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More than ever before, classrooms are made up of diverse learners. Teachers an accommodate diversity by creating a classroom environment that allows each student to achieve his or her personal best within the realm of their individualism.

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Innovative teaching practices have impacted the look of the classroom as well.  Changes to the classroom layout has leaned more toward a flexible seating arrangement allowing students alternative spaces to learn and collaborate. https://www.edutopia.org/article/your-flexible-classroom-questions-answered/

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An age appropriate explanation of the power of yet with examples. Similar to the rap, this explains the power of yet to a younger audience. Instilling a growth mindset at a young age can be very beneficial to a child's development.

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The power of 'yet' with Zoe and Elmo from Sesame Street

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I have used this video with my middle school students to build self esteem and teach the power of yet. Students need more of this in the classrom.

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C.A.P.S. - Celebrating All Persevering Students

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C.J. Luckey (@cjluckeydope) - The Power of Yet - Offical Music Video - Directed by Andre Kahmeyer

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How do Educators seek Opportunities for Growth?

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How do Educators seek Opportunities for Growth?

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Change can be stressful--even good changes. I wanted to know if change effects people differently. This article by Meyers Briggs explains how an individuals personality can determine response to changes.

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Most people want their businesses to grow. Or at least their bottom line to grow. But there’s an important part of business growth that’s often overlooked – change

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Change is hard. In some cases, change can trigger an adverse childhood experience (ACE). The higher the ACE score, the greater the changes that an adult will develop significant mental and physical health problems. This article does a good job in providing specific strategies to instill a growth mindset in students facing change.  It integrates the work of Carol Dweck as well.

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She explains students' mindsets -- the way they perceive their abilities -- fall somewhere between two opposites:

Fixed Mindset -- Students believe their skills, talents and overall intelligence are fixed traits. They may resist learning and trying to improve, typically feeling embarrassed when not understanding something.

Growth Mindset -- Students know they can develop their skills and talents through effort and persistence, as well as being receptive to lessons and feedback. They generally believe they can improve through hard work and trying new learning methods.

If you can shift students towards the latter, Dr. Dweck writes, you can improve the level and frequency of their achievements. This is because mindset plays a prominent role in self-motivation.

The question now becomes: "How can I build or instill a growth mindset in my students?"

10 Ways teachers can foster a growth mindset in students

1. Avoid praising intelligence and sheer effort

You risk discouraging growth by primarily praising intelligence and sheer effort, instead of acknowledging the importance of planning and trying new approaches.

Complimenting intelligence can reinforce it as a fixed trait, says Dr. Dweck.

And although effort is aligned with growth mindset, explicitly praising it can backfire. For example, if you tell students to "just keep trying" when their hard work doesn't pay off, they may feel incompetent.
Instead, give feedback that highlights the values of planning and trying different learning strategies:
Because praise and feedback can change the ways students view learning processes, your approach can push them toward or further away from establishing a growth mindset.

2. Use diverse teaching strategies

Exposing students to different instructional methods and strategies will help build a repertoire of learning skills to handle diverse challenges, according to Dr. Dweck.

You can use differentiated instruction tactics and principles to vary the content you present and how students process it, as well as how they demonstrate knowledge:

Content -- When applicable, use videos, audio clips, presentations and physical manipulatives such as blocks in your lessons. Learning stations can help you deliver this content in a single class.

Processes -- Give students chances to not only work individually, but in pairs, small groups and big groups.

Products -- Let students demonstrate understanding of content in a variety of ways on tests, projects and assignments. For example, you can create an open project that students can complete as an essay, presentation or artistic production.

By expanding your teaching tactics, students should sharpen a range of skills to help them approach different learning obstacles.

Many math teachers, for example, use a variety of math games to diversify their usual pedagogical toolkit. Keep in mind it can be challenging to use diverse teaching strategies in a traditional classroom seating arrangement. Consider a flexible seating classroom plan to sidestep some of the environmental constraints you might have in your learning space.

3. Introduce simple gamification elements

Certain aspects of gamification - the practice of applying video game elements to your class - can highlight student progress instead of emphasizing mistakes.

This can be accomplished by leveraging digital game-based learning tools, such as Prodigy Math or Prodigy English. In a 2021 survey of 5th - 8th grade students by Prodigy Education, Prodigy Math users who were classified as having a growth mindset had stronger performance in math and were more engaged in the math content than users who were classified as having a growth mindset.

Alternatively, you can easily modify how you present marks on tests and assignments.

For example, if a student earns 85% on a quiz, give him or her 8,500 XP too. You can also award XP for completing assignments, participating in class or anything that demonstrates effort to learn. Students many even actively take on extra-curricular work, similar to how they complete quests and missions in video games.

You can give XP for separate skills and topics, keeping track of the points students have accumulated like so:

Doing this gives them a clear reference point to see how much they'd learned and accomplished.
And instead of going downhill from 100%, they're going uphill from zero XP.
This illustrates the type of steady improvement that's at the heart of building a growth mindset.

4. Teach the values of challenges

Explaining the inherent benefits of overcoming obstacles can help students develop a growth mindset, according to Dr. Dweck.

She specifically recommends teaching about the effect on the brain when people push through their comfort zones to grasp difficult concepts. The neurons form stronger connections, leading to improved intelligence over time. Therefore, effort and difficulty are paths, not roadblocks, to becoming smarter.

Middle school students in a control group that learned this lesson earned a clear increase in math scores over two years, according to a study by Dr. Dweck and her colleagues.

But those in a group that thought intelligence was fixed saw a decrease.

As these results show, simply teaching the broad benefits of building a growth mindset can have a positive effect on students.

5. Encourage students to expand their answers

Asking students to elaborate on their thoughts during discussion reveals what they do and don't understand, encouraging them to process content at a deeper level as they reflect on their responses.

This demonstrates a core aspect of growth mindset-- subject matter expertise isn't inherent, but developed.
Give students opportunities to share and expand on their thoughts by running:

Problem-based learning (PBL) activities -- Whether in a small or large group, problem-based learning allows students to collaborate and share thoughts with each other.

Question and answer sessions after presentations -- Encourage students to ask questions to the presenter, allowing him or her to delve into important points.

As you encourage students to elaborate on their thoughts and responses, they should improve understanding of subject matter and clearly see the values of effort and critical thinking.

6. Explain the purposes of abstract skills and concepts

Teaching a unit or subject filled with abstract skills and concepts? Instilling a growth mindset in students may take more work.

This is because if the bulk of your students struggle with determining a concept's real-world applications, they may not see the purpose in improving their knowledge of that concept.
Should you feel this is the case with a given skill or topic, explore and explain:

Why it is significant

What its uses are outside of class

How it will help students in the future

By doing so, most students should grow interested in the once-abstract concept and want to understand it at a deeper level.

Instilling a growth mindset in students should be easier as a result.

Experiential learning activities and active learning strategies help bridge this gap with an approach that puts students at the center of the learning process, allowing them to build a more meaningful understanding of the abstract skills and concepts you are teaching.

7. Allow time for goal-based journaling

Journaling serves different purposes, including encouraging students to build a growth mindset through goal setting. As an exit ticket, ask students to:

Set learning goals for themselves

Discuss progression toward meeting these goals

For example, a student may set a goal to earn a certain grade on an upcoming quiz. To accomplish this goal, the student must write the steps he or she is taking. These could include completing a specific number of extra homework questions each night.

No matter the goal, students should follow the SMART method, ensuring it isn't too lofty.
The goal should be:
This kind of goal setting is, in a sense, the embodiment of building a growth mindset. Students are working to improve, dissuading themselves from thinking their traits and skills are fixed.

What will happen when they meet their goals? They'll know growth is always possible.

8. Say "yet" more often

The word "yet" can change disparaging sentences into positive ones, promoting growth, according to Dr. Dweck.

This linguistic trick works especially well with sentences that include "can't" or "don't," because it reverses the negative connotation.
See for yourself by adding "yet" to the end of these sentences:

I can't do long division

I don't have the skills to answer this question

I don't understand dependent and independent clauses

When you catch yourself using similar sentences, keep this trick in mind and share it with students.

