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Briggs, E. (2019, July 16). How to Give Feedback With a Growth-Mindset Approach. NeuroLeadership Institute. https://neuroleadership.com/your-brain-at-work/feedback-strategies-growth-mindset/

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Dweck, C. (2020, April 2). Carol Dweck Revisits the “Growth Mindset.” Education Week. https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2015/09/23/carol-dweck-revisits-the-growth-mindset.html?qs=carol+dweck

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Carol Dweck, a leading researcher in the education field, created the terms fixed and growth mindset. A growth mindset is a belief about learning and intelligence. According to Mindset Works (2017), "when students believe they can get smarter, they understand that effort makes them stronger. Therefore they put in extra time and effort, and that leads to higher achievement." Learners recognize that rigorous learning experiences lead to this development in intelligence.

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A fixed mindset is when learners do not view learning opportunities with a positive attitude. They are stuck in their negative experiences and do not have the perseverance to continue to improve. Their belief about how intelligence is constructed is fixed and does not develop.

A growth mindset focuses on the fact that learners do have the perseverance and will to improve upon a prior learning experience. They embrace the opportunity to continue to improve, even when things are difficult. Intelligence can be developed and improved upon as rigorous tasks are practiced.

"Two Mindsets"- Carol S. Dweck, Ph.D.
Graphic by Nigel Holmes

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Dweck, C. S., & Holmes, N. (2017). Two Mindsets [Graphic]. Mindset Works. https://www.mindsetworks.com/science/Impact

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Mindset Works. (2017). The Growth Mindset - What is Growth Mindset - Mindset Works. https://www.mindsetworks.com/science/Default

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Growth and Mastery Mindset Field Experience

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Growth and Mastery Mindset Field Experience

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This field experience focuses on learners in PreK-5th grade. Teaching students to value effort and making improvements in their learning can make the difference in a child's view of their ability to learn. If a child develops a fixed mindset at a young age, it will be more challenging to make gains towards developing a growth mindset towards learning. On the other hand, students that have a growth mindset at a young age have the ability to put forth effort to achieve mastery in the learning contents.

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Retakes and recovery are essential for learners to have another chance at looking over concepts that they might have missed the first time around. Students can be pulled into specific small groups to receive instruction on a concept they did not fully understand with a new instructional strategy. Giving students this second chance to demonstrate their learning is crucial. However, don't forget to celebrate the wins too! Most of the time, students are recovering when they have mastered 60-70% of the standards. This deserves to be acknowledged and used to track progress towards growth and mastery mindset.

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Students can establish goals to make progress towards their content area success. They can also make goals in how they are going to shift from a fixed mindset to a growth and mastery mindset. Students can put in goals about effort, positive word choice, establishing perseverance, etc. Look below for some links to goal setting cards focused around growth mindset for learners from Pre-K to 5th grade.
PreK-2nd goal cards
3rd- 5th goal cards

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3. Feedback and Correction (Just-in-Time Direct Instruction)

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3. Feedback and Correction (Just-in-Time Direct Instruction)

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Feedback and correction should be done consistently in any classroom. Just-in-time direct instruction that meets students where they are at and maximizes the concepts taught allows for students to continue to develop their conceptual knowledge. Just-in-time direct instruction should be done after introduction and review, modeling, guided practice, closure of the lesson, and independent practice. This will give the teacher a pretty good lens on where students are at and where students need to move to on the direct instruction ladder. Praise the process and improvement that students are using, not just getting correct answers. Doing this will help students see the value in the effort. According to Briggs (2019), "when we recognize the effort and persistence behind a good result, rather than attributing it to innate qualities, our feedback is more meaningful, and encourages the recipient to revisit those positive behaviors when faced with their next challenges." Additionally, feedback and correction on how students are progressing on their growth mindset goals will help continue to establish a classwide community focused on growth mindset.

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Giving feedback is a perennial challenge in the workplace.

Research has shown that while 60% of employees want regular feedback from their bosses, only 50% of managers are able to deliver constructive feedback - and understandably so. A lot of managers worry about negative reactions to feedback conversations, and shy away from opportunities to provide important information.

