What are Growth Mindsets?

Mindsets are beliefs; the set of beliefs we hold about ourselves and what it is possible for us to do.

These beliefs underpin and influence our thinking which, in turn, gives rise to actions.

The idea of growth mindsets comes from the work of the psychologist, Carol Dweck.

When it comes to learning, learners may have a growth mindset, a fixed mindset, or a mixture of the two.

In the latter case, this might see them having a growth mindset in certain subjects and a fixed mindset in others.

It is important to remember that mindsets are open to change.

They are just thoughts, after all.

So, for example, a learner who currently has a fixed mindset towards maths need not have this mindset in the future.

Similarly, and less happily, a learner with a growth mindset towards English may lose this if they suffer a bad transition from primary to secondary school.

Fixed and growth mindsets begin from a central premise.

This is the central belief on which they rest. Conclusions are derived from this starting point.

To put it another way, a series of further beliefs flow from the first belief.

• The central premise of a fixed mindset is that intelligence, ability and talent are fixed and static. This is the entity theory of intelligence.
• The central premise of a growth mindset is that intelligence, ability and talent can go up or down. This is the incremental theory of intelligence.

The following beliefs tend to follow from the fixed mindset premise:

• Effort is pointless
• Feedback should be avoided
• Challenges should be avoided
• It doesn’t make sense to persist at something you can’t already do
• There’s little point thinking about your own thinking.

Notice how each of these beliefs follows logically from the central premise.

If you believe that talent, intelligence and ability are fixed, then it makes sense to see effort as pointless.

This is a logical conclusion of the central premise.

Similarly, if you believe you cannot change, then why would you bother with feedback?

This won’t have any impact as what you have is what you have, regardless of what anybody else tells you to do.

The following beliefs tend to follow from the growth mindset premise:

• Effort is the path to mastery
• Feedback can help you develop and grow
• Challenges are learning opportunities and can be embraced
• Persisting at something helps you get better at it
• Thinking about your own thinking means finding ways to improve how you think

Again, the beliefs follow logically from the central premise.

If you believe that talent, intelligence and ability can go up or down, then it makes sense to see effort as a path to mastery.

Similarly, it is logical to acknowledge that persistence can help you to get better at something.

The act of persisting allows you to practice, observe what works and what doesn’t, learn from your mistakes, and get better.

This leads to two conclusions:

• First, when we promote growth mindsets in the classroom, we promote to every learner the central premise that talent, intelligence and ability can go up or down.
• Second, to do this we can focus on both the central premise and the conclusions that flow from it. 

The Habits of a Growth Mindset

Learners with a growth mindset begin with the belief that intelligence, talent and ability can go up or down.

This tends to lead to some or all the following habits.

Effort is seen as a path to mastery.

• Learners believe that by applying effort – and targeting it effectively – you can learn, develop and grow.

Challenge is seen as something useful and is often embraced.

• Learners understand that challenges push us to do more than we can currently do. They appreciate that you can learn from challenges and that, over time, the challenge will become easier.

Mistakes are not necessarily loved but they are seen as something from which you can learn.

• This is accompanied by the belief that failure is not the be all and end all. Instead, we can learn from failure, picking ourselves up and trying again.

Feedback gives you information you can use to improve.

• This does not mean that feedback is always received with relish, but it does mean that learners are able to put emotional reactions to one side and make use of the feedback by applying it to their learning.

Thinking is seen as open to change.

• As part of this, learners see the benefit of thinking about their own thinking (metacognition). They understand that by attending to your thoughts you can identify what is working and what isn’t, before using this to make changes, refinements and improvements.

Persistence in the face of obstacles is a good thing.

• Learners are more likely to persist when faced with obstacles. Their thinking is animated by the belief that effort leads to mastery and that you can alter what you can currently do. Therefore, persevering has benefits (and is likely to lead to good outcomes).

Learners are more likely to have a go at things and not fear the consequences of being wrong.

• They understand that we learn through trial and error. And they appreciate that you can’t develop and grow unless you try new things.

When promoting growth mindsets in our classrooms it is these habits we seek to cultivate.

By doing this we help learners to become more resilient.

We are developing their character, as well as their knowledge and understanding.

Fixed Vs. Growth

Cognitive psychology, in which Carol Dweck’s growth mindsets research is rooted, focuses on our thinking.

It does not deny the impact of biological and genetic factors, but it does focus on cognition – how we think – as opposed to the influence of genes and biology.

