 1760s until 1851 and was marked by drastic major changes in agricultural, manufacturing, and transportation sectors, which had a profound effect on the social, economic and cultural conditions in Britain (initially) and the rest of Continental Europe and eventually the US and the world.