If a growth mindset is important for a student’s long-term success, does this mean that students with a fixed mindset will never reach their true potential? Not at all.
The good news is that when teachers recognize that a student is operating with a fixed mindset, there are things they can do to help change these thought patterns. Students who are taught about how memory works and how the brain can grow actually show an increase in effort and motivation compared to students who do not receive the same training.5
Take a closer look at 11 strategies for fostering a growth mindset in education.
1. Share the Research
Students who are taught about how memory works and how the brain can grow show increased effort and motivation compared with students who do not receive the same training.3
2. Watch What You Say
Teachers can influence mindset by giving specific types of feedback. General praise about intelligence, such as saying, “You are so smart!” can negatively affect motivation and achievement. Instead, give praise for effort, rather than innate intelligence, to encourage students to progress and show more challenge-seeking behaviors.
3. Honor Student Abilities
Educators often see a fixed mindset in mathematics. Traditionally, math algorithms are taught as the only way to solve a problem, which ignores the problem-solving techniques students often start with. Teachers can begin math lessons by sharing open-ended problems and asking students to share their strategies rather than teaching only one way to solve the problem.
4. Create Opportunities to Fail
A growth mindset develops when students have to respond to challenges. By presenting challenging activities, teachers can allow students to struggle and fail in a safe, supportive environment.
Some classroom activities that support a growth mindset in this way might be projects such as building bridges or towers out of unique materials like noodles or toothpicks. These challenges permit students to think critically about a problem and develop new strategies if they fail. Make sure to offer students multiple attempts at these activities so they can build on each opportunity to learn and change their methodology.
5. Model Your Own Growth Mindset
When you talk about yourself to students, make sure you are modeling a growth mindset. Tell them about times you struggled with a task, kept trying and eventually succeeded. Be sure to highlight failures in your life and explain to students how you grow and learn from them.
Specifically, consider sharing your thought processes as you worked through a challenge. Demonstrating how you try to resolve the issue provides the students with a model of how to face challenges and apply relevant problem-solving strategies.
6. Embrace Imperfection
Teachers who want to help their students develop a growth mindset should include feedback around imperfections in student evaluation. Instead of dismissing imperfection as undesirable, a teacher can celebrate the challenges that students have gone through and help them reflect on the growth that they have made.
7. Build a Supportive Community
One reason a fixed mindset persists is that people are afraid of looking foolish in front of others. When a teacher builds a supportive classroom community, students are willing to be brave in the face of new challenges. This can help them develop a growth mindset because they care more about learning than about looking good in front of their peers.
When educators consistently model learning and flexibility, they help cultivate a learning environment that allows for opportunities to grow from failures. When educators make an error, they can highlight it and seek the students’ input on how to correct the error. By practicing this type of behavior, students may be more likely to not be embarrassed when they make a mistake.
They will also be more prepared to support each other in fixing mistakes. For instance, if a student arrives at the wrong solution for a multiplication problem, other students can guide their classmate in solving the problem together, justifying their approach and arriving at the correct solution as a team.
8. Teach Students What to Do With Feedback
Developing a growth mindset is rooted in the ability to learn from mistakes, failures and challenges. However, if a student does not know how to receive feedback, they may have difficulty moving forward and implementing change. Be explicit about how to handle feedback to promote a growth mindset.
9. Ensure That Feedback Is Meaningful and Succinct
This strategy goes hand-in-hand with teaching students how to handle feedback. As a teacher, you can have meaningful dialogue with your students to provide feedback on their performances and set Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Timely (SMART) goals.
For instance, when discussing a student’s essay, the teacher can indicate how well the student conveyed his/her ideas, used varied sentence structures and employed a variety of word choices. Afterward, they can collaborate to set SMART goals for the next assignment.
Growth mindset is based on the idea that one’s abilities are developed as a result of intentional efforts. When educators provide an environment that allows for this to happen, students are more likely to grow and develop academically, socially and emotionally. One of the biggest things to remember about having a growth mindset is that it’s a journey that does not come automatically and often is a continued process.
10. Embrace the Process
Teachers who include more process-oriented activities can help build a growth mindset in students. By valuing the process rather than the result, teachers show students that they can learn and make changes at any point along the way.
11. Embrace Learning Experiences That Challenge Students
Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) supports the idea of creating lessons and experiences that stretch the students’ cognitive abilities so they gain new knowledge and skills.6 These can be applied in project-based lessons that are relevant and meaningful to students and their world.
For example, when students are learning about World War 2 and the Holocaust, they often read books such as “Number the Stars.” During a literature circle with mixed-ability groupings, students may collaborate with one another to explore the various themes and ideas in the book. Additionally, they can compare and contrast those themes with current events.