You'll demonstrate that mastering skills and understanding concepts is always possible -- it's just dependent on time, persistence and trying different learning techniques.

9. Help students change their language

As you shift your phrasing, you can help students change their language to push their mindsets from growth-averse to development-oriented.

Fixed-mindset students see poor performance as a rebuke of their abilities, writes Dr. Dweck. Instead, you can help them view struggle as a chance to improve skills and understanding.

Language - written, spoken and thought - is a tool to accomplish this goal and it has been shown to be effective!

In 2019, a large-scale research study on growth mindset with 25 researchers led by Dr. David S. Yeager (and including Dr. Dweck!) found that a growth mindset intervention led to higher grades for students who were low-achieving and also led more students to enroll in more rigorous math courses.
Consider creating a table, similar to the one below, to post in your classroom:
This will give students a clear reference point to build a vocabulary that reflects growth mindset.

10. Use success folders

Through the semester or year, students can struggle to remember their progress and achievements. Success folders address this problem, providing first-hand evidence of growth.

What are success folders? That becomes clear when learning how they cultivate growth mindset. You must:

Create the Folders -- Give each student a folder -- yes, the kind made of cardboard or stiff paper. On the cover, ask them to draw a picture or write a short story that depicts their personal concepts of success.

Personalize the Folders -- Every day or week, allot time for students to add personal examples of successful learning to the folder. These can be summaries of tasks they completed, explanations of new concepts they learned or tests and assignments they aced.

Reflect on the Folders -- To begin each week on a high note, have students look through their success folders. This encourages them to reflect on their achievements, providing first-hand evidence of growth.

Try it yourself to see the power a simple folder can have for growth mindset in education settings.

Growth mindset infographic

Created by Educational Technology and Mobile Learning- an online resource for teaching tools and ideas - below is an infographic based on this article, helping you foster a growth mindset culture in your class:

Final thoughts about growth mindset in education

Research on a growth mindset continues to evolve. In 2016, Dr. Dweck wrote an article for Harvard Business Review where she outlined some common misconceptions about growth mindset research.

Now that you have a solid understanding of growth mindset research, you can use these 10 tactics to foster a growth mindset in your students, helping them cultivate their talents and abilities in and out of the classroom.

You should see a positive attitude shift as they actively build new skills, learn about unfamiliar topics and take on different challenges.

Dedicated students. Happy teacher. What's not to love?

Create or log into your free teacher account on Prodigy - an adaptive math game that adjusts content to accommodate player trouble spots and learning speeds. The curriculum-aligned platform is used by millions of students and teachers around the world.

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10 Ways Teachers Can Instill a Growth Mindset in Students

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She explains students' mindsets -- the way they perceive their abilities -- fall somewhere between two opposites: Fixed Mindset -- Students believe their skills, talents and overall intelligence are fixed traits. They may resist learning and trying to improve, typically feeling embarrassed when not understanding something.

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Researchers have identified 4 specific ways to nurture intrinsic motivation.  This video focuses on one of them: Supporting students to feel a greater sense of autonomy. Problem-based learning is featured.

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Student Motivation: Why Autonomy Matters

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How to Model Growth Mindset in the Classroom

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How to Model Growth Mindset in the Classroom

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Of the many challenges educators face, one of the most formidable-and least obvious-is student mindset. Teaching students to comprehend, absorb, and apply new material and concepts is challenging under any circumstances. The undertaking is much greater, however, when students doubt their ability to learn.

Can simply believing you have the ability to learn increase your ability to learn? According to growth mindset researchers, the answer is yes.

A more detailed look at mindset theory, as well as some of the ways that teachers can foster growth mindset in the classroom, illustrates mindset development's importance in education.

What Is Growth Mindset?

One theory of intelligence holds that people can be categorized according to their implicit beliefs about ability. People with a fixed mindset believe that abilities are innate, while people with a growth mindset believe that they can acquire abilities through effort and study.

Carol Dweck, a psychologist, developed the fixed versus growth mindset theory. The Stanford University professor's pioneering research, as well as her 2006 book, Mindset:The New Psychology of Success, popularized the concept of fixed and growth mindsets.

To gain a better understanding of what growth mindset is, compare the differences between fixed and growth mindset outlooks and behaviors.

Fixed Mindset vs. Growth Mindset

Fixed and growth mindsets profoundly affect the way that individuals respond to failure. People with a fixed mindset view failure as a result of their lack of ability, while people with a growth mindset see the opportunity to expand their abilities and to work harder and smarter.

The fixed mindset vs. growth mindset dichotomy can also be expressed in terms of goals. People with a fixed mindset wish to appear intelligent because they believe that failing to do so reveals a weakness. People with a growth mindset are much less apprehensive about how their intelligence is perceived because they believe that knowledge and ability can be improved through effort. These outlooks produce almost diametric goals related to learning: a person with a fixed mindset wants to avoid appearing unintelligent; a person with a growth mindset wants to overcome challenges.

While the basic concept of fixed mindset vs. growth mindset is simple, mindset designations are much more nuanced in reality. An important factor of the mindsets is that they can be different in different domains. For example, a person may have a growth mindset in athletic or artistic endeavors but have a fixed mindset in academic endeavors.

Furthermore, mindsets aren't absolute, immovable states. The fixed or growth mindset exists on a spectrum, and even those positions can vary. A person may have a predominant growth mindset in one area-math, for example-but an especially challenging problem may trigger a response that's more consistent with a fixed mindset.

Dweck has described the growth mindset theory as a response to the self-esteem movement, which held that lavishing students with praise builds confidence that leads to improved achievement.

Mindset researchers propose a different approach. Instead of giving students general praise or praising outcomes-an ineffective practice in Dweck's view-teachers should focus on praising students' efforts and the steps they take to overcome challenges and make progress. By doing so they reinforce the simple but powerful idea that ability can be improved.

Benefits of a Growth Mindset in Education

Dweck's early research demonstrated multiple potential benefits to encouraging a growth mindset in education. One of her studies showed that praising students' efforts rather than their intelligence made them more likely to pursue more difficult challenges. Another study demonstrated the influence of simple mindset interventions. Her research showed that students who were taught about developing intelligence went on to perform better in school and exhibit more motivation in the classroom.

Growth mindset has been widely embraced inside and outside of education. (Growth mindset has become a popular topic in the business world, for example.) However, the concept isn't without its critics. Skeptics point out that few researchers have been able to replicate Dweck's results, and much of the corroborating research that's been done has been done by Dweck and her colleagues. Still, mindset research continues to advance, and evidence of the benefits of a growth mindset in education continues to mount.

How to Foster a Growth Mindset in Students

Learning how to foster a growth mindset in students requires time and practice. The approach requires consistent instruction that reinforces and demonstrates the idea that students can improve their ability. At the most basic level, mindset techniques involve shifting emphasis away from outcomes and toward efforts and process. Rather than praising an accomplishment, the instructor praises the efforts and learning steps that led to the positive outcome.

Looking at examples of how instruction and language can be altered to encourage a growth mindset illustrates how teachers can change the way that students perceive the learning process:

Fixed mindset statement: "It's OK if you're having trouble. Maybe algebra isn't one of your strengths."

Growth mindset statement: "When you learn how to do a new kind of problem, it develops your math brain."

Another example stresses the importance of encouraging students to work through problems:

Fixed mindset statement: "Great effort. You tried as hard as you could."

Growth mindset statement: "The goal isn't to get it right immediately. The goal is to improve your understanding step by step. What can you try next?"

Teaching students to be encouraged when they experience difficulty can also reinforce growth mindset:

Fixed mindset statement: "Don't worry, you'll get it if you keep trying."

Growth mindset statement: "That feeling you're experiencing of algebra being hard is the feeling of your brain developing."

A growth mindset approach still demands optimal performance from a student-simply rewarding efforts isn't effective, and, in fact, it can be harmful if the student's efforts are ultimately fruitless.

