Learners working from the perspective of a growth mindset may be more likely to see challenge as a good thing.

For them, challenges represent an opportunity to learn.

There is no conflict between the inevitable difficulties that a challenge throws up and the individual’s sense of self.

In fact, there is likely to be a fit between the two.

This is because the learner who adopts an incremental view of intelligence, talent, and ability sees the benefit of challenges in helping them to grow and develop.

On the other hand, a learner operating under a fixed mindset perspective may well dislike challenges and, possibly, seek to avoid them.

This is in part because challenges are perceived as threatening to the learner’s sense of self.

If, they reason, I have a fixed amount of talent, ability, or intelligence, then a challenge that causes me difficulties and risks me failing is likely to show me up for want I can’t do.

Therefore, it is best avoided.

In the second formulation, the growth benefits of challenge are hard to fathom.

This is because the individual is operating from a premise that they possess a fixed sum that cannot be altered.

Starting from this premise makes it difficult to believe that taking on challenges can be beneficial.

Challenge-avoidance can manifest itself in many ways.

More-able learners may coast, deliberately, to avoid being pushed.

Less-able learners may withdraw from tasks, or give up quickly, to steer clear of the threat of failure they perceive as being contained within the challenge.

Learners of every type may decide to consistently take easier options – and, in the process, may cut themselves off from all sorts of possibilities and opportunities – because of this mindset.

In creating a challenge culture, we are aiming to do a few things that help us to develop growth mindsets across the board.

First, we are aiming to make challenge the norm.

That is, we are trying to ensure challenge has a central place in all the lessons we teach, and that this is expected, acknowledged, and understood.

Second, we are aiming to change learner perceptions of challenge.

We want them to see the benefits of embracing it.

And we want them to see that the risks they perceive as being associated with it are not in fact risks at all.

Finally, we want to help learners understand how they can persist and, ultimately, succeed in the face of challenges.

We want to help them develop skills of thinking and acting that they can use to take control of their learning and of the situations in which they find themselves.

These are our goals.

And here are some strategies you can use to achieve them.

Teach about Neuroscience

Teaching learners about neuroscience means teaching them what we know about how the brain functions.

By doing this, we provide them with an understanding of what happens when we learn.

This acts as a counterpoint to any fixed mindset perceptions of what is and what is not possible.

It also helps learners to understand why challenge can be difficult, uncomfortable and … well, challenging!

Here are three different strategies you can use.

Strategy 1: Assemblies

Set up a series of assemblies introducing learners to different parts of the brain.

For example, you might begin by showing learners what neurons are, how they connect, and what happens, in terms of chemical and electrical messages, when we think.

Then, you might go on to look at different sections of the brain, such as the limbic system and the pre-frontal cortex.

Finally, you could take learners on a journey through what happens when we learn – and how challenge leads to new neuronal connections being formed and existing ones being reinforced and developed.

Strategy 2: Individual Lessons

Plan a series of individual lessons, either across a week or across a term.

Base each lesson around a different theme.

For example:

• What happens when we learn?

• What happens to our brains when we face a challenge?

How does learning change your brain?

Teach these lessons in the same style as you would teach any other.

In so doing, you’ll help normalise learners’ perceptions about the brain and how it works.

Strategy 3: Registration or Tutor Time

Plan a series of shorter interventions during registration or tutor time.

The benefit of this approach is that you can go back to teaching neuroscience again and again over an extended period.

This creates a drip-drip effect (akin to spaced practice), regularly feeding learners new information about how their brains work and what happens when they learn.

Teaching learners about neuroscience means helping them to understand how the brain works.

This allows them to see that the growth mindset perspective is a more accurate representation of reality than the fixed mindset one.

It also gives them a reference point for explaining why challenge can be difficult, but why it is so important as well: because of the changes it causes in our brains.

Learning Goals vs Performance Goals

Here are two different goals:

• I really want to understand this topic.
• I want to get an A.

Here are another two:

• I want to be able to talk about existentialism and apply it in novel situations.
• I want to get full marks on the existentialism essay.

In both cases, the first goal is a learning goal, and the second goal is a performance goal.

Learning goals see the individual focussing on developing their understanding, skill, or ability in relation to a topic.

Performance goals see the individual focussing on an end point, usually quantifiable.

In the first case, learning is an end in itself.

In the second case, learning becomes a means to an end.

There’s nothing wrong with performance goals.

They are often good and often help us to achieve what we want to achieve.

But a fixation on them may lead to a loss of appetite for challenge.

The reasoning runs as follows.

If you are targeting a performance goal, then you are consistently judging your efforts in relation to this.

Therefore, you are likely to judge mistakes and failures more harshly, because you see these in the light of the performance goal you are trying to meet.

This may make you less inclined to challenge yourself, or to enjoy challenge.

In your mind, you might start connecting challenge with failure, and perceiving that failure as psychologically uncomfortable and, therefore, something you want to avoid.

While you may achieve your performance goals, this may not lead to the depth of learning you could have achieved, and it may be a less enjoyable process.

Learning goals tend to focus on mastery rather than hitting performance thresholds.

Look again at the two learning goals above.

Both are about mastery.

Both involve the individual searching for a better understanding.

Within this framework, challenge is welcomed.

It presents opportunities for the learner to push themselves and to deepen their understanding.

As you will note, performance goals can be more readily linked to a fixed mindset perspective, whereas learning goals sit closer to a growth mindset perspective.

For this reason, it is worth promoting learning goals to your class.

You can do this by setting them for individual learners, or the whole class, and by showing learners how to set them for themselves.

As part of this process, you might also want to downplay performance goals – or illustrate how they can be made subservient to learning goals (in the two examples above, the learner who follows the learning goal will most likely achieve the performance goal as well).

Finally, don’t be afraid to show learners the difference between learning and performance goals.

Giving your learners a clear insight into the differences – modelling this contrast for them – means helping them to better appreciate how they can take control of their learning.