Moving Students from Fixed Mindset to a Growth MIndset

Last week's Teaching Tip shared information and resources to better understand growth mindset. Carol Dweck, who created the term, did a TED talk in which she urges teachers to adopt the phrase "not yet" in terms of unmastered learning targets in the classroom. She also encourages us to help kids move away from their fixation on grades and on the need for validation by:

• Praising and rewarding effort, strategy, and process (as opposed to intelligence or ability)
• Ensuring that we as educators don't ourselves adopt a fixed mindset toward kids whom we assume won't be able to learn or grow

Sometimes we run into kids whose fixed mindsets are so strong and their voices so loud that we struggle for words and strategies to counter their beliefs. If you find yourself trying to move a student from a fixed mindset  to a growth mindset, you might want to utilize some responses from "Mindset Kit/Seven Common Growth Mindset Scenarios and Responses,pdf"

Here are few of the responses to get you started:

• “Let’s take one step at a time. That way we can see where we might need to focus more attention and time.”
• “This looks like pretty demanding stuff. What would a focused first try look like?”
• “Let’s discuss some strategies for tackling this.”
• “Remind yourself that you just can’t do it ‘YET.’ Let’s think through some next steps to take.”
• “What was difficult? Let’s focus on the difficulties to see if we can figure it out.”
• “I can see a difference in now compared to ______ from last week/yesterday. What has changed? Talk me through what happened.”