Mindset Matters – Growth Mindset Can Help You Succeed

How could anyone be a nonlearner?  Everyone is born with an innate ambition to learn. Babies tackle the most arduous skills of a lifetime – learning to talk and walk. They never decide that it is too hard or not worth the effort they are putting forward. Babies do not seem to worry about making mistakes or embarrassing themselves. They walk, they fall, and then they get up. They keep persevering. The question is what could put an end to this enthusiastic learning?  The answer is the fixed mindset.

Discovered by world-renowned psychologist Carol Dweck, mindset is a simple, yet groundbreaking, concept that makes all the difference. In a fixed mindset, people maintain that their basic qualities, like their intelligence or aptitude, are fixed traits. They spend their time “documenting” their intelligence or aptitude instead of “developing” them. Fixed mindset individuals also maintain that intellect alone breeds success – without effort.

In a growth mindset, individuals maintain that their most basic abilities can be developed through hard work and dedication. Growth mindset individuals believe that their brains and talents are just the beginning point. Growth mindset creates a love of learning and a pliability that is essential for extraordinary accomplishments.

Having a fixed mindset makes challenges threatening for students because they believe that their ability may not be up to the task. These mistakes and failures, caused by having a fixed mindset, appear to be demoralizing because the students believe that such setbacks reflect poorly in their level of fixed intelligence. Students who possess a growth mindset assert that intelligence is something that can be cultivated through effort and education. These students do not necessarily believe that everyone has the same abilities, but they do believe that everyone can improve their abilities. They realize that even geniuses have to work hard!  Growth mindset students believe that intelligence is a potential that can be realized through learning. As a result, confronting challenges, profiting from mistakes, and persevering in the face of setbacks become ways of gaining intelligence.

How can teachers create a culture of risk taking in their classrooms?  As an educator myself, I strive to design challenging, meaningful learning experiences for my students. My students respond differently to these experiences depending on their assumptions about intelligence. My growth mindset students tackle challenges with excitement, whereas my fixed mindset students feel threatened by learning experiences that require them to be risk takers.

To prepare my students to benefit from meaningful learning experiences, I have infused Dweck’s idea of mindset into the culture of my classroom. Dweck has suggested that one way to create such a culture is by providing the correct kinds of praise and encouragement. Educators should praise students for the process they have engaged in, the effort they have applied, the strategies they have used, the choices they have made, and the persistence they have displayed. This type of praise yields more long-term benefits than telling students that they are “smart” when they succeed.

Dweck further suggests that educators should emphasize that fast learning is not always the deepest and best learning and that students who take longer often comprehend concepts at a deeper level. Albert Einstein believed that his slower rate of learning allowed him to ponder the same questions for years, thus resulting in great achievement.

Within a classroom culture that supports a growth mindset, teachers can design meaningful learning experiences and present them in a way that fosters students’ flexibility and long-term achievement. In order to do this, educators should emphasize challenge and not success. Meaningful learning experiences need to challenge every student in some way. Students should not be able to sail to success time after time; this experience can create the fixed-mindset belief that they are smart only if they succeed without effort. To prevent this, teachers can identify students who have easily master the material and design further assignments that include some exercises that require these students to grow. When providing students with new and challenging tasks, teachers should be close at hand to guide the students and get them excited about and use to the challenging learning experience they are facing. Remember, all challenging learning experiences need to be introduced to students as fun and exciting!  Praise your students for their effort and encourage them to be detectives to find their mistakes – “That’s an interesting strategy. Let’s think about why it didn’t work and whether it gives us some clues for a new path. What should we try next?”

Finally, growth mindset educators give their students a sense of progress during the learning process ultimately leading to grading their students for growth. Meaningful learning experiences give students a clear sense of progress leading to mastery. This means that students can see themselves doing tasks that they could not do before and comprehending concepts they could not comprehend before. Work that gives students a sense of advancement as a result of effort gives teachers an opportunity to praise students for their process. Teachers can then point out that the students’ efforts were what lead to their progress and advancement over time. If students fail to grow despite putting effort into their learning, teachers need to factor in the effort put forth by the student, but need to work with the student to figure out what the impasse was and how the student can break through that impasse.

Meaningful learning experiences not only promote learning in the immediate situation, but also promote a joy of learning and perseverance in the face of challenges. This takes place in classrooms in which teachers praise the learning process rather than the students’ ability, convey the fun of undertaking challenging tasks, and spotlight progress and effort. Students who are given the growth mindset classroom experience will have the principles and tools needed for lifelong success.

Okay educators, I encourage you to take the growth mindset challenge!  The next time you are tempted to praise your students’ intelligence or talent, restrain yourself!  Instead, teach them how exciting a challenging assignment can be, how interesting and educational errors are, and how wonderful it is to tackle something and make progress. Most of all teach them that by taking risks, making mistakes, and putting forth effort, they are in fact making themselves smarter!