Federal, state, and local governments force educational policies on teachers.  These programs promise great gains in student achievement for teachers who can follow their mandated and complicated stipulations.  Unfortunately, these policies rarely produce the promised leaps in student achievement.  Over the years, teachers became jaded to the promises of these policies and take a passive-aggressive approach to new reforms.  By ignoring them – or meeting the minimally acceptable requirements – teachers do not have to deal with the disappointment of another failed program.

            While many might see this passive-aggressive behavior as non-compliance, research allows a deeper understanding of teachers’ behavior.  For years, teachers poured tremendous effort into implementing reforms.  Rothbaum, Weisz and Snyder (1982) say this is a teacher’s attempt to exert primary control of their environment.  In other words, teachers originally believed that if they worked hard enough, that they could make reforms work and help students excel.  When attempts at primary control do not work, however, this forces people to use secondary methods of control.  In this situation, the disappointed teacher does not fully implement reforms because they do not believe reforms work anyway.  So, when the reform does not work, the teacher feels in control of their environment because they ‘knew it wouldn’t work anyway’ (Rothbaum, et. al. , 1982).

            Carol Dweck identified two basic mindsets in her book, ‘Mindsets,’ published in 2003.  This book, a summary of twenty years of research, explores the difference between the fixed mindset and growth mindset.  A fixed mindset believes that your qualities are carved in stone, creating an urgency to prove yourself continually throughout life.  The growth mindset, on the other hand, believes that your basic qualities are things you cultivate though effort, leading people to strive for improvement even when they fail (Dweck).  Because state governments did not include teachers in the reform process, teachers felt out of control.  An extended history of failed reforms instilled a passive aggressive survival attitude in experience teachers and, over time, cultivated a fixed mindset. 

            In ‘The Teaching Gap,’ Stigler and Heibert (1999) indicate several areas where the fixed mindset of teachers in the United States negatively impacts student achievement.  Teachers in the United States who have fixed mindsets often misunderstand students’ confusion and frustration in the classroom and step in to correct a perceived problem with content mastery.  In Japan, where teachers have more of a growth mindset, they would allow students to work through confusions and frustration on their own, as a natural part of the learning process.  Additionally, the average classroom in Japan contains about forty students.  In the United States, the average classroom is about twenty-five students.  In Japan teachers do not complain about class size, believing each student learns something by struggling with the lesson.  In the United States, on the other hand, teachers constantly look for ways to reduce class size because their fixed mindset does not believe that a student’s effort is part of the learning process.  Consequently, teachers in the United States spend a lot of time tailoring lessons to the learning styles and needs of the students and have little actual student achievement to show for it.

            Marva Collins’ success with students from inner-city Chicago is an amazing example of the power of a growth mindset (Collins, n.d.).  When you look at her methods, and the methods of other great teachers, they all focus on helping students develop a growth mindset.  Once students accept that they alone control their ability to grow, they readily accept the challenge, work hard, and ultimately excel.

            Recognizing that teaching is a cultural activity explains why it has been so resistant to change.  But it also gives insight into what will be required to improve it.  In order to transform the culture of education, the mindset of the teachers must be changed.  Our culture does not usually recognize small changes as progress.  The reforms that have been implemented up to this point have focused on quick results, but have failed to change the system as a whole.  When evaluating reforms, we must ask ourselves, if the tortoise wins the race then, maybe we should stop trying to imitate the hare.