James Anderson

In his compelling new work on Mindset Movers, James takes a practical look at how beliefs, actions and experiences interact to change students’ Mindsets. James will demonstrate how we can use this understanding to maximise the impact of the Growth Mindset initiatives in our schools.

Throughout this keynote, James challenges the audience to think differently about how they view their students’ abilities and performance, and how they assess them.

James will speak about:

-The need to move beyond social media to develop a more in-depth and current understanding of Carol Dweck’s critical work on Mindset.
-The Mindset Continuum and the pedagogical tools that can shift people towards a more growth-oriented Mindset.
-The common myths about talent, introducing the Five Truths about Talent.
-Assessment strategies that focus on the learning process and student growth.
-The concept of Motivation Calibration and how it is an excellent indicator of student performance.
-How we can improve the way we praise effort.

At the end of this keynote, your audience will have a fresh perspective on Growth Mindset. They will be compelled to reflect on their own practice and have a new understanding of how they can make an enduring difference to student growth and performance.

A Growth Mindset is the understanding that you can grow your talents, abilities and intelligence. Learning Agility gives you the capacity to achieve that growth!

This keynote introduces the powerful concept of the Agile Learner. This is someone who understands their Growth Mindset is simply an invitation to grow. To translate their Mindset into growth and increase their abilities, they know they must develop powerful Habits of Mind and engage in Virtuous Practice.

James will speak about:

-How we can ensure students develop a more growth-oriented Mindset by infusing our teaching with positive Mindset Movers.
-Social media myths about Mindsets and how to combat them.
-The Learning Pit, a powerful metaphor for the learning process that gives students and teachers a common language to discuss performance, growth and effort.
-The Habits of Mind and how they integrate with Growth Mindsets and Virtuous Practice to create Learning Agility.

At the end of this keynote, your audience will have a clear picture of the processes and behaviours that not only develop a Growth Mindset but define the actions required to achieve growth.

Carol Dweck has called for a more nuanced understanding of Mindsets to combat the common misinterpretations and misapplications of her work.

In this insightful keynote, James will take your audience inside Dweck’s work to address many of the common misunderstandings that pervade social media. James will draw on recent research in the area of Acquisition of Excellence to explain how we combine beliefs, actions and process to build Learning Power, potential and efficacy.

James will speak about:

-The Mindset Continuum. Going beyond the Fixed / Growth dichotomy, James clarifies that most people’s Mindset lies somewhere between these two extremes, therefore working with Mindsets requires more than a “one-size-fits-all” approach.
-The worldview that leads to different Mindsets, including misunderstandings of how we acquire our talents and abilities.
-The False Mindset and how we can identify and combat it in our classrooms.
-Effective ways to praise effort to create more growth-oriented Mindsets.

At the end of this keynote, your audience will have the deeper, more nuanced understanding of Growth Mindsets. They will see the bigger picture of what we need to do to develop learners who are better equipped to deal with challenges and achieve greater growth.