Developing a
Growth Mindset

Modeling the growth mindset is essential to a student’s success. There is a song that goes “Do as I say, not as I do,” but this could not be further from the truth when it comes to student learning. We must model the tools we want our students to utilize in the classroom and in the real world. My favorite practice for this is transparency with my students. For instance, I share with my students the challenges I face in the ADL program, and they always ask for updates on how my assignments turned out, so I keep them updated. We also share our personal and educational goals with one another and have follow-up conversations on how they are coming along

Instead of feeling intimidated by others or becoming defensive when receiving feedforward, students should be learning from criticism and finding inspiration in the success of others (Harapnuik, 2013). This is another transparent moment I have shared with my students because before I entered the ADL program, these were the two biggest factors that had me stuck in a