Growing Students' Minds - Steps to building a Growth Mindset for Students

In Mindset, Carol Dweck provides great examples of individuals exhibiting the message of "yet". Such as the case of Superman actor, Christopher Reeves, doctors told Reeves that movement was not a possibility for him after his traumatic injury to his spine. Reeve's mindset "not being capable of movement... yet" created a motivation to move beyond limits.

Through his determination, he was able to gain his movements and change the views of how the body can recover from traumatic injuries. The message of "yet" is definitely the idea that all challenges are possible to accomplish if you work at it and the right mindset.  When I read that particular section in Mindset, a light bulb truly sparked to life.

Could you really change your abilities by changing your mindset? Absolutely. Growth Mindset has been affecting my way of thinking and also developing the way I approach challenges. I find that Growth Mindset not only teaches you that you are far more capable than what the fixed mindset in you truly knows.

You're capable of being a Superman in learning by understanding that failure comes with learning as it does with success.

As I read through Mindset, I reflected on my current and past mindset and saw a lot of bad habits as well as how closed minded I was in a fixed mindset. Through my own reflection, I slowly but surely started to break the old habits and often catch myself with "whoa, April, that's the wrong mindset." It has been a revolution in my mind and how I approach challenges in my life.

     As a learner, I feel like I've had somewhat of a growth mindset when it came to my education,  I was never a great student and I knew if I pushed myself to learn and ask questions when needed that I could do well. In my profession,  as a teacher, there is always room for learning in order to be a good teacher. 

Our school is always promoting opportunities for us to learn from each other and also to learn from ourselves as educators.  It's easy to have a growth mindset as an educator because it's what we teach our students to develop so they are successful. Growth Mindset is not something that is just applied in education but in life. As an adult it's easy to understand the importance of a growth a mindset and the power of "Yet". Rarely do we develop it for our own practice. Imagine all we could accomplish with a change of a mindset.

If we are can change our mindset then we help those change their fix mindsets as well. The most common place I see fixed mindset is in the school especially in a secondary setting.

For students it's a mindset that needs to be taught and cultivated by their teachers. In order to help students develop a mindset for achievement, teachers needs to know when a student is struggling and all of sudden give up with an exasperated " I can't do this!" or " I just not good at this!" is not a moment of frustration but an opportunity to teach students the Power of YET.

If we can get students to develop a growth mindset, their attitude about learning and challenges will change. In the attached slides is a step by step process that will help teachers develop the Growth Mindset within their classrooms.

Growth Mindset Plan