Cognitive psychologists suggest that our thinking has a significant impact on our behaviour.

How we think influences what we do, the decisions we make, and the consequences that follow.

When it comes to learning, the argument we can take from Dweck’s research is that the mindset a learner possesses underpins their thinking.

Not everyone agrees with this, but I’m assuming that as you’re here, you are probably close to being convinced that this is a reasonable assumption.

For example, if a learner believes that they simply can’t do maths and that no amount of effort, persistence or perseverance will change this, then certain behaviours, decisions, and consequences are likely to follow.

On the other hand, if a learner believes that you can get better at maths and that effort, persistence, and perseverance have an important role to play, then different behaviours, decisions, and consequences will follow.

This illustrates the extent to which fixed mindsets and growth mindsets are representative of two different ways of thinking about learning and your own potential for change.

Learners operating under a fixed mindset often set an arbitrary limit on what they believe they can achieve.

Learners operating under a growth mindset tend not to set these limits.

This doesn’t mean that these learners believe they can achieve anything and everything.

But it does mean they don’t circumscribe their ability to act – and to benefit from the cumulative gains that stem from consistently acting in a positive and determined manner.

One way of cultivating growth mindsets is to think of it as akin to promoting a change in how your class, school, or individual learners think about learning.

This also indicates how it takes time to effectively embed growth mindsets.

This is an intervention that is as much about forming new habits as it is anything else.

Those habits are habits of thought.

Some of them are general, such as the habit of thinking that your abilities are open to change.

Some of them are specific, such as the habit of persisting even if the work feels difficult.

And some of them are about dealing with emotions, such as learning to separate emotional reactions from rational decision-making.

To illustrate the last point, consider how a learner can learn to put the disappointment of failure to one side so that they can instead focus on using the information failure reveals.

This habit of thought allows a learner to learn from failure even if there is an emotional reaction attached to it.

Common Growth Mindset Myths

Growth mindsets are not a panacea.

Dweck’s research offers us a powerful lens through which we can look at learner thinking.

From here, we can look to effect change.

Particularly if we feel it will help our learners enjoy learning more and achieve more things.

The tenets of growth mindset thinking – seeing effort as a path to mastery, learning from mistakes, embracing challenge, using feedback, thinking about your own thinking – chime with much of what we recognise as good classroom practice.

Taking a growth mindset approach when teaching often means giving these things greater prominence, drawing learners’ attention to how they are thinking about themselves, and, where appropriate, offering them an alternative story to tell.

Over the years, a few myths have developed around growth mindsets.

Here are five of the most common.

Myth 1: Growth Mindsets just means saying ‘yet’.

Using ‘yet’, as in: ‘you can’t do it yet…’ is one technique among many.

It does not constitute change on its own but is a useful starting point for altering the language of your classroom.

Of course, there are lots of other techniques teachers can use to promote growth mindsets.

If you only rely on using the word ‘yet’, you’re unlikely to have the kind of impact you want.

Myth 2: Growth Mindsets implies that everyone can be super successful at anything.

This is not the case.

It makes a much weaker claim. But one that is easier to defend.

It suggests that all learners can learn, therefore changing their intelligence, talent and ability, and that this is more likely to occur if learners begin from a premise that their talent, ability and intelligence is open to change.

This is very different from the idea that anyone can be super successful at anything.

One way of conceptualising this is through the famous Henry Ford quote: ‘Whether you think you can or think you can’t, you’re right.’

Myth 3: Growth Mindsets just means praising effort regardless.

This is not true.

Instead, it means promoting the idea that effort is a path to mastery.

However, we are talking about targeted effort.

That is, effort that has purpose and direction.

Praising effort regardless is something different entirely. Something that is unlikely to have the effect the teacher intends.

After all, what is the message we send if we praise effort that has been targeted in the wrong direction?

Myth 4: Growth Mindsets ignores biological factors.

It focuses on cognition – the thinking learners do.

It does not examine biological influences because it comes from the cognitive school of psychology.

However, this does not mean it denies the influence of biological factors. 

There is no suggestion that mindsets trump the influence of inherited characteristics.

Rather, the claim is that how we think affects what we do.

And that our beliefs about ourselves have a big impact on what we perceive as being possible.

Myth 5: Growth Mindsets means labelling learners as having a fixed or growth mindset.

The central premise of growth mindsets is that we are all open to change.