But there does seem to be an antidote. Research shows that growth mindset, the belief that skills can be improved with time and effort, can equip us with tools to provide meaningful and supportive feedback, and make the conversation rewarding for both parties.

Praising the process

When we tell a colleague or employee that they're "good at" a specific task, we're using the language of fixed mindset: the belief that talents are intrinsic rather than malleable. By contrast, when we provide positive feedback on the strategies that led the person to success, we encourage a growth mindset, helping the recipient view feedback as an opportunity to hone an ever-evolving skillset.

Leaders can foster growth mindset by rewarding improvement rather than results. For instance, when praising a teammate for a job well done, be sure to highlight the journey they took rather than an award or contract they may have won. When we recognize the effort and persistence behind a good result, rather than attributing it to innate qualities, our feedback is more meaningful, and encourages the recipient to revisit those positive behaviors when faced with their next challenge.

Learning the language

The language of growth mindset is a powerful tool to help teams provide and receive feedback more easily. When we shift our team's language, such as by recasting "negative" feedback as "developmental," we keep everyone's brain in what scientists call a toward state, where a person is focused on reward rather than risk. In a toward state, people are more likely to view feedback as an opportunity to grow and improve, instead of as a threat. And a little goes a long way: We can build growth mindset with changes as simple as adding the word "yet" to key sentences (as in, "I don't know how to do that, yet.").

Encourage your teammates to reach out to one another for feedback more often, and talk to them about how to deliver it using the language of growth mindset. When we shift the focus to "getting better" rather than "being good," we make space for growth mindset to flourish in everyday attitudes and conversations.

What growth mindset makes possible

" Transforming Performance Management with a Growth Mindset Approach," the latest white paper from the NeuroLeadership Institute, offers an expanded look into the role that growth mindset plays in successful workplace interactions. Combining research and real-life corporate experiences, the paper outlines the key benefits of a growth mindset for feedback conversations and more.

When a team shifts its mindset around feedback, managers and employees are also able to have more successful performance management conversations. If an employee views an annual review with a fixed mindset, it becomes a source of threat, and can cause anxiety or fear. However, with a shift to a growth mindset, a performance conversation becomes one more opportunity to recognize improvement and suggest areas of growth and development in a positive setting.

Learn more about what growth mindset can do for you and your team by grabbing a copy of the white paper today, and explore what is possible when we adjust how we understand feedback.

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How to Give Feedback With a Growth-Mindset Approach

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Giving feedback is a perennial challenge in the workplace. Research has shown that while 60% of employees want regular feedback from their bosses, only 50% of managers are able to deliver constructive feedback - and understandably so.

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Frequent formative assessments in the classroom allow for teachers and students to monitor progress routinely. Teachers are able to check in with students and help them continue to practice skills that need to be reinforced or extend their practice to a higher level of thinking. Using these in the classroom help students pinpoint their strengths and weaknesses. Using this as a strategy in the classroom can help learner struggles by catching the mistakes quickly.

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Social & Emotional Learning (SEL)

Veteran researchers present five strategies-like maintaining success files and allowing choice-to help struggling students develop a positive attitude needed for success.

© Shutterstock.com/VLADGRIN

As researchers and teacher educators, we have found that a gift many effective educators give struggling students is a practical and optimistic mindset coupled with strategies that help them learn successfully. Over the last two decades, we have supported teachers in teaching students about their brilliant brains and in showing students strategies to support positive outlooks about their learning capabilities.

Our research aligns well with Carol Dweck's work on growth mindset, or acting on the belief that abilities can be developed through dedication and hard work. In a previous post, we discussed the importance of growth mindset for teachers.

Now we turn to the benefits of helping students who find school difficult maintain a positive mindset as they persist in the sometimes hard work required for learning. When failures mount, it's easy to give up. A positive mindset focuses on the gains that are possible when students persevere through learning challenges. Here are five strategies to help struggling students develop a growth mindset.

Model practical optimism and point out examples of this approach in action; for example, say, "We knew this would be a tough project, but we stuck with it and worked hard. Just look at what we've accomplished!"

Share examples of how you have overcome learning obstacles. It's helpful for struggling students to realize that everyone occasionally faces learning challenges.

Share stories that illustrate the benefits of practical optimism.

