Growth Mindset

Shifting from Growth Mindset to Learner’s Mindset: Fostering Curiosity and Resilience

March 3, 2025  |  Sonia Rodriguez 

Difficulty and challenges when you are learning something are not signs that you reached your limit, they are signs that you are expanding your limits.

-Andrew Huberman  (2023, July 17). How to Enhance Performance & Learning by Applying a Growth Mindset. 

Moving Beyond Superficiality

As advanced in the ADL program and engaged with A New Culture of Learning and Understanding by Design, my understanding of the growth mindset deepened.  A deeper understanding of the significance of the learning journey has evolved as I have explored other perspectives in relation to mindset theory.  The topics of collaboration, passion for learning, and true understanding have been magnified through the course work and my personal experience.  The realization from my work on creating a significant learning environment reinforces the idea that we cannot solely rely on the development of a student’s growth mindset. My focus initially centered on using technology to promote student choice, ownership, voice, and create authentic learning experiences. Now I have come to the conclusion that we must also create environments that ignite a learner’s mindset, which encourages exploration, play, curiosity, and a true love of learning.  Learn more about my original growth mindset plan. 

Is Growth Mindset Enough?

Carol Dweck (2016) states, having a growth mindset means your abilities are shaped by your efforts, strategies, and support from others.  While a growth mindset can be a valuable tool, it’s not enough on its own to produce measurable results. To effectively foster growth and learning, we must take a more holistic approach, incorporating strategies that emphasize student engagement, passion, and collaboration. This realization has influenced my approach to developing my Innovation Plan, a plan centered around using technology to promote choice, ownership, voice, and authentic learning experiences through an online blended coaching strategy. Through this plan, I aim to create an authentic learning environment where academic coaches thrive during times of challenge. Encouraging them to engage in reflective practices, such as self-assessments, and embrace challenges will help them see the value in learning itself, not just in achieving outcomes to be able to support others.

Encouraging Exploration and Curiosity

To expand on my plan and better support the development of a growth mindset, I am focusing on creating an environment that encourages exploration and curiosity. One of the primary ways I will do this is by fostering a professional learning culture that celebrates questions and embraces productive struggle. I want to recognize and reward effort, not just final outcomes, and share personal stories of struggle and growth to demonstrate that learning is a continuous process. In this environment, academic coaches will have the agency to choose what and how they learn to be able to support the teachers at their campus. They will learn how to truly exercise choice, ownership, and voice through authentic learning, drawing inspiration from frameworks like CSLE+COVA (Harapnuik, 2017), which encourages them to take charge of their learning journeys.

Enhancing Growth Mindset with Effective Teaching Practices

Moving Toward a Learner’s Mindset

Reigniting or adopting a learner’s mindset involves engaging students in reflective practices that help them understand their own learning processes. The daily use of the "Yet" message can help students internalize that their current struggles are simply part of the learning journey. This shift encourages perseverance and a growth-focused outlook. To cultivate this mindset, I will integrate collaborative projects, provide multiple support groups, offer authentic learning opportunities, and encourage reflective practices that foster critical thinking and creativity. I believe that when both the teacher and student embrace the concept of "Yet" and take action to reach "Yes," we can move more quickly toward a growth mindset.  Take a look at my Alternate Professional Learning to see how I plan to foster collaboration. 

Additionally, I plan on using technology thoughtfully to enhance learning experiences. Providing an online platform allows academic coaches the opportunity to showcase their learning journey, access a variety of resources, and personalize their learning paths. By equipping them with these tools, confidence, and the freedom to express themselves, I hope to inspire them to continue exploring and creating to grow themselves and other educators.

Reigniting a Learner’s Mindset: Practical Strategies

Here are several key strategies to help learners reignite or adopt a learner’s mindset

Moving Forward: The Role of Grit and Technology

As I move forward with my innovation plan, I will focus on using technology to enhance the learning process and create an environment that nurtures curiosity, creativity, and perseverance. Grit will play an essential role in helping students persist through challenges, but it must be balanced with a focus on well-being and self-care to prevent burnout. By implementing a blended learning model, I aim to provide my students, academic coaches, with both the structure and flexibility they need to succeed while fostering a growth mindset that emphasizes effort, strategy, progress, and long-term learning.

Fostering a growth mindset is just the beginning. I believe the foundation for a growth mindset classroom is trust. Creating a significant learning environment where students feel empowered to explore, ask questions, and take ownership of their learning will help them develop not only a growth mindset but also a lifelong love of learning. Learning should be exciting!  By incorporating feedback, collaboration, and technology, I will guide them toward becoming passionate, resilient academic coaches who embrace challenges with curiosity and determination and have to urge to inspire the same in others.

Thank you fo taking the time to read about my learning journey!

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