Part of growth mindset instruction is teaching students to ask for help and to use any resources that can assist them. Just as students are still responsible for learning the material, teachers are still responsible for giving them the tools they need to learn.

10 Strategies for Fostering a Growth Mindset in the Classroom

Helping students develop a growth mindset requires deliberate effort from teachers, but many of the methods can be easily integrated in their existing practices. The following strategies and tips can help educators foster a growth mindset in the classroom:

1. Normalize struggle. Struggle is part of the learning process, and emphasizing and reinforcing that idea helps students react positively when they feel challenged.

2. Encourage engagement with challenges. Portray challenges as fun and exciting, and easy tasks as boring.

3. Embrace the word "yet". If someone makes the statement "I'm not a math person," adding a simple qualifier will signal that a process exists for gaining ability. "You're not a math person yet."

4. Tout the value of hard tasks to the brain. Promote the idea that brains are malleable "muscles" that can be developed. Research on brain plasticity supports the idea of neural growth, and mindset research has shown that believing the brain can grow has a demonstrative effect on behavior and achievement.

5. Demonstrate mistakes and celebrate corrections. Mistakes should be viewed as learning opportunities. Teachers can model this outlook in reactions to their own mistakes and steps they take to correct a mistake.

6. Set goals. Having students set incremental, achievable goals demonstrates the attainability of growth and progress.

7. Develop cooperative exercises. Working together to solve problems emphasizes process and reinforces the importance of getting help and finding solutions. It also deemphasizes individual outcomes.

8. Provide challenges. Part of developing a growth mindset is teaching students to overcome obstacles. A particularly hard math problem or complex writing assignment that stretches their abilities can provide opportunities for growth and further instruction that emphasizes problem-solving.

9. Avoid praising intelligence. This may seem counterintuitive, but praise for "being smart" reinforces the idea that intelligence is a fixed trait. This can be demotivating for the students being praised ("I'm smart; I don't have to try harder"), as well as for those who don't not receive the praise ("That student is smart; I'm not").

10. Don't oversimplify. "You can do anything!" may feel like harmless encouragement, but if students aren't put in a position to overcome challenges, they'll conclude that such statements are empty, and the educator will lose credibility.

How to Foster a Growth Mindset in Teachers and Administrators

Extending the concept of growth mindset theory to teachers and administrators is critical. Research suggests that growth mindset approaches are more effective in supportive environments. However, individuals interested in promoting growth mindset initiatives can encounter resistance. Cultural changes in any institution or system are difficult, but understanding those challenges is the first step to finding common ground and moving forward.

Overcoming Challenges

Changing the instructional practices and policies that teachers and administrators have established can be difficult for many reasons:

Teachers and administrators who have invested time and effort in their current methods of instruction and classroom culture may resist change, particularly if their methods have been successful.

Teachers and administrators who are routinely asked to make changes or adopt new teaching methods may feel skeptical about a new method's benefits.

Teachers and administrators commonly work under tight time constraints that make it difficult to learn new methods or implement new policies.

Teachers and administrators may have fixed mindsets themselves and discount the mindset theory's validity.

Efforts to overcome resistance to growth mindset initiatives should focus on the demonstrated benefits to students. A shared goal of helping students can ease the challenges of culture change.

Five Tips for Creating a Growth Mindset Teaching Culture

Working together to reframe their shared challenges and goals can help both teachers and administrators develop growth mindsets and culture:

1. Value the process over the result. Valuing the process over the result can be difficult in a results-driven environment, but teachers and administrators who value the growth mindset and its long-term benefits are more likely to stay the course.

2. View challenges as opportunities. Students aren't the only ones facing challenges; teachers and administrators can benefit just as much from an outlook that celebrates the process.

3. Experiment with different teaching methods and learning strategies. Helping students build the skills they need to improve is a key element of the growth mindset approach. Teachers and administrators who embrace a growth mindset shouldn't be afraid to experiment.

4. Celebrate growth. Finding teaching strategies that reach students and help them learn should be celebrated with the students, as well as with other teachers and administrators. This reinforces the emphasis on effort and process. It also provides opportunities to share valuable learnings.

5. Communicate about your growth mindset. Sharing successes and failures among teachers and administrators helps to establish a culture that values challenges and a growth mindset.

Providing Tools for a Lifetime of Learning

A growth mindset's defining characteristic-the belief that intelligence is malleable-provides a powerful formula for improving student outcomes. Students who believe that they can get smarter and that effort makes them smarter will put in the effort that leads to higher achievement.

The understanding that they can always learn new skills and overcome challenges through hard work is a lesson students can carry well beyond their school years. As the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated, many of the learning challenges that students will face can't be foreseen. By helping them develop a mindset that doesn't shrink from challenges and teaching them learning methods that can be applied to any subject or obstacle, educators prepare students for increasingly dynamic work environments and an increasingly complex world.

Educators interested in how education and learning can be life changing should explore American University's School of Education degree programs, including its Online Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) and Online Master of Education (MEd) in Education Policy and Leadership. Preparing teachers and policy makers to transform the education system to benefit all learners is a core principle of American University's School of Education.

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How to Foster a Growth Mindset in the Classroom | American University

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Embracing a growth mindset can help students learn more and overcome challenges. Explore strategies for fostering a growth mindset in the classroom.

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Specific Examples of Both Growth and Change for Teachers

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Specific Examples of Both Growth and Change for Teachers

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What can teachers improve on?
#6 Innovation: In order to achieve an actual meaningful classroom experience, educators must challenge themselves and confront new possibilities, diverse ideas, and perspectives.

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Written by Marco Fenici

Academic Director and Teacher Trainer in Florence

Why must teachers grow?

The areas of growth that we recommend have the purpose to assist in identifying their needs and determining effective ways to overcome weaknesses and enhance strengths. That way, once they have acquired the necessary tools, they can start designing their course of action to accomplish professional development.

It is generally known that the teaching profession is one of the most directly impacted by social, economic, and technological changes. Consequently, an educator must regard their career as a continuing learning process in order to keep up with this ever-changing world. This means that an instructor consistently has room for improvement since there is always some skill to sharpen or some didactic issue to solve.

However, the path to self-improvement is not a fixed one, it is different for every one of us. So, this personal journey has to be preceded by deep reflection and careful planning before setting our own professional growth goals.

Also, we cannot stress enough that the road to self-development is not for the faint-hearted, since it demands constant attention and full commitment. Nevertheless, it can be a most satisfying reward to be able to see the positive outcomes of the goals we have set for ourselves in our classroom.

What can teachers improve on?

Self-evaluation

Change and evolution require self-awareness. Educators must cultivate the ability to see themselves clearly and objectively through reflection and self-analysis. This way, they see what is happening around them, learn from the situation, and can be able to make the necessary adjustments.

We can divide this process of self-evaluation into three fundamental phases:

First, a teacher must recognize there is a need for change, both within and around them. Detecting that something goes wrong it is the first step towards improvement;

Secondly, they have to determine what areas of their teaching need the most attention. Before setting their goals, they have to figure out which are their strengths and weaknesses;

Thirdly, they must decide on key areas of growth and commit to them.

When it comes to reflecting on the classroom experience, the students' small clues and positive feedback is a rich source of information. That is, paying attention to what students comment in class is an effective way to find out strengths. Usually, we can find that there are recurring themes of conversation which can help identify what is working well or not.

Finding the positive in the students' daily evaluations is a sure way to:

Pinpoint which strategies are the best to engage their attention and interest;

Consider the implementation of small progressive changes.

In conclusion, self-evaluation is a critical step in any process of growth and change. Generally, the path towards improvement becomes clearer when a teacher is willing to admit mistakes and put their students' needs first.

Pedagogical learning

Teachers' efficacy is, arguably, the product of three aspects:

Deep knowledge of the subject-matter or content area;

Professional experience;

Development of teaching skills.

Consequently, due to the fast changes in technology and society, an educator must brush up on their pedagogy to stay relevant. Those changes greatly affect the way students learn and the way teachers teach, so there is always room for pedagogical improvement. As a result, learning "how to teach" and " how students learn " become priorities in a teacher's journey towards significant growth.

