A Growth Mindset vs. Fixed Mindset: Moving from I Can’t to I Can
I can’t do it. I’m an immovable object, unable to get unstuck. There’s no hope. My world is literally–but not literally, literally–ending. All of these expressions are the hallmarks of a mindset fixed in place, one that does not embody a growth mindset and growth mindset characteristics. Indeed, when we hear or think these things, we are inhabiting a growth mindset versus a fixed mindset.
A Growth Mindset Defined
So what’s growth mindset? For a growth mindset definition, let’s look at what Carol Dweck, a smarty in the psychology field, notes about growth mindset: Those who have growth mindset characteristics are “Individuals who believe their talents can be developed (through hard work, good strategies, and input from others).”
This growth mindset in the classroom can be helpful because, as Carol Dweck contends, people with growth mindsets “tend to achieve more than those with a more fixed mindset (those who believe their talents are innate gifts).”
A growth mindset example, then, would be a student who believes that he/she/they can improve, can learn, can–get this–grow.
A student with this growth mindset looks at new challenges and learning in the classroom as opportunities, not insurmountable obstacles.
Growth Mindset Teaching: 17 Ideas to Grow a Growth Mindset Versus Fixed Mindset
This brings us to growth mindset teaching. One of the growth mindset questions people ask is if growth mindset can be taught in the classroom.
And, if so, how?
Books on growth mindset will tell you that, yes, it can be taught. But teaching needs to be more than posting growth mindset quotes, growth mindset affirmations, and growth mindset memes on a growth mindset bulletin board in the classroom.
This is a habit of mind to build, not a banal expression to be shared. So how, then, do we help students learn growth mindset strategies that help them grow?
Let’s list some ways to encourage growth vs. fixed mindset…
Growth Mindset Idea #1:
Encourage students to embrace challenges and view mistakes as opportunities for growth. Ask students to turn oops! into ah-ha! by giving them permission to take risks, fail, reflect, learn, and try again.
This teacher’s encouragement goes beyond platitudes, however.
How are we designing our class to support risk-taking and reflection? For instance, do students get a chance to revise assessments and use feedback we’ve given them or do they get a score and move on?
Growth Mindset Idea #2:
Speaking of feedback, provide specific feedback on areas where students can improve, rather than simply praising their achievements.
Yes, it feels good to know what you’ve done well–but yes, it also feels good to know someone cares enough about you to help you grow. Let’s give students feedback so that they can feed forward.
Growth Mindset Idea #3:
Use rubrics, then, to help students understand where they are and where they can go.
Think of it this way–if you get a paper back that says 20/21 points, you know you did well (it’s almost a perfect score!). But you don’t know what, specifically, you did well, and you don’t know why you missed that one point.
With a rubric, though, students can see where they achieved, courtesy of the columns and rows centered on specific skills and score criteria, and have a better idea of how they can grow.
Growth Mindset Idea #4:
When it comes to rubrics, let students create or modify them. To help them understand how to grow, help them understand the expectations of their audience. Have them use the rubric to self-assess and provide feedback to others. If we teach students to think about their own learning goals using a rubric, we can help them use strategies to achieve them.
Growth Mindset Idea #5:
Teach students to identify and challenge their own fixed mindsets and negative self-talk.
When they go negative, we go positive.
When students begin to say “I can’t,” we can turn them to “I can.”
Here, too, with rubrics we can design them in a student-friendly way that notes “I can” statements in relation to skills. (For example, I can identify a theme of a text.) By framing skills and learning targets as “I can” statements, students use the language of a growth mindset.
Growth Mindset Idea #6:
Encourage students to seek out feedback and advice from peers and mentors. Learning can happen everywhere, and one never knows what they can learn from whom. So let’s give students plenty of opportunities to get feedback from real-live audiences.
This feedback can then help learners revise, edit, redo to meet their audience’s expectations. Even just the act of revision itself is an indicator of students’ growth mindset characteristics, as revision says to the audience, “I care, and I can do better.”
Growth Mindset Idea #7:
Use real-world examples of individuals who have overcome obstacles and achieved success through perseverance and effort. Give students a list of celebrities, sports stars, politicians, and changemakers who’ve risen above–people like actor Robert Downey Jr., Olympic athlete Kerri Strug, Senator John McCain, and activist Malala Yousafzai.
(Or better yet, as an activity for growth mindsets, have students brainstorm a list of people in their lives who embody a growth mindset and growth mindset characteristics.)
Students can reflect on what would have happened if these people had a fixed mindset versus a growth mindset. (Spoiler: we probably wouldn’t be talking about them today if that was the case!)