Maintain a positive learning atmosphere by posing questions such as "What was the best thing that happened today?"

Encouraging Optimism About Learning

This outlook helps struggling students become more motivated, alert, and ready to learn, so that neurotransmitters that enable learning can be released. Many students who have learning challenges become pessimistic about school and lose hope that they can make academic progress. These teaching strategies help reinforce how useful it can be to develop a state of practical optimism:

In previous posts, we've discussed cultivating practical optimism in the classroom and in schools generally.

Teaching Students to Learn More Effectively

When struggling students learn how to "drive their brains" through the use of cognitive strategies, they're more likely to be able to learn and think at higher levels. Teachers often tell us they need strategies for helping students learn how to increase their attention. Our post " Strategies for Getting and Keeping the Brain's Attention" offers tried-and-true strategies to support teachers with this common classroom issue. And Edutopia's " Resources on Learning and the Brain " features other easy-to-use strategies for assisting students to learn more effectively.

1. Give every student a folder to use as a success file.

2. Ask students to write the word success on their file and/or draw a picture that represents success for them.

3. Every day, when possible, ask students to add to their folders examples of successful learning, such as tasks completed, examples of learning gains, and assignments that support their personal definitions of success.

4. At the start of each school day or class, remind students to look through their success file. The more students can reconnect to their previous achievements, the more positive their mindsets can become and the more successful they'll be in the long run.

Maintaining Success Files

A success file is a continually updated collection that provides ready evidence to help students internalize and remember their learning successes. Here is one way to use this strategy:

Using Growth Assessments

Growth assessments is the term we use for formative assessments that help guide student learning and monitor progress. Students with learning challenges benefit when teachers check in often and provide additional instruction and feedback when necessary. Growth assessments help students identify their strengths and areas of weakness that need further practice and reinforcement, and may include class discussions, interviews with individual students, consultations on drafts of work, and observations of how students are applying what they've learned. Students may use self-assessments such as journal entries and personal checklists so they can be prompted to monitor their progress. Keeping track of their growth, including learning challenges they have overcome, helps to foster a growth mindset.

Letting Students Choose

When students can choose topics of personal interest to study or make the subject of a learning project, they are more likely to maintain interest and motivation. Giving students choices also underscores that they are in charge of their learning.

One of the greatest thrills for teachers is to see the light bulb switch on for struggling students as they learn something new and internalize the belief that through effort and the use of sound strategies they can keep growing their skills and knowledge.

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Helping Struggling Students Build a Growth Mindset

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Veteran researchers present five strategies-like maintaining success files and allowing choice-to help struggling students develop a positive attitude needed for success.

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2. Acknowledge and Celebrating Mistakes When Grading

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2. Acknowledge and Celebrating Mistakes When Grading

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Grading in the traditional sense used to mean a red pen that would markup a page to highlight everything that was wrong on an assignment. This can produce a low sense of self-esteem in students. There is a new strategy going around for grading that celebrates the mistakes and praises the process. Teachers can mark mistakes with smiley faces and where students tried to work out the problems. Drawing positivity towards these mistakes will encourage students and remove the stigma that paints mistakes in a negative light.

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Carol Dweck coined the idea of the power of yet. She came across this when a high school in Chicago used the grade "not yet" if students could not master the units required.
Implementing the power of yet in a school or classroom can help students learn that although they might not yet have mastered the concept, there is still a possibility that they can and will later on. Look below to hear more about Carol Dweck's idea of the power of yet.

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Developing a Growth Mindset with Carol Dweck

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At Manning Oaks, we use read alouds to teach growth mindset. One of the read alouds that teaches this well is, "The Thing Lou Couldn't Do." It focuses on when things are difficult, you might not be able to do that thing yet. However, this is potential to grow in this area of difficulty. Look below for a list of read alouds that teach how to develop the power of yet and other growth mindset strategies.

Growth Mindset Read Alouds

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THE THING THAT LOU COULDN'T DO Read Aloud Book for Kids

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3. Focusing on Establishing and Developing Persistence

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3. Focusing on Establishing and Developing Persistence

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Persistence is a key component to developing a growth and mastery mindset. Students who practice persistence model positive talk, a willingness to approach challenges, are determined to master concepts, and have a high self-efficacy.
Use the graphic within in the link below titled, "How to Encourage Students" created by Carol Dweck (2015) to hang in your classroom or share with your grade level to change how teachers speak with students. See how you can adapt this graphic to model how students should speak to other students to encourage growth and mastery mindset in the learning environment.

