Reflections on Cultivating a Flourishing Mindset with Laura Gini-Newman

I had the pleasure of attending a virtual speaker seminar presented by Laura Gini-Newman on the importance of cultivating a flourishing mindset in our classrooms. The session presented a comprehensive look at how a flourishing mindset could be cultivated by creating learning experiences that directed students to be insightful about themselves and others, empowered them to invoke their character strengths and coach themselves to adapt a “learn-well” mindset focused on building healthy relationships.

The idea of a flourishing through introspection and self-awareness really resonated with me. Having students become more in touch with their feelings and emotions to develop an understanding of who they are through inward examination can only be an asset. I appreciated Laura’s approach to multiple perspectives on flourishing and how meaningful learning can happen when we use our personal insights to optimize it. In her presentation Laura posed this question, “What if we make the development of a flourishing mindset an integral part of learning rather than a side bar to learning?”

That is a great question. I think that is a great platform to build from. We don’t have to be submerged in the sea of anxieties provided by a world-wide pandemic to understand that personal self-awareness, introspection and managing our emotions are instrumental in attaining happiness, well-being and flourishing in a domain or context. Or at least, we should. Teaching students to better understand themselves as we ask them to learn helps to weave together the skills needed for both learning and flourishing. The session touched on how flourishing leads to better and deeper understanding of content through critical thinking strategies and reflective reasoning practices. Teaching students to be thoughtful thinkers and passionately curious about the world around them is a great idea. The first subject for investigation should be ourselves.

The content in Laura’s presentation aligned nicely with one of our school plan priorities for developing growth mindset and building resilience in students, and was the focus for a half day of professional development in our school.

About the Author

Frank MacLean is the Vice-Principal at Linden Meadows School.