Therefore, labelling is not to be welcomed as it presupposes a fixed state over which the individual has no control.

Learners have mindsets, these are open to change.

The likelihood is that they will have different mindsets in different areas of their life, leading to a mixture of fixed and growth.

A teacher’s goal is to promote growth mindsets and the tenets that constitute this to help all learners gain a sense of agency over their learning.

Doing this can help all learners to see their thinking, as well as their intelligence, talent, and ability, as being open to change.

Performance Goals and Learning Goals

Here is a quote from Carol Dweck’s book, Self-Theories:

‘A performance goal is about measuring ability. It focuses learners on measuring themselves from their performance, and so when they do poorly they may condemn their intelligence and fall into a helpless response.

A learning goal is about mastering new things. The attention here is on finding strategies for learning. When things don’t go well, this has nothing to do with the learner’s intellect. It simply means that the right strategies have not yet been found. Keep looking.’ (Dweck: 2000, page 16)

Performance goals create a zero-sum game.

The learner has a bar they must meet.

They either meet it, or they don’t.

If they don’t, and as the quote implies, they may respond by assuming there is something wrong with them. (Note though, the use of the word ‘may’. This is an intentionally weak claim.)

Learning goals are never a zero-sum game.

They are an ongoing, continuous process.

For this reason, they reflect the reality of life more accurately than performance goals.

An excessive focus on performance goals often promotes an entity theory of intelligence and may encourage fixed mindset thinking.

It may also cause learners to fall into a trap of helplessness.

On failing to reach a performance goal they tell themselves that they don’t have what is necessary to be successful.

Therefore, what can they possibly do to meet the standards they have been set?

Promoting learning goals means getting learners to focus on the process of learning and to think about what is required to master new things.

This involves persistence, trying out different strategies, repetition, making mistakes and learning from trial and error.

Talking in terms of learning goals means sending learners the message that everyone’s intelligence is open to change, and that this change is a direct function of the things you choose to do.

This leads us to an important point sitting just beneath the surface of growth mindset theory.

An incremental view of intelligence – a growth mindset perspective – gives learners a greater degree of agency than an entity view – a fixed mindset perspective.

This agency stems from the fact that the learner believes their efforts can effect change.

Note how this compares with the idea of helplessness mentioned in the quote and connected to performance goals.

It is worth remembering this point as you seek to develop growth mindsets in your classroom.

The process in which you are engaged is in part about giving learners agency.

Helping them to take control of their learning.

Helping them to understand that they have the power to act in ways that lead to learning, development, and the achievement of goals.

This is education for life, as well as the classroom.

Mindset Theory and the Classroom: Changing How Learners Think

How, then, do we go about developing growth mindsets in the classroom?

What is it that we are trying to do when we say that we want to make growth mindsets a reality for our learners?

Above all else, it comes down to changing how learners think.

As we have seen, mindsets are sets of beliefs.

Beliefs give rise to actions.

The hope is that by changing some of these beliefs, different actions will follow.

If learners are operating from a fixed mindset perspective, if they are working with the entity theory of intelligence, then we want to try to change this.

We want to help them see themselves differently.

To see learning in a different light.

Our aim is to teach in such a way that we give learners opportunities to shift their thinking.

To adjust the set of beliefs they take as their starting point.

We are looking to help them establish new habits of thought.

Habits that make it easier for them to achieve more.

That help them to enjoy learning more.

And that give them greater resolve and an enhanced sense of agency.

What we need to do, then, is translate growth mindset theory into a set of areas on which we can focus our attention while we are planning, teaching, and assessing.

These areas will tally with different elements of growth mindset thinking and give us ample opportunity to offer learners alternative ways to think and act.

We are looking for a set of practical categories that accord with growth mindset theory and that also offer scope for a variety of teaching and learning interventions.

After all, you need to make mindsets your own.

You need strategies, activities and techniques that suit you and your learners.

Here are some of the areas you can think about, and I have blog posts on all of them for you:

• Getting the Language Right
• Changing how Learners Perceive Mistakes and Failure
• Targeting Learner Effort
• Giving Great Feedback
• Thinking about Thinking (Metacognition)
• Creating a Challenge Culture
• Focussing on Processes
• Engaging Parents with Growth Mindsets
• Using Growth Mindset Questions

And don’t forget, shifting how learners think takes time.

As does forming new habits.

Developing growth mindsets is an ongoing process.

A learning goal, rather than a performance one.