Growth Mindset Idea #8:
Use a variety of activities in the classroom to encourage metacognition, self-reflection, and goal-setting. You can have students develop a growth mindset habit by journaling every week, thinking about “good things,” and more. Check out the growth mindset activities and product bundle below for fun ideas and inspiration.
Growth Mindset Idea #9:
Provide opportunities for students to collaborate and learn from one another.
Try a peer review, for example, or a Socratic Seminar as part of growth mindset activities.
Let students see learning as a collaborative process with people at different stages in the learning journey.
Growth Mindset Idea #10:
Celebrate progress and effort, rather than just final outcomes.
Sure, it would be easy to send an email home and let parents know a student’s final score and that he/she/they did well on a paper or project–but how powerful would a work-in-progress comment be?
Imagine letting a parent know how hard a student’s working to meet a goal–how might that further motivate a student to keep pushing until the end?
Growth Mindset Idea #11:
Give students time (and directives, especially when it’s foreign to them) to reflect on their learning and identify areas of growth.
If you are using a rubric like we discussed earlier, don’t wait until the end product to try it out; have students self-assess their work now. What do they notice? What should they do about it?
Ask students for a fist-of-five or an exit-ticket to show you how they are progressing (1 = I’m stuck and need a hand from you to 5 = I’m cruising and will let you know if I need anything).
Growth Mindset Idea #12:
Don’t give them the answers; instead, see what they can do to come up with answers by encouraging them to experiment with different approaches and strategies to solve problems.
Certainly, we could give students a graphic organizer with boxes to fill out to complete their essay–but does this foster a growth mindset in high school classrooms? I’d argue not really!
If students just see the one-way-to-do-it, they see learning as an all-or-nothing proposition. However, if we encourage them to dither, to explore, to try, and to fail (safely), their learning is better because of it.
Growth Mindset Idea #13:
Let them fail! No, not fail your course–but let students fail along the way when the stakes are lower.
Let them fail when they feel safer. Let them understand that failure is a motivator, an activator, a teacher.
(If you are looking for a good growth mindset quote here, one that comes to mind is Thomas Edison’s famous saying: “I have not failed 10,000 times–I’ve successfully found 10,000 ways that will not work.”)
What can students learn from this failure as they are standing at the bottom looking up? That can be a valuable perspective to have.
Teaching Grit Idea #14:
Have students identify their comfort zones and then figure out how to take them out of these zones to take risks.
Here’s a growth mindset activity idea: have students draw a wifi diagram, smaller waves moving outward in bigger waves. From here, have them label each tier of the diagram with things they are comfortable/uncomfortable doing, with each wave or tier becoming successively labeled with things that make them more and more uncomfortable.
(For instance, I might at the lowest wave be comfortable speaking to my friend or to a group on a recording and at the farthest tier be uncomfortable speaking to a large group live.) Students can use this activity, then, to help them see where they can and grow and move out of their comfort zones.
Mindset Idea #15:
Embrace the power of “yet” and “areas of growth.”
Use language that represents growth as in I’ve yet to learn something. Don’t call out students for their areas of weakness; instead, frame them as areas of growth.
In other words, use our words to signal our beliefs about growth mindset in the classroom.
Resilience Idea #16:
Set goals with students that are realistic and challenging. Here’s a good growth mindset quotation fit for a growth mindset meme: “Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars.”
Our goals for students can be challenging, causing them to reach far and hard, as long as they have our support. They’ll be more likely to meet those goals if they know we are there to support them when they have questions, want feedback, or need reassurance.
Idea #17: Questioning Techniques
Consider the difference between “Do you have any questions?” and “What questions do you have?” in a growth mindset classroom.
The former closed-ended question gives students an out, an easy yes or no. (And, let’s be honest, it’s likely a no here.)
The latter, though? By asking “what questions do you have?”, we are supposing there are questions out there that need to be answered, there are thoughts that need to be addressed, there’s thinking happening as students consider where they are, where they are going, and what they need to get there.
Idea #18: Be the Change You Wish to See
Be a model for your students. Educators are learners. The classroom is an environment where all who enter–including adults–grow through their experiences in that room.
Let’s let the students see us exhibit growth mindset characteristics. When a lesson doesn’t go as planned, let’s revel in its failure, reflecting on what would have gone better to do better next time.
Taking it a step further, let’s let students join in this reflection, giving us feedback on which we can act and improve. Then, we can actually take that feedback and talk about next steps in addressing our own areas of growth.
Wrapping it Up:
Indeed, we all have areas of growth when it comes to creating a classroom that promotes growth mindsets in all of its learners. In a world of unlimited opportunity, we need students to see they have limitless potential.
Perhaps this begins with each of us educators adopting an “I can” attitude when it comes to growth mindset teaching. Can we teach it? Yes, we can!