In order to improve the way they teach, an instructor can focus on these tasks:

Brush up on the basics; that is, come back to what they once learned but it is now partly forgotten, and renew those skills;

Learn about new theories which can provide useful information about how people learn best;

Learn about new teaching strategies and techniques which can be actually implemented in the classroom;

Improve the way they differentiate instruction in order to meet the individual learning needs of each student. This way, all students have the same opportunities to reach the common learning goals.

We can safely affirm that methodology is at the core of the success of the learning and teaching process; so, studying the best approaches and adapting them effectively to their classroom's idiosyncrasies is a course of action worth being taken by any committed teacher.

Find more about how teachers can improve their lessons by reading our blog article.

Adaptability

The teaching work is especially demanding and consistently changing; so, being able to respond effectively to an uncertain environment is widely considered an essential ability for educators. The following situations are examples of what teachers must navigate on a daily basis:

Respond appropriately to students with diverse learning needs;

Face and handle unexpected situations in the classroom;

Interact and communicate with colleagues, students, parents and administrators;

Implement new strategies and techniques in their teaching practices;

Make changes in lesson plans.

Certainly, being able to adjust to new conditions reduces stress and anxiety and, as a result, contributes to the educators' well-being. Moreover, instructors who challenge themselves when circumstances change prove to be:

More focused on improvement;

More prone to think ahead when it comes to anticipating potential student struggles.

In conclusion, we can say that when a teacher is versatile and willing to develop their craft, they bring into the classroom a flexible learning atmosphere that fosters students' motivation and engagement.

Communication

By the very nature of their profession, teachers are constantly interacting with a great number of people: students, parents, colleagues, administrators, etc. And, although the rapports that teachers establish with the surrounding adults are important too, we are focusing on what happens in the classroom with students.

A fundamental and challenging part of teaching is being understood quickly and accurately by students. So, the success of the students' learning process is guaranteed when the message gets across to them and effective communication is established.

Furthermore, many studies show that students' lack of motivation and eventual school dropout is a direct result of educators' poor communication skills. Therefore, a dedicated teacher must avoid at all costs frequent misunderstandings in class, which usually lead to students' frustration and lack of interest and enthusiasm.

What communication skills are required to grow as a teacher?

An educator willing to improve their performance in class should master these communication skills:

Active listening;

Speaking clearly and concisely;

Non-verbal language (keep eye contact, smile, energetic body language to transmit enthusiasm);

Consistent constructive feedback;

Deliver instruction in a way that lessons keep students involved and engaged;

Management of the classroom in an observant and empathic way.

What are the benefits of an effective communication?

Students can more easily integrate new contents and information with previously acquired knowledge, thus achieving significant learning.

Teachers build a rapport with students that foster the open exchange of ideas and opinions; thus creating a learning atmosphere based on trust and respect;

Feeling actually listened to and not judged encourage students to participate and interact; a safe learning environment promotes their will to cooperate. As a result, their investment and engagement to the learning process increases exponentially.

A supportive teacher-student relationship have a highly positive impact on the students' achievement of academic goals.

When an educator makes the effort to mentor and offer guidance to students, the latter's confidence and self-steem is enhanced. And, consequently, they feel more motivated to work hard towards the obtainment of their objectives. Students' positiveacademic progresshighly depends on teachers' effectiveness to perform their tasks. And, at the same time, this effectiveness is directly affected by the way educators communicate with students.

So, as we can see, all the elements of the teaching-learning process are intimately interrelated. They influence and impact each other in many meaningful ways. And, observing carefully this complex net, we can find that communication skills are a crucial part of it.

Organization

As we have discussed earlier in this article, classrooms are unpredictable environments. And consequently, one of the many tasks of teachers is organizing and preparing for what might come up unexpectedly.

Generally, organized educatorspromote more effective learning environments, which greatly benefit the academic advancement of students. When the classroom runs smoothly and efficiently, that orderly atmosphere contributes to an efficient transfer of knowledge.

Moreover, planning ahead provides a comforting sense of control to teachers, who feel more confident in their methods and strategies. That is, advanced preparation allows educators to consider the possible consequences of whatever may happen in the classroom. And, as a result of this careful planning, teachers can avoid overwhelming and stressful situations which affect negatively their performance in class.

Innovation

Nowadays, innovation, imagination, and creativity are having an increasingly prominent role in classrooms. Educational environments are constantly evolving and adapting to social and technological changes, so teachers need to find new powerful tools to keep students engaged and on task.

Think in unique ways to make learning significant and fun at the same time;

Willing to try new strategies and techniques to achieve students' academic success;

Alert to the individual learning needs of each of the students;

Identify potential student struggles and challenges (loss of interest or focus, lack of understanding, low engagement, demotivation);

Find new ways of motivating and encouraging students to successfully reach their objectives;

A lifelong learner who never stops developing their teaching skills;

Focused on consistently improving their performance in class;

Teach students to question everything and cultivate critical thinking.

Encourage students to take intellectual risks.

Promote collaborative work.

What characterizes an innovative teacher?

In order to achieve an actual meaningful classroom experience, educators must challenge themselves and confront new possibilities, diverse ideas, and perspectives.

Keeping an open mind and a critical eye can help obtain a fuller picture of the complexity of the teaching-learning process, thus avoiding both stagnation and dated didactic approaches.

Leadership

Follow their lead;

Allow themselves to be influenced, and even changed.

The role of a leader in a classroom implies that students trust a teacher enough to:

This is a direct consequence of having excellent communication skills. That is, cultivating an atmosphere of openness and reliability fosters an educational environment where student empowerment can develop unhindered.

Students tend to be inspired to achieve more than they thought they could;

Their horizons and aspirations broaden in ways they never could imagine, only because a teacher made the effort to support and advise them appropriately.

An educator that promotes confidence, honesty, commitment, integrity, and growth becomes a positive role model. Under their influence:

Read our blog article on how to create a more positive school environment if you wish to explore more about this topic.

Answering questions in a practical and useful way;

Giving constructive feedback;

Listening actively;

Helping determining where there is room for improvement;

Supporting their pupils through hard times.

Similarly, a teacher who focuses on developing their students' s potential proves to be specially qualified to mentor and guide them in the right direction. An educator who cares to find out what students need can transform their learning experience by:

Observe and determine what changes are needed;

Research and decide how to carry out these changes;

Facilitate their implementation;

Evaluate the results;

Make adjustments if necessary.

Being a leader in the classroom also implies becoming an agent of change. That is, taking up new initiatives and making them work efficiently for the benefit of the students´ academic progress. An educator's role as an agent of change entails these tasks:

In conclusion, leadership in a classroom means guiding students in their individual learning processes in a meaningful and significant way. A teacher leader listens, inspire, counsel, and encourage students to become their best selves and live to their full potential.

Dig deeper about teachers as leaders in our blog article on the Erasmus + Project of the same name.

Continuous learning

Being a dedicated teacher means going through a lifelong learning process. So, an educator who has a clear sense of improvement and progress should consider continuous learning a priority.

In order to maintain and improve efficiency, educators should keep themselves up-to-date regarding instructional methods, educational technology, the curriculum, etc.

Furthermore, another powerful reason for never stopping learning is to avoid burning out and demotivation. Undoubtedly, going the extra mile to keep teaching practices fresh and engaging helps foster a successful learning environment.

Participate in workshops, seminars and courses;

Group with other educators who are open to share their ideas, methods and techniques;

Observe colleagues' classes:

learn what works for students from a delivery standpoint

focus on teacher-student interaction to learn what pulls the class into the lesson.

What can teachers do to keep learning?

Gather useful information from all resources available in order to face their daily tasks properly armed with adequate tools;

Take away from those sources all that is meaningful and can impact their work for the better.

The classroom experience is extremely rich and complex. So, teachers should:

Conclusion

As a final reflection, we consider it's necessary stressing the importance of professional growth in teaching. Educators are prominent figures that can have a huge impact on students' both academic and personal life. So, they should assume the responsibility to consistently improve their performance in the classroom.