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Opinion

For many years, I secretly worked on my research. I say "secretly" because, once upon a time, researchers simply published their research in professional journals-and there it stayed.

However, my colleagues and I learned things we thought people needed to know. We found that students' mindsets-how they perceive their abilities-played a key role in their motivation and achievement, and we found that if we changed students' mindsets, we could boost their achievement. More precisely, students who believed their intelligence could be developed (a growth mindset) outperformed those who believed their intelligence was fixed (a fixed mindset). And when students learned through a structured program that they could "grow their brains" and increase their intellectual abilities, they did better. Finally, we found that having children focus on the process that leads to learning (like hard work or trying new strategies) could foster a growth mindset and its benefits.

So a few years back, I published my book Mindset: The New Psychology of Success to share these discoveries with educators. And many educators have applied the mindset principles in spectacular ways with tremendously gratifying results.

This is wonderful, and the good word continues to spread. But as we've watched the growth mindset become more popular, we've become much wiser about how to implement it. This learning-the common pitfalls, the misunderstandings, and what to do about them-is what I'd like to share with you, so that we can maximize the benefits for our students.

A growth mindset isn't just about effort. Perhaps the most common misconception is simply equating the growth mindset with effort. Certainly, effort is key for students' achievement, but it's not the only thing. Students need to try new strategies and seek input from others when they're stuck. They need this repertoire of approaches-not just sheer effort-to learn and improve.

We also need to remember that effort is a means to an end to the goal of learning and improving. Too often nowadays, praise is given to students who are putting forth effort, but not learning, in order to make them feel good in the moment: "Great effort! You tried your best!" It's good that the students tried, but it's not good that they're not learning. The growth-mindset approach helps children feel good in the short and long terms, by helping them thrive on challenges and setbacks on their way to learning. When they're stuck, teachers can appreciate their work so far, but add: "Let's talk about what you've tried, and what you can try next."

Recently, someone asked what keeps me up at night. It's the fear that the mindset concepts, which grew up to counter the failed self-esteem movement, will be used to perpetuate that movement. In other words, if you want to make students feel good, even if they're not learning, just praise their effort! Want to hide learning gaps from them? Just tell them, "Everyone is smart!" The growth mindset was intended to help close achievement gaps, not hide them. It is about telling the truth about a student's current achievement and then, together, doing something about it, helping him or her become smarter.

I also fear that the mindset work is sometimes used to justify why some students aren't learning: "Oh, he has a fixed mindset." We used to blame the child's environment or ability.

Must it always come back to finding a reason why some children just can't learn, as opposed to finding a way to help them learn? Teachers who understand the growth mindset do everything in their power to unlock that learning.

A few years ago, my colleague in Australia, Susan Mackie, detected an outbreak of what she called "false growth mindset." She was seeing educators who claimed to have a growth mindset, but whose words and actions didn't reflect it. At first, I was skeptical. But before long, I saw it, too, and I understood why.

In many quarters, a growth mindset had become the right thing to have, the right way to think. It was as though educators were faced with a choice: Are you an enlightened person who fosters students' well-being? Or are you an unenlightened person, with a fixed mindset, who undermines them? So, of course, many claimed the growth-mindset identity. But the path to a growth mindset is a journey, not a proclamation.

Let's look at what happens when teachers, or parents, claim a growth mindset, but don't follow through. In recent research, Kathy Liu Sun found that there were many math teachers who endorsed a growth mindset and even said the words "growth mindset" in their middle school math classes, but did not follow through in their classroom practices. In these cases, their students tended to endorse more of a fixed mindset about their math ability. My advisee and research collaborator Kyla Haimovitz and I are finding many parents who endorse a growth mindset, but react to their children's mistakes as though they are problematic or harmful, rather than helpful. In these cases, their children develop more of a fixed mindset about their intelligence.

