Puffed Out: The Three Little Pigs' Guide to a Growth Mindset by Will Hussey and Barry Hymer is a comprehensive catalyst for cultivating a growth mindset. Schools increasingly value grit, determination, resilience and adaptability as being key to deep learning. But how do you put these values into practice? This innovative approach starts by getting learners to think about a seemingly familiar story in a radically different and creative way. 
Who knew the story of the three little pigs was so complicated, and so challenging? In fact, for decades adults have even been reading it to infants, as if it were a simple tale for simple kids! The essential plotline: three pigs each build a house. A wolf exposes the limitations of two of the houses through lung power, but the third house remains standing. He attempts to force an entry via the chimney and fails. 
This book might seem to be about the three little pigs, but the pigs are just the focus of its real purpose, which is to challenge and encourage learners to immerse themselves in thinking between, above, below, around and beyond the tale's unexplored blind-spots. Crammed full of activities and diverse open-ended questions, there s plenty to ponder over, and if they require a nudge or two in the right direction, they'll find them although the direction they take depends on which way they're looking at it. Prompts and responses abound, although it's not always clear which is which; questions can be answered and answers should be questioned. 
Learners will develop the confidence and independence to pursue their own ideas and opinions as they think creatively and cultivate original and innovative responses. Students are encouraged to respond as they see fit, developing key skills transferable to wider areas of the curriculum and life. This has the added advantage of cultivating intrinsic motivation and a love of learning in the process. The challenges will capture learners' interest and curiosity by appealing to their sense of fun and nonsense. Word play, puns and writing prompts simultaneously encourage the development of literacy skills. Extension material and helpful nudges mean the activities are self-differentiating and will appeal to all abilities across key stages 1 3. 
Suitable for primary and lower secondary teachers.

Puffed Out: The Three Little Pigs' Guide to a Growth Mindset

Education & Teaching

Barry Hymer

Will Hussey

Schools & Teaching

Crown House Publishing

Written by Barry Hymer and Peter Wells, Chess Improvement: It's all in the mindset is an engaging and instructive guide that sets out how the application of growth mindset principles can accelerate chess improvement.With Tim Kett and insights from Michael Adams, David Howell, Harriet Hunt, Gawain Jones, Luke McShane, Matthew Sadler and Nigel Short.Foreword by Henrik Carlsen, father of world champion Magnus Carlsen.Twenty-first-century knowledge about skills development and expertise requires us to keep such mystical notions as fixed 'talent' in perspective, and to emphasise instead the dynamic and malleable nature of these concepts.Nowhere is this more apparent than in chess, where many gifted players fall prey to plausible but self-defeating beliefs and practices - and thereby fail to achieve the levels their 'natural' abilities predicted. Happily, however, the reverse can be true too; through learned dispositions such as grit, risk-taking, strategic thinking and a capacity for sheer hard work, players of apparently modest abilities can achieve impressive results.Blending theory, practice and the distinct but complementary skills of two authors - one an academic (and amateur chess player) and the other a highly regarded England Chess Olympiad coach (and grandmaster) -Chess Improvement is an invaluable resource for any aspirational chess player or coach/parent of a chess player.Barry and Peter draw on interviews conducted with members of England's medal-winning elite squad of players and provide a template for chess improvement rooted in the practical wisdom of experienced chess players and coaches.They also include practical illustrative descriptions from the games and chess careers of both developing and leading players, and pull together themes and suggestions in a way which encourages readers to create their own trajectories for chess improvement.

Chess Improvement: It's all in the mindset

Humor & Entertainment

Peter Wells

Puzzles & Games

Gifted and talented education is at a crossroads. Turn right and speed off down the motorway, only to be frustrated by the rush-hour traffic of identification, strategies, tests, labels, targets and anxious children. Turn left on to the road less travelled, and there's no crazed rush to a destination; rather a journey during which you can stop off frequently, take in the views, and enjoy the sensations and experiences that come with a focus on the processes, not just the products of learning. The Gifted & Talented Pocketbook turns left at the crossroads. Using cartoons, diagrams, and visual prompts to support the text, it offers teachers a coherent framework for G&T education, including five learning tools for running classrooms where all pupils are stretched, challenged and motivated and where gifts are created and grown, not identified and measured. The book considers definitions of giftedness, whether gifts are 'caught' or taught and whether giftedness is fixed or malleable. It highlights the role of intrinsic learning motivation when it comes to achieving high levels of success. The Grace framework - Grow! Relate! Act! Challenge! Exert! - offers ideas for lessons, implications for policy and explains how to use five learning tools to stimulate considered, reflective learning: Logo Visual Thinking, Philosophy for Children, Thinking Actively in a Social Context, Dilemma-Based Learning, and Living Theory Action Research. Author Barry Hymer, a former teacher and ed. psych., is now a consultant and trainer in the field of gifted and talented education. He is consultant editor of Gifted Education International and a visiting fellow at Newcastle University's Centre for Learning and Teaching.

Gifted and Talented Pocketbook

Teachers' Pocketbooks

Philosophy for Children (P4C) was conceived by Professor Matthew Lipman in the late 1960s. It encourages children to develop their own way of thinking about the world and aims to help them 'become more thoughtful, more reflective, more considerate and more reasonable individuals'. A recent study in Scottish primary schools concluded that one hour of philosophical enquiry each week can promote development in cognitive ability; development in critical reasoning skills and dialogue in the classroom; emotional and social development. This extensively illustrated Pocketbook provides a practical introduction to P4C in the classroom. Using real classroom examples, it explains how teachers can engage, support and facilitate students across the age range in philosophical enquiry. It outlines a ten-step process from building a community of enquiry and presenting a stimulus; through thinking time, question-making, question-airing and question-choosing; and on to collaborative exploration and review. Chapters are devoted to defining P4C, choosing a stimulus, questions, the Socratic Method, facilitating and review. A final section contains a broad range of training and classroom-ready resources. The text is supported by helpful tables and graphics throughout.

P4C Pocketbook

Roger Sutcliffe

Management Pocketbooks

Whatever it is that makes you you, can you affect it? Your answer to that question gives us a glimpse into your 'mindset'. People with fixed mindsets believe that fundamental qualities like intelligence are essentially stable; people with growth mindsets believe that such qualities can be developed and nurtured. As teachers, if we can foster growth mindsets in our students the results will be transformative. Barry Hymer and Mike Gershon begin by explaining how learners with growth mindsets are: more open to challenges and constructively critical feedback; resilient in the face of obstacles and initial failure; convinced that effort makes a difference; able to learn well with and from others; likely to rise to the top - and stay there. Practical strategies for developing this kind of learner is the focus of the rest of the book throughout which cartoons, diagrams and visual prompts support the text. The chapter Trial and Error is about high challenge tasks and the value of errors, mistakes and initial failure. Later chapters cover what exactly is meant by effort and how to make it appeal to students; the theory and practice of feedback (as opposed to praise and prizes); acquiring meta-cognitive tools for 'thinking about thinking' and 'learning about learning'; the power of language and drama to raise awareness of growth mindsets; and growing group growth mindsets. Former teacher Barry Hymer is now Prof. of Psychology in Education at the University of Cumbria. He wrote the Gifted &amp; Talented and P4C Pocketbooks. Education consultant Mike Gershon's online teaching tools have been viewed/downloaded more than 2 million times by teachers in over 180 countries.

Growth Mindset Pocketbook

Mike Gershon