Considering they play a pivotal role in the intellectual growth of students, developing their teaching skills should be at the top of an educator's priority list. Poor instructional skills can have far-reaching repercussions in their lives since the students' perception of the classroom experience relies greatly on the teacher's performance.

Get started today in finding your personal areas of growth, explore more than 200 courses from our catalogue:

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Areas of Growth for Teachers > What Can Teachers Improve On?

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A useful guide to identifying areas of growth for teachers in order to evolve both professionally and personally

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One Way Educators Seek Out Opportunities for Growth: Micro-Credentials

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One Way Educators Seek Out Opportunities for Growth: Micro-Credentials

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Many organizations like Instructure, Digital Promise, and the NEA have resources for teachers to earn micro-credentials.  Microcredentials are performance based training and allow teachers a choice in their professional development based on their own growth needs.  This article speaks specifically to computer science, however, teachers can select from a wide variety of subjects to use with their students or for themselves.

I have found myself often criticizing the choices offered for professional development. Micro-credentialing allows teachers to have autonomy in their professional development.

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A great video that is age appropriate for secondary learners or adults.  "Ultimately, your mindset influences everything from creative risk-taking to how you vie feedback to whether or not you finish difficult tasks..." John Spencer

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LearnStorm Growth Mindset: The Truth About Your Brain

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LearnStorm Growth Mindset: The Truth About Your Brain

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A great video that is age appropriate for young learners explaining the brain science behind growth mindset.

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LearnStorm Growth Mindset: The Truth About Your Brain

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Cultivating a Growth Mindset in Teachers

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Cultivating a Growth Mindset in Teachers

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When working in teams or PLCs, innovative teachers often face ridicule for trying new things. How can we as educators cultivate a growth mindset to model for our students?

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Cultivating a Growth Mindset in Teachers

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"While changes can come from the outside, growth always comes from within you. Other people might support, help and encourage you--but ultimately, you have to want to grow."  (Luke, 2022)

I believe growth can be a result of change. Changes that we are faced with in both our personal and professional lives can serve as a catalyst for growth if we open our minds to the possibilities the change offers.

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Two words that get bandied about a lot in the personal development sphere are "change" and "growth". You've probably noticed, for instance, that this blog is called "The Change Blog", and that Peter describes in his personal mission statement a commitment to maintaining a "personal growth blog".

It's tempting to use "change" and "growth" in a woolly sort of way, meaning "living a better life", but in fact, they're quite different concepts:

What's Change?
Change Often Means a Turn-Around
When you talk about changing your life, you might mean going back to college, moving to a new city (or country), or starting a family.
Change Can Be A One-Off Event
Some changes happen suddenly, like losing your job. The effects will change the days, weeks and months to come ... but the change itself is relatively sudden and self-contained.
Change Can Be Externally Imposed
Not all changes are ones you choose. In fact, many might come from the outside. Some of these will be negative changes (eg. the death of a relative), some might seem like negative changes but later become positive ones (eg. becoming a father). Either way, knowing how to manage change is important for making the best of these times.

What's Growth?
Growth Takes Time
Whilst a change can happen overnight (whether it's a paradigm shift in the way you think, or an external change like becoming a mother/father) ... growth always takes time. You can't become an expert in a day, or completely shed all your old bad habits in a week.
Growth Is An Incremental Process
When you're growing, you're moving steadily in one direction. This could mean gradually becoming a better parent; consistently working towards a promotion or career shift; getting a degree or other qualification.
Growth Needs Motivation
While changes can come from the outside, growth always comes from within you. Other people might support, help and encourage you - but ultimately, you have to want to grow. It takes energy and effort on a long-term basis ... which means you need to keep up your motivation.

Do You Need Change or Growth?

At some times in our life, we may need to face up to big, radical changes. These can sometimes be painful to endure or even to contemplate ... but on the other side lies a better life.

Other times, we're pretty much on track - we just need to keep going onwards, rather than getting complacent. This is when growth is called for. It can be a big mistake to assume that whenever things aren't perfect, you need to change ... sometimes, you just need to keep on in the same direction?

So which situation are you in and how can you figure out whether you need change or growth? For me, the best way to distinguish between the two is to consider whether the situation you're in could get better if you applied some thought and effort. If you feel that there's no realistic hope for it ever improving, it might be time for a radical change. This is especially so if your current actions are making the situation worse.

Here's an example that might have come up for you in the past (or which might arise in the future): you're considering leaving your current job.

CHANGE might be required if:

You got the first job you could find out of college, and you've never felt passionate about it

Your health (mental or physical) is suffering because of your job

You've found a passion which, if only you'd known about it years ago, you'd have followed as a career.

GROWTH might be required if:

You know the work your company does is important, but your role is getting boring

You're finding it hard to get on with your colleagues

You'd like to step up to the next level, within the same company

You can look at other situations in a similar way. Think about your finances: do you need to make radical changes (like cutting up your credit cards?) or do you simply need to grow (by learning more about financial topics, and by slowly increasing how much you save each month?) Or what about your relationship with your partner: if you're having problems, is this because change is needed (such as a separation, or a complete turn-around in how you relate to one another) or do you need to grow (by gradually seeking to become more patient, loving and understanding)?

There's no one-size-fits-all answer in matters of personal development, and one person may need to change fundamentally where another just needs to grow in a particular area. What are the big changes that you've made in the past - or that you know you need to make now? Where have you seen steady and incremental growth in your life?

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The Difference Between Change and Growth - And Knowing Which You Need

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Two words that get bandied about a lot in the personal development sphere are "change" and "growth". It's tempting to use "change" and "growth" in a woolly sort of way, meaning "living a better life", but in fact, they're quite different concepts.

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The Neuroscience of Growth Mindset and Intrinsic Motivation

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The Neuroscience of Growth Mindset and Intrinsic Motivation

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This study attempts to connect the research conducted on Growth Mindset by Carol Dweck and intrinsic motivation to neuroscientific evidence and its overall connection to a learner's achievement. "Growth mindset relates to brain processes, and brain processes relate to motivated behaviors. Likewise, motivated behaviors can affect cognition as motivation shapes what and how people think." (Ng, 2018)

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Abstract

Our actions can be triggered by intentions, incentives or intrinsic values. Recent neuroscientific research has yielded some results about the growth mindset and intrinsic motivation. With the advances in neuroscience and motivational studies, there is a global need to utilize this information to inform educational practice and research. Yet, little is known about the neuroscientific interplay between growth mindset and intrinsic motivation. This paper attempts to draw on the theories of growth mindset and intrinsic motivation, together with contemporary ideas in neuroscience, outline the potential for neuroscientific research in education. It aims to shed light on the relationship between growth mindset and intrinsic motivation in terms of supporting a growth mindset to facilitate intrinsic motivation through neural responses. Recent empirical research from the educational neuroscience perspective that provides insights into the interplay between growth mindset and intrinsic motivation will also be discussed.

Keywords: growth mindset, intrinsic motivation, education, neuroscience, neural

1. Introduction

With an emphasis on inquiry and scientific skills, students are encouraged to discover, produce and evaluate knowledge, using inquiry and scientific skills [ 1]. Such inquiry learning should be structured in a way that student learning is facilitated, while encouraging students to plan and conduct their own investigation. An autonomy-supportive environment facilitates autonomous learning, and fosters self-determined motivation in students [ 2]. Students learn to synthesize contradictory perspectives and rise to intellectual meta-levels of thinking, which is a crucial trait for the 21st-century operating environment [ 3]. As such, it is fundamental to nurture the young generation in becoming adaptive, self-regulated and self-determined.

In the 21st century, there has been a strong proliferation of research on growth mindset and intrinsic motivation in learning. The constructs of mindset and motivation have been important foci among educators seeking to positively impact student learning and outcomes. The underlying mechanism for students to have their own agency in finding out new knowledge is intrinsic motivation. However, much of this research has relied on quantitative approaches for assessing students' self-reports on motivational regulations and learning outcomes [ 4, 5]. Some of these quantitative findings are used to generalize across school settings. Although the multiple facets of student motivation and learning have been identified in quantitative analyses, they have not provided a detailed understanding of students' motivational processes. Neuroscience methods may offer new insights regarding students' motivation and learning processes.

