How Do I Encourage a Growth Mindset?

A “growth mindset” is the belief that talent and intellectual ability can be developed through working hard, trying new strategies, and receiving input from others—rather than being inherent characteristics (Dweck, 2016). Individuals with a growth mindset tend to achieve more than those with a “fixed mindset,” as they typically put more energy into learning (Dweck, 2016). Having a growth mindset has been shown to be positively correlated with student achievement scores (Bostwick, Collie, Martin, & Durksen, 2017) and their ability to bounce back after academic setbacks (Aditomo, 2015).

There are two images. The first image is in black-and-white and has a red "X" at the top. In this image, a professor is handing back graded midterms and states “The average midterm grade was much lower than expected. Review your incorrect answers and study harder for the exam.” The second image is in color with a green check mark at the top. In this image, the professor is standing in front of a white board that reads “Exam Review.” The professor states “The average midterm grade was much lower than expected. Maybe I didn’t cover some of the material clearly, so I eliminated the questions that most of you answered incorrectly. Let’s review the exam together, so we’ll be ready for the final.”

Normalize failure by letting your students see that you make mistakes too, and modeling how they can use those mistakes to learn and grow.

Provide space for students to struggle with concepts as a class, and encourage them to work collaboratively to work through the process.

Focus more on learning and mastery of material, as opposed to competition and performance. Examples include: explaining what the grading curve means; being mindful that students’ perceptions of the curve can increase a sense of competition; consider allowing students to retake exams or parts of exams to learn from mistakes; having students take exams both individually and in groups; and giving students choices in how they demonstrate knowledge/mastery of content.

Consider building in multiple ways for students to demonstrate that they have learned the course content. Examples include assigning a variety of assignment types—exams, papers, presentations, videos, etc.; allowing students to choose how they demonstrate their learning within individual assignments (e.g. multimedia/video, writing a paper, giving a presentation); allowing students to choose whether they work on assignments individually, in groups, or with partners; etc.

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