Growth Mindset

Emily Llewellyn

Objectives

At the end of this lesson, students will be able to:

1) Define and compare growth mindsets and fixed mindsets.

2) Explain why growth mindsets are important to student success.

3) Identify classroom practices that promote a growth mindset.

What is a Growth Mindset?

According to Carol Dweck's mindset theory, people can either have a fixed or an open mindset (Kroeper, 2022). Carol Dweck has been working on this theory since the 1990's and continues to run experiments and observations to prove and improve upon her idea. As recently as 2014, she conducted research on around 147,000 10th grade Chilean students and found, through surveys, those who had adopted a growth mindset achieved a higher level of academic achievement (Dweck, 2016).

On the board above, we shared some things our teachers have told us and how it affected our future learning of that subject — so we know that the way our teachers speak to us can affect our views on our own learning and ability in different subjects. This is why we, as future educators, need to know what a growth mindset is.

So what is a growth mindset?

"Becoming is better than being."

- Carol Dweck, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success

Fixed Mindset

Defined by the belief that your limited by pre-defined abilities and traits and unable to improve upon them.
- Example: A student has been told "they don't have a head for math", and taking that to heart, does not try to improve their math skills and continues to struggle through math.

(Kroeper, 2022)

Growth Mindset

The belief that your abilities, characteristics, and intelligence can be improved upon with persistence, hard work, and good strategies.
- Example: The same student who was mentioned in the first example instead attends extra study sessions, puts extra effort into math, and proceeds to succeed and excel in the class.

(Kroeper, 2022)

“Praise should deal, not with the child’s personality attributes, but with his efforts and achievements.”

- Carol Dweck, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success

Growth Mindset in the Classroom

"In my research in collaboration with my graduate students, we have shown that what students believe about their brains -- whether they see their intelligence as something that's fixed or something that can grow and change -- has profound effects on their motivation, learning, and school achievement” (Dweck, as cited in Hochandel & Finamore, 2015).

So, now that we know what a growth mindset is, how do we incorporate it in the classroom? Growth mindset can be encourage in the ways we teach, speak, and think about our students.

In another study conducted by Dweck, students were asked to complete puzzles. Those who were praised for how hard they worked, rather than simply told how intelligent they must be, were more likely to choose harder puzzles (Denworth, 2019).

Growth Mindset Teachers in the Classroom

When teaching our students to foster a growth mindset, we want to encourage our students to challenge themselves, believe they can achieve more, and become stronger, more creative problem solves (Stanford, n.d.). Below are some classroom practices to help students cultivate a growth mindset.

"Don't Judge. Teach. It's a Learning Process."

- Carol Dweck, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success

Conclusion

Growth mindsets aren't something a person innately has. It's taught and encouraged by parents and teachers. It is the belief that one can always improve through hard work and perseverance, by developing grit and teaching to overcome longterm challenges (Hochandel & Finamore, 2015). As teachers, we can encourage this by praising the work, not the student; by teaching strategies on how to learn what might be difficult; and providing plenty of opportunities for our students to grow and learn.

References

Clark, S., & Soutter, M. (2022). Growth mindset & intellectual risk-taking: Disentangling conflated concepts. The Phi Delta Kappan, 104(1), 50–55. https://www.jstor.org/stable/27185316

Denworth, L. (2019, August 12). Debate Arises over Teaching “Growth Mindsets” to Motivate Students. Scientific American. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/debate-arises-over-teaching-growth-mindsets-to-motivate-students/

Dweck, C. (2006). Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. Random House.

Dweck, C. S. (2016). The Remarkable Reach of Growth Mind-Sets. Scientific American Mind, 27(1), 36–41. https://www.jstor.org/stable/24945335

Growth Mindset and Enhanced Learning. (n.d.). Stanford University. https://teachingcommons.stanford.edu/teaching-guides/foundations-course-design/learning-activities/growth-mindset-and-enhanced-learning

Kroeper, K. (2022, May 20). Identifying teaching behaviors that foster growth mindset classroom cultures. American Psychological Assosciation. https://www.apa.org/ed/precollege/psychology-teacher-network/introductory-psychology/growth-mindset-classroom-cultures

AI Statement

1. Throughout this lesson, I used both Canva AI image generator to create the images seen, as the subject I chose does not have images to accompany it generally. As well, I used Claude.AI to help brainstorm learning objectives, my anticipatory set, and my review questions; I took the ideas crafted by Claude.AI and changed them to better fit my lesson. I also used Claude.AI to help review my sources, though I did double check separately to verify accuracy.

2. Claude.AI definitely assisted with this lesson. Using this resource allowed me to find ideas where I otherwise struggled to come up with. In terms of the learning objectives, it helped me to determine the direction I wanted me lesson to go, and with both the review questions and anticipatory set it helped to spark ideas in my own mind. Canva, while I enjoyed using it, was more for aesthetics and ensuring the page was cohesive through the images.

3. Generally, I worry about AI. While the tool is useful when used correctly, I do worry about students using it instead of actually doing the work. For myself, I try to avoid using it in classwork, unless directed otherwise. Additionally, there are concerns about the impact on the environment, as well as where the information AI has access to has come from and whether the original creators of the information have given consent to using their material in this way.

Page updated

Report abuse