Most neuroscience studies have focused on research related to cognitive functions, such as attention, memory and decision-making. In addition to these cognitive studies, there is also the implicit nature of mindsets that lead to the malleability of self-attributes (e.g., intelligence) [ 6]. Subtle feedback and messages related to growth mindset can have noticeable effects on students' attitudes and motivation that may transfer to long-term outcomes. Likewise, human motivation is important, as it is one's intrinsic desire to learn and obtain information. Growth mindset is the belief that intelligence can be nurtured through learning and effort, while intrinsic motivation is the volition to engage in a task for inherent satisfaction. Individuals with growth mindset believe that motivation can be nurtured, and that extrinsic motivation can be internalized (i.e., from extrinsic regulation to integrated regulation that is similar to intrinsically motivated behavior). In an integrative view, growth mindset and intrinsic motivation are important and interrelated, thus raising fundamental questions about the neural mechanisms of mindset-motivation interaction. The links among growth mindset, brain and motivation are important to academic performance. Therefore, it is important to draw on neuroscientific findings to show the way the brain is motivated, and how it learns by changing mindset (i.e., from a fixed to a growth mindset). Such intervention studies are still not common, and there is potential in these research areas.

This paper reviews the theoretical frameworks of growth mindset and intrinsic motivation, and how they are linked to neuroscientific evidence. It also reviews a number of recent neuroscience studies related to growth mindset and intrinsic motivation. It is important to survey the progress of neuroscience research on growth mindset and intrinsic motivation, as understanding the neural substrates will provide insights into human motivation and drive. Neuroscience research has the potential to support and refine models of motivation and cognitive skill. It may play a pivotal role in developing classroom interventions and understanding non-cognitive skills (e.g., mindset). Knowing the key brain regions that are associated with growth mindset and intrinsic motivation, researchers and practitioners could work together to investigate the granular processes of motivation in relation to growth mindset.

Most empirical research on growth mindset and intrinsic motivation has focused on behavioral methods and self-reports of experiences. There is little information about the internal processes of motivation at a higher level of resolution. It is, therefore, relevant and timely to examine the existing literature and empirical research that is associated with intrinsic motivation. Neuroscientific evidence has the potential to uncover new insights and refine the conceptual ideas of intrinsic motivation by articulating the granular processes of motivation that behavioral methods alone cannot afford. This paper offers recommendations for potential neuroscience research in studying growth mindset and intrinsic motivation.

2. Growth Mindset

Growth mindset is defined as a belief that construes intelligence as malleable and improvable [ 6]. Students with growth mindset are likely to learn by a mastery approach, embrace challenges and put in effort to learn. For instance, growth-minded individuals perceive task setbacks as a necessary part of the learning process and they "bounce back" by increasing their motivational effort [ 7, 8]. One recent study on elementary students showed that leveraging an online educational game (the BrainPOP website) with in-game rewards can promote a growth mindset by directly incentivizing effort and encouraging persistence in low performing students [ 7]. Learners with growth mindset tend to embrace lifelong learning and the joy of incremental personal growth. In addition, they do not see their intelligence or personality as fixed traits. They will mobilize their learning resources without being defeated by the threat of failure. This paper aims to provide some insights into the cultivation of resilience and mastery in university students, preparing them to overcome challenges in the real working world.

Empirical studies have revealed that growth mindset has positive effects on student motivation and academic performance [ 9, 10]. Recent research has also shown that mindset is related to student outcomes and behaviors including academic achievement, engagement, and willingness to attempt new challenges [ 11, 12]. Numerous studies have shown the effects of growth mindset interventions on students' achievement at all ages. According to Dweck [ 9], teaching growth mindset to junior high school students resulted in increased motivation and better academic achievement. Her findings revealed that students in the growth mindset intervention group outperformed those in the control group (who received excellent training in study skills), indicating improved learning and desire to work hard. The growth mindset intervention teaches students that intelligence is not a fixed quality [ 13]. Intelligence can be nurtured through challenging tasks, as intelligence grows with hard work on challenging problems. A growth mindset intervention was especially impactful with student outcomes in particular subjects such as science and mathematics [ 14].

An individual with a growth mindset works hard and improves without an incentive reward in mind as the outcome. The conceptualization of growth mindset is similar to that of intrinsic motivation. A learner with a growth mindset tends to self-regulate their own learning and has the propensity to cope with academic tasks. Hence, encouraging a growth mindset can improve the academic performance of college students [ 14, 15] and middle school math students [ 9].

Most of the abovementioned empirical studies reported the utility of questionnaires or self-report measures. There is still limited neuroscientific research on the neural mechanism of growth mindset. It is, therefore, important to examine data from other means such as neuroscientific information about how the brain changes with experience of learning and how it is associated to growth mindset. The subsequent sections will discuss the neuroscientific evidence of growth mindset.

3. Intrinsic Motivation

Numerous studies have examined the effects of intrinsic motivation, including the adaptive consequences for individuals such as exposing them to novel situations and developing their diverse competencies to cope with unforeseen circumstances [ 21]. In addition, intrinsic motivation is the propensity for individuals to learn about new subjects and to differentiate their interests, thereby fostering a sense of purpose and meaning [ 22]. Recent empirical findings have shown that intrinsic motivation is a key factor in academic achievement [ 23] and pursuit of interest [ 24], thus fostering learning and growth.

Over the past few decades, behavioral evidence has established the importance of intrinsic motivation and how it impacts one's learning. However, our understanding of the underlying mechanism of intrinsic motivation is still in its infancy, and it is unclear how one's intrinsic motivation progresses or changes over time. More evidence is needed to establish the mechanism of intrinsic motivation at a granular level. The recommendation is to include neuroscientific evidence to track and understand which aspects of one's learning progress determine intrinsic motivation, complementing the existing behavioral evidence. An approach of the neuroscience method is to foster intrinsically motivated behaviors based on task complexity in various contexts, thereby addressing intrinsic motivation through different forms of exploration. The following sections will discuss in detail the neuroscience methods and neuroscientific evidence of intrinsic motivation.

4. Neuroscience Methods

The main neuroscience methods that have been applied in motivation studies are electroencephalography (EEG) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Such neuroscientific research is still considered novel, as most motivational studies have focused on behavioral methods. Both neuroscientific techniques are non-invasive procedures for measuring brain activity. The key difference is fMRI has a higher spatial resolution than EEG, whereas EEG has a better temporal resolution than fMRI.

Neuroscience methods (e.g., fMRI) could provide insights into neural substrates of growth mindset and intrinsic motivation. We could measure the learner's brain activity and neural responses to a specific task in relation to internal processes of motivation. For instance, intrinsic motivation could be assessed by an experimental task or free-choice behavior measures.

The use of neuroscientific techniques enables us to focus on the learning process rather than the learning outcomes [ 29]. The neuroimaging findings offer an understanding of the brain, indicating the specific areas of brain activation which could in turn correlate with the behavioral results. As such, neuroimaging findings might support the self-reported data and explore brain regions with neural activation in relation to changes in performance during an online activity.

5. Neural Correlates of Growth Mindset and Intrinsic Motivation

There is a small body of existing growth mindset studies using neuroscience methods. The study by Moser et al. [ 30] suggested that individuals with a growth mindset are receptive to corrective feedback, exhibiting a higher Pe (error positivity) waveform response, which is correlated with a heightened awareness of and attention to mistakes. Enhanced Pe amplitude was associated with enhanced attention to corrective feedback following errors and subsequent error correction. Individuals with growth mindset are likely to have heightened awareness of and attention to errors. In addition, growth-minded individuals may neutralize the affective response to negative feedback, which could be indicated by neural activation. Anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) is the region of frontal midline cortex that is related to learning and control [ 31]. A recent study [ 32] found that growth mindset was related to both ventral and dorsal striatal connectivity with dorsal ACC. Dorsal ACC and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) are critical to error-monitoring and behavioral adaptation. Growth mindset was strongly associated with dorsal and ventral striatal connectivity, as well as DLPFC. Learners with growth mindset are efficient in error-monitoring and receptive to corrective feedback. Hence, growth mindset has the potential to encourage intrinsically motivated behaviors in schools and promote lifelong learning.

