Growth Mindset

Fostering a growth mindset among students is a cornerstone for cultivating lifelong learners and resilient individuals and plays a critical role in fostering belonging in the classroom. Unlike a fixed mindset which views abilities as inherent traits a growth mindset emphasizes that intelligence and abilities can be developed through dedication, perseverance, and embracing challenges. Individuals who believe their talents can be developed (through hard work, good strategies, and input from others) have a growth mindset. They tend to achieve more than those with a more fixed mindset because they worry less about looking smart and put more energy into learning (Dweck, 2006).

By instilling this mindset early on, educators empower students to navigate academic hurdles confidently and equip them with essential skills to adapt, innovate, and thrive in an increasingly complex and fast-paced world. Embracing a growth mindset may enhance academic performance and nurture resilience, curiosity, and a passion for continual improvement, laying a robust foundation for success in scholarly pursuits and beyond.

Growth mindset interventions have been effective at improving students’ grades and/or GPA (Aronson et al., 2002; Yeager, Walton, et al., 2016), increasing student retention (Yeager, Walton, et al., 2016), and enjoyment and/or engagement in academics (Aronson et al., 2002). Furthermore, these effects are most pronounced for students from disadvantaged backgrounds, such as racial minorities and persons from low-income backgrounds (Aronson et al., 2002; Good et al., 2003; Rattan et al., 2015; Spitzer & Aronson, 2015; Yeager et al., 2014; Yeager, Romero, et al., 2016; Yeager, Walton, et al., 2016). Another important finding from this body of work is that these interventions are particularly relevant during transition periods, such as moving from high school to college (Yeager, Walton, et al., 2016).

However, the research of Brez, Hampton, et al. casts some doubt on the direct impact of the growth mindset on students' academic success among groups traditionally assumed to benefit from these types of interventions (e.g., minority, low-income, and first-generation students (Brez, 2020). They suggest that it may take more than one-time interventions to see significant academic improvements. More systemic changes to teaching and course design may be required to see significant improvement.

Fostering a growth mindset can include the following practices or interventions.

• Value effort as much as achievement.
• Encourage students to see challenges or difficulties in understanding as opportunities to improve.
• Communicate the belief that identifying gaps in learning is an essential part of learning, not failure.
• Highlight the value of persistence in learning.
• Help students set achievable and reasonable goals.
• Provide diagnostic and formative assessments along with constructive feedback.
• Model the importance of taking risks and trying new things.
• Recognize and reward student progress throughout the learning process, not just at the end.
• Create opportunities for collaboration and teamwork.
• Help students give and receive constructive feedback.
• Encourage reflection and self-assessment in activities.
• Share your struggles in learning content to normalize the belief that learning is a process.

Techniques

• Sequenced Learning Experiences  
  • Create a supportive learning pathway that guides students from lower-level to higher-level learning.
  • Provide some form of assessment as students move from each stage of learning.
• Formative Feedback
  • Provide students with multiple low-stake assessment opportunities along the learning pathway. 
  • Consider providing multiple attempts at online assessments until the students demonstrate the desired level of mastery.
• Customized Support
  
  • Encourage students to take advantage of office hours as part of a student's remediation plan.
  • Use technologies like Piazza to encourage students to ask and answer questions of each other.
• Active Learning
  • Use the Minute Paper / Muddiest Point technique to show students they are expected to have questions. 
  • Use the Think/Pair/Share technique to allow students to feel safe revealing knowledge gaps before responding to class questions.
  • Use the Structured Problem-Solving technique break complex problems into manageable steps so students don't feel overwhelmed and learn to identify, analyze, and solve problems collaboratively.

Resources

• Aronson, Joshua, Carrie B. Fried, and Catherine Good. "Reducing the effects of stereotype threat on African American college students by shaping theories of intelligence." Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 38, no. 2 (2002): 113-125.
• Brez, Caitlin, Eric M. Hampton, Linda Behrendt, Liz Brown, and Josh Powers. "Failure to replicate: Testing a growth mindset intervention for college student success." Basic and Applied Social Psychology 42, no. 6 (2020): 460-468.
• Dweck, Carol S. Mindset: The new psychology of success. Random House, 2006.
• Good, Catherine, Joshua Aronson, and Michael Inzlicht. "Improving adolescents' standardized test performance: An intervention to reduce the effects of stereotype threat." Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology 24, no. 6 (2003): 645-662.
• Rattan, Aneeta, Krishna Savani, Dolly Chugh, and Carol S. Dweck. "Leveraging mindsets to promote academic achievement: Policy recommendations." Perspectives on Psychological Science 10, no. 6 (2015): 721-726.
• Spitzer, Brian, and Joshua Aronson. "Minding and mending the gap: Social psychological interventions to reduce educational disparities." British Journal of Educational Psychology 85, no. 1 (2015): 1-18.
• Yeager, David Scott, Rebecca Johnson, Brian James Spitzer, Kali H. Trzesniewski, Joseph Powers, and Carol S. Dweck. "The far-reaching effects of believing people can change: implicit theories of personality shape stress, health, and achievement during adolescence." Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 106, no. 6 (2014): 867.
• Yeager, David S., Gregory M. Walton, Shannon T. Brady, Ezgi N. Akcinar, David Paunesku, Laura Keane, Donald Kamentz et al. "Teaching a lay theory before college narrows achievement gaps at scale." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 113, no. 24 (2016): E3341-E3348. 
• Yeager, David S., Carissa Romero, Dave Paunesku, Christopher S. Hulleman, Barbara Schneider, Cintia Hinojosa, Hae Yeon Lee et al. "Using design thinking to improve psychological interventions: The case of the growth mindset during the transition to high school." Journal of Educational Psychology 108, no. 3 (2016): 374.