February 2016 - Parks & Recreation - 20

Research Update

and leadership appointment to focus
on kids who work hard through effort,
regardless of innate talent.
Leadership
Recreation leaders themselves need
to have growth mindsets. Education
and leadership training programs
should be considered for recreation
professionals to develop a growth
mindset about their leadership abilities. Training sessions provide youth
workers with suggestions on how
to incorporate the growth leadership mindset in a recreation setting.
A common intervention that has
demonstrated effectiveness in other
contexts is having coaches write and
share a story of a time they initially failed, but ultimately succeeded
through effort. Then have coaches
make the connection that if it was
possible for them to succeed through
effort after failing initially it is also
possible for the children to succeed.
18 Parks & Recreation

Programming
Youth need to be provided with
meaningful recreational programming that teaches participants to
embrace challenges and value effort.
Professionals can help foster growth
mindsets through program designs
that focus on learning or mastery
goals - goals related to improvement - rather than performance
goals that emphasize proving one's
ability. Mastery approaches are associated with a greater willingness
to take on challenges and persevere
through failure, whereas performance approaches can push individuals to avoid challenge and possible
failure. That said, programs need to
have set goals and outcomes that are
realistic and attainable for the children participating while still providing appropriate challenge. Regardless of the mindset, repeated failure
is counterproductive and contributes
to drop out.

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Feedback
Another way to foster a growth
mindset is by program leaders providing process-oriented feedback.
Research suggests that recreation
professionals should be providing
praise and encouragement for the
effort applied, strategies used to
solve problems and decision-making processes, as well as persistence
and determination exhibited by participants. Praise for the process and
not the outcome produces more
long-term benefits than simply telling youth that they are smart or
talented when they succeed. Consider how feedback such as, " Joey
is always working hard to get better,
and it shows, " might contribute to a
growth mindset. In contrast, feedback such as, " Joey is a talented ball
player, " focuses on innate ability
and promotes a fixed mindset.
Ultimately, one of youth programmers' main goals is to help develop participants into self-motivated individuals who are able to see
the value of persistence and hard
work, especially after experiencing
setbacks. How we encourage youth
to view challenges and overcome
obstacles can carry over to other
parts of their lives. Recreation programs that foster a growth mindset
help equip youth with the tools and
beliefs necessary to overcome challenges they face while on the road
to success.
Detailed references for this article can
be found at www.parksandrecreation.
org/2016/February/Freedom-to-FailSpace-to-Grow.
Cait Wilson is a Doctoral Student at The
University of Utah (cait.wilson@utah.edu).
Jim Sibthorp is a Professor at The University
of Utah (Jim.Sibthorp@health.utah.edu). Dan
Richmond is a Doctoral Candidate at The
University of Utah (dan.richmond@utah.edu).

February 2016 - Parks & Recreation

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