Neuroscientific evidence has shown that ACC is associated to cognitive control and motivation [ 31]. Neural correlates revealed that dopamine is critical for motivation and cognitive control, with motivation-cognition interactions between midbrain regions and lateral frontal cortex [ 33]. Cognitive control is influenced by reward motivation. Participants were assigned to three levels of cognitive controls (low, mid and high). Different beneficial effects of reward (high versus low) were exhibited. Participants with high versus low reward anticipation showed increased activity in the medial and lateral frontal cortex. Brain activity was also stronger at the low level of cognitive control than mid and high levels. These findings demonstrated that motivation plays an important role in the cognitive control. In addition, high-level control tasks may demand an enhancing effect of motivation.

A recent EEG study [ 34] showed that school children with growth mindset endorsement performed with higher accuracy after mistakes (i.e., post-error accuracy). The event-related potential (ERP), which is a measure of brain response due to the result of error and correct trials, revealed that Pe amplitude difference was largest at site Pz (i.e., midline parietal). Together with the behavioral data, correlational analyses showed that having a higher growth mindset was associated with a larger Pe difference. Students with attentional resources are able to remember their mistakes and able to make sense of their mistakes, thus correcting themselves during the learning process. Students do not like to take risks that show their weaknesses, such as making mistakes [ 35]. However, with growth mindset endorsement, students are not afraid to make mistakes, as they have the ability to learn with post-error accuracy. Hence, growth-minded students will be resilient and self-regulated when faced with obstacles or challenges during their learning process.

Little is known about the interplay between neural responses and intrinsic motivation. Intrinsically motivated action can be characterized by an individual's engagement in behavior for one's own sake, with free-choice time on a task [ 36]. An empirical study measured intrinsic motivation by examining a network of brain regions as the participants spent free-choice time on a word problem task [ 37]. Using fMRI, a network of brain regions revealed diminished task-related activity, predicting subsequent increased intrinsic motivation. The neuroimaging data suggest that decreased activation of neural cognitive control is associated with increased intrinsic motivation, thus extending one's task engagement. Another recent study by Lee and Reeve [ 38] examined the neural substrates of intrinsic motivation during task performance. Their findings showed activated anterior insular cortex (AIC; a limbic-related cortex region) when students performed intrinsically motivated tasks. These neural findings are consistent with the concept of intrinsic motivation in terms of pursuit and interest satisfaction as intrinsic rewards. Based on these findings, it was concluded that AIC activity and its functional interactions are linked to an intrinsic-motivation neural system [ 38].

Intrinsic motivation is associated with sensitivity of feedback processing in the striatum [ 41]. The striatum plays a key role in reinforcing learning as it receives input from midbrain dopamine neurons and produces adaptive behaviors. Striatum activity is associated with reward processing, indicating that an intrinsically motivated task could foster the individual's intrinsic motivation. For instance, feedback-related responses in the striatum can potentially promote or undermine intrinsic motivation of a desired behavior. Positive feedback was viewed as a rewarding outcome, and highly motivated subjects could attune to the feedback despite of fatigue through the study [ 41]. Performance-feedback may have affective salient response to striatum and produce a motivated behavior. A study by Lee [ 42] showed that intrinsic motivation was related to the AIC that is known to be associated with the sense of agency, while extrinsic motivation was associated with posterior parietal regions (e.g., posterior cingulate cortex, angular gyrus). The type of task also plays a very important role in activating the AIC. Lee [ 42] also found that interesting tasks activated the AIC and ventral striatum (i.e., brain region for reward processing), but not uninteresting tasks. AIC relates to the satisfaction of intrinsic need, whereas ventral striatum relates to the feeling of reward. His findings suggest that AIC and ventral striatum activations are associated with intrinsic motivation.

Intrinsic motivation is difficult to measure in an objective manner. In order to track one's intrinsic motivation, it requires one to perform an experimental task over time. For instance, one's brain activity can be tracked during the process of performing an intrinsically motivated or optimally challenged task. Together with behavioral measures, contemporary methods such as fMRI can be used to track the changes in intrinsic motivation during a free-choice activity.

6. The Neuroscientific Interplay between Growth Mindset and Intrinsic Motivation

Based on the abovementioned empirical findings, there is a distinctive neuroscientific interplay between growth mindset and intrinsic motivation. EEG findings could not directly show the brain regions that are related to mindset and motivation. Compared to the EEG, which is based on brain waveforms, fMRI is a better method for showing insights into the brain regions that are associated with growth mindset and intrinsic motivation. It is interesting to note that growth mindset is mainly associated with the dorsal regions of the brain, whereas intrinsic motivation is associated with the mid-brain regions. The common brain areas that are related to both growth mindset and intrinsic motivation are ACC and ventral striatum. Knowing the behavioral correlates for these two brain regions, potential research could investigate the neural correlates of growth mindset and intrinsic motivation. This brings us a step closer to understand the neural mechanism between growth mindset and intrinsic motivation. Below is a table that highlights the neuroscientific evidence of growth mindset and intrinsic motivation in relation to cognition. The behavioral correlate for the brain region is included in parentheses (see ).

Table 1

Growth Mindset (Behavior)

Intrinsic Motivation (Behavior)

Enhanced Pe amplitude (awareness and attention) [ 30, 34]

Enhanced SPN (engagement and enjoyment) [ 39]

DLPFC (error-monitoring and behavioral adaptation) [ 32]

Medial and lateral frontal cortex (cognitive control) [ 33]

Dorsal ACC (error-monitoring and behavioral adaptation) [ 32]

ACC (error-monitoring and behavioral adaptation) [ 37]

Dorsal and ventral striatum (intrinsic value of an action) [ 32]

Ventral striatum (intrinsic value of an action, reward processing) [ 40, 41, 42]

As our brain is plastic, it is able to undergo reorganization and development. Brain plasticity or neuroplasticity refers to the ability of our brain to change throughout our life. It is thereby important to understand how our brain changes if we undergo growth mindset intervention and whether there are changes in our intrinsic motivation as well. This phenomenon is yet to be explored in educational research. It is thus an avenue worth pursuing for educators who hope to make the best of their students with regard to learning and personal growth. Such educational neuroscience research may impact teaching and learning, thus providing a better understanding of the neuroscientific interplay between growth mindset and intrinsic motivation. Future educational neuroscience research may include classroom interventions such as a growth mindset induction and how it affects the neuroscience of intrinsic motivation.

7. Future Directions

The principal intent of this paper is to highlight a potential educational neuroscience research in areas of growth mindset and intrinsic motivation. Although there are some empirical studies on mindset and motivation, the neuroscience of intrinsic motivation is still unclear and at its infancy. There are also limited neuroscientific studies on students' motivation and learning. As educational neuroscience research looks promising in the near future, we should be aware of the potential integration between neuroscience methods and behavioral measures. For successful intervention studies, there are some considerations that need to be warranted.

First, educators should design a task that has intrinsic value for students to be engaged in doing. For instance, an interesting task will instill curiosity into students, when compared to an uninteresting one. Inculcating the value of doing the task or task value will definitely stimulate the students' interest. Second, teachers should provide the autonomy or choice for students. Autonomy or the agency of learning is the key substrate to intrinsic motivation [ 17]. Research has shown that autonomy is the strongest predictor of intrinsic motivation [ 47]. Autonomy is considered the self-endorsement of actions, whereby individuals feel less coerced and they generate autonomous behavior at work or school. In the same vein, choice is the opportunity for individuals to decide and exert control over the situation. A recent study found that the provision of choice, however trivial or inconsequential, might also increase an individual's intrinsic motivation [ 48]. The researchers used behavioral and electrophysiological (i.e., electroencephalogram) evidence to explain the importance of need satisfaction for autonomy to enhance one's intrinsic motivation toward the task.