Kathy Liu Sun: Stop Killing Kids' Math Curiosity

How can we help educators adopt a deeper, true growth mindset, one that will show in their classroom practices? You may be surprised by my answer: Let's legitimize the fixed mindset. Let's acknowledge that (1) we're all a mixture of fixed and growth mindsets, (2) we will probably always be, and (3) if we want to move closer to a growth mindset in our thoughts and practices, we need to stay in touch with our fixed-mindset thoughts and deeds.

If we "ban" the fixed mindset, we will surely create false growth-mindsets. (By the way, I also fear that if we use mindset measures for accountability, we will create false growth mindsets on an unprecedented scale.) But if we watch carefully for our fixed-mindset triggers, we can begin the true journey to a growth mindset.

What are your triggers?
Watch for a fixed-mindset reaction when you face challenges. Do you feel overly anxious, or does a voice in your head warn you away? Watch for it when you face a setback in your teaching, or when students aren't listening or learning. Do you feel incompetent or defeated? Do you look for an excuse? Watch to see whether criticism brings out your fixed mindset. Do you become defensive, angry, or crushed instead of interested in learning from the feedback? Watch what happens when you see an educator who's better than you at something you value. Do you feel envious and threatened, or do you feel eager to learn? Accept those thoughts and feelings and work with and through them. And keep working with and through them.

My colleagues and I are taking a growth-mindset stance toward our message to educators. Maybe we originally put too much emphasis on sheer effort. Maybe we made the development of a growth mindset sound too easy. Maybe we talked too much about people having one mindset or the other, rather than portraying people as mixtures. We are on a growth-mindset journey, too.

Published in Print: September 23, 2015, as Growth Mindset, Revisited

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Carol Dweck Revisits the 'Growth Mindset'

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Opinion For many years, I secretly worked on my research. I say "secretly" because, once upon a time, researchers simply published their research in professional journals-and there it stayed. However, my colleagues and I learned things we thought people needed to know.

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This website provides articles, videos, and podcasts about the different aspects of growth mindset. It walks through each step of what it is, how to build a culture of growth mindset, provides suggested reading, articles, and podcasts, and next steps.

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Growth mindset helps us learn better. It’s important to understand what it is and how to build a growth mindset within yourself and others

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Ragan, T., & Belser, A. (2020, June 21). Growth Mindset - What it is and how to build it. The Learner Lab. https://thelearnerlab.com/growth-mindset/

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An professional development program filled with online lessons, resources, and practices to foster a growth mindset in your learners. This program was created by a research center in the psychology department at Stanford University named the Project for Education Research that Scales (PERTS). It is geared towards teachers, parents, and mentors that are interested in instilling growth mindset values.

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The Mindset Kit is a free set of online lessons and practices designed to help you teach and foster adaptive beliefs about learning.

Sign up to receive updates & join our community
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Mindset Kit - Resources for growth and learning mindsets

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A free resource for educators and parents who want to foster learning mindsets such as growth mindset. Follow lessons and practices from experts and members of our community.

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Class Dojo is most widely known for its communication features to keep parents, students, and teachers connected. It is also very useful for classroom management and establishing a positive reward system. There is also a series of growth mindset videos that Class Dojo and Stanford's PERTS research department collaborated on. It is a great resource to use in your classroom to support development of growth mindset.

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ClassDojo and Stanford's PERTS Research Center teamed up to create the the first season of The Mojo Show. The five-episode video series (along with a few incredible activities) highlight the power of having a growth mindset, and how any student can learn this skill!

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ClassDojo and Stanford's PERTS Research Center teamed up to create the the first season of The Mojo Show. The five-episode video series (along with a few incredible activities) highlight the power of having a growth mindset, and how any student can learn this skill!

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Read Aloud Kids Book Time. (2019, January 19). THE THING THAT LOU COULDN’T DO Read Aloud Book for Kids [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/WLdAXyZ7_iQ

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Stanford Alumni. (2014, October 9). Developing a Growth Mindset with Carol Dweck [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/hiiEeMN7vbQ

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Wilson, D., & Conyers, M. (2017, January 18). Helping Struggling Students Build a Growth Mindset. Edutopia. https://www.edutopia.org/article/helping-struggling-students-build-growth-mindset-donna-wilson-marcus-conyers