Third and finally, performance-related feedback could influence intrinsic motivation [ 41]. Participants are likely to perceive their performance on the task differently based on the type of performance-related feedback. For instance, positive feedback may enhance one's intrinsic motivation, while negative feedback may undermine one's motivation. In addition, the frequency of performance-related feedback may affect one's neural processing (i.e., posterior cingulate cortex) in supporting task performance. There were enhanced activity of posterior cingulate cortex and performance gains after the performance-feedback manipulation. This shows that posterior cingulate cortex might facilitate the learning of a task [ 41]. The current level of a learner's intrinsic motivation may also influence the way he or she processes the performance-related feedback. It is still not fully clear how the nature of performance-feedback could affect an individual's feedback processing. Perhaps neuroscience methods could provide some insights into this area of research.

Based on the neuroscientific evidence, there is an undermining effect of monetary reward on intrinsic motivation; that is, one's intrinsic motivation is undermined when extrinsic reward is no longer promised [ 26]. Neuroscience findings suggest that there are connections between the striatum and the prefrontal cortex in determining the outcome; decreased activation of the striatum and midbrain when the subjects do not get the task value, as well as decreased activation of the lateral prefrontal cortex (LPFC) when they are not motivated to show cognitive engagement with the task. Since growth mindset is a belief system that favors hard work and performance monitoring [ 32], a learner's subjective belief in determining the outcome may modulate activity of the striatum, in response to cognitive feedback that nurtures growth mindset. Hence, neuroscientific evidence may provide insights into the learning and motivational processes that could be helpful for teachers and practitioners in improving their learning and teaching practices, thus supporting student learning and motivation.

8. Concluding Remarks

This paper reviewed the recent empirical neuroscientific studies on growth mindset and intrinsic motivation. Research in these areas is still in its infancy. This paper attempted to provide an overview of the underlying mechanism between growth mindset and intrinsic motivation. Educating students about growth mindset and how they can improve their learning experience is a step toward increased intrinsic motivation in our society. From a personal perspective, intrinsic motivation is the key substrate to learning and development. The promotion of a growth mindset can nurture individuals to learn as they understand that intelligence is malleable. It is important that, as teachers, we show our students the value and importance of learning at schools. With a growth mindset, students will learn with a positive attitude, and they will identify the importance of the contents. Teachers should also embrace a growth mindset such that they will understand the importance of providing autonomy over student learning to enhance self-regulation. As such, students will be more motivated to learn subjects at school, rather than relying on the presumption that students will be interested in learning. This preliminary review paper offers a useful road map for identifying the areas that need to be addressed in neuroscientific research related to growth mindset and intrinsic motivation. However, this paper did not discuss the potential roles of socio-demographic variables and personality traits on growth mindset and intrinsic motivation. Future research will benefit from the continued development of neuroscientific evidence to connect the substantial behavioral evidence of these variables and traits associated with growth mindset and intrinsic motivation.

Acknowledgments

Thanks to all reviewers who contributed to improving the manuscript.

Conflicts of Interest

The author declares no conflict of interest.

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The Neuroscience of Growth Mindset and Intrinsic Motivation

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Our actions can be triggered by intentions, incentives or intrinsic values. Recent neuroscientific research has yielded some results about the growth mindset and intrinsic motivation. With the advances in neuroscience and motivational studies, there is a global need to utilize this information to inform educational practice and research.

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Why does our bodies have a physiological reaction to change? When administrators make changes in how teachers do things, a common response is heard "I don't have time for this!" This article explains the brains response to change and why we tend to resist change.  It explains not only the fear people often have associated with change but it also explains why many of us will say "I don't have time for this!"

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Looking to help your team navigate the brain on virtual change? We're happy to share inspiration for finding a new path forward. Complete the form below or give us a call at 859-415-1000.
Do you wish you could read someone's mind? If you've ever been responsible for change leadership, you've probably wanted to know exactly what your stakeholders are thinking. As far as I know, mind-reading technology is not yet available to us. Thankfully, we do have the next best thing: neuroscience, the scientific study of the human nervous system. This ever-growing field continues to expand our understanding of the brain and provide insights into how humans think, feel, and behave. Given its focus, it's no surprise that neuroscience is now being applied to change leadership and management.
The following insights and accompanying tips won't make you a mind reader, but they may help you become a mind translator-someone who understands what the brain thinks when faced with change and knows how to work with the brain to better facilitate change leadership in an organization.

People are rational-and emotional-and impulsive.

OK, quick science lesson. The human brain is the product of millions of years of evolution. It continually adapted and evolved over time to survive in constantly changing circumstances. Because of these evolutionary developments, the brain is often described as three brains in one.

1. Primitive or reptilian brain: The oldest part of the brain that controls the body's vital functions; it's adept at sensing threats and danger.

2. Limbic or social brain: Developed in mammals to survive in a social world, such as bonding with a mother and cooperating with members of a tribe. It senses fairness and passes judgment.

3. Neocortex or human brain: Develops language, is capable of vast learning, conceives of time, and plans for the future. It also mitigates the impulses of the primitive and limbic brains.

Tip: When planning change leadership, understand that you're dealing with three brains in one person, and each brain has a different trigger. So, be sure to minimize surprises (primitive), be as equitable as possible (limbic), and create meaningful opportunities for people to conceptualize the future state (neocortex). This approach will reduce the impulsive and emotional responses of the primitive and limbic brain, and will encourage the adaptable and self-regulating capabilities of the neocortex.

Brains hardwire repeated behavior.

Fun fact: Your brain uses 20 percent of your total energy every single day. To help conserve energy, the brain has learned to hardwire repeated behaviors so they become automatic, rather than making the brain "work" to complete them, which would use up precious energy.
When a person learns to do something, such as typing on a keyboard, their brain develops connection points across the brain that enable their fingers to tap out letters, words, and sentences. Repeat this over and over and that person no longer has to "think" to type. Now, imagine the QWERTY keyboard was replaced with a "better" designed keyboard, and to use it requires a new way of typing. The brain doesn't like this; it invested lots of energy to enable the current way of typing. So, the brain releases noxious neurochemicals when a person attempts the new behavior, such as using the pinky finger to hit the spacebar. The brain is screaming: "Stop! That's not how we do this," because it wants to stay in autopilot and conserve energy.
Tip: People's brains must develop new neural connections to enact new behaviors. This is physically draining work. Change programs must account for the time, space, and resources people need to get their brains wired for the future state.

Mental models are hardwired too.

Contradictions to a mental model can be a major energy drain on the brain.

Just like behaviors, a person's mental model, or way of thinking, is hardwired in their brain as well. Contradictions to a mental model can be a major energy drain on the brain. To save energy, the brain either ignores the inconsistent information or seeks out confirming information. It also sends strong, pleasure-inducing neurochemicals when a person confirms their way of thinking. Neuroscientists have a saying for this: "They only hear what they want to hear."
Tip: Communicating change is a two-way street: You want your people to be able to articulate the new organizational framework for themselves. Otherwise, their brains will either ignore the new message or only hear the parts that confirm how they already think.

Neuroscience helps you translate resistance.

It's tempting to assign labels to people's resistance to change, many of which are not positive: fear, stubbornness, backward thinking. When you view resistance through the lens of neuroscience, you can translate that resistance into something more human: avoiding danger, demanding fairness, protecting finite energy resources. These characteristics enabled the survival of our species. By learning how the brain functions, change practitioners can become mind translators who work with the brain, not against it, to better facilitate change.
Want to learn more about the neuroscience of change and how you can use it to enable better performance? We wrote the book on it (literally). It's called "The Social Cognitive Neuroscience of Leading Organizational Change: TiER1 Performance Solutions' Guide for Managers and Consultants," by Dr. Robert Snyder, Senior Neuroscience Advisor at TiER1. Check it out!

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Looking to help your team navigate the brain on virtual change? We're happy to share inspiration for finding a new path forward. Complete the form below or give us a call at 859-415-1000. Do you wish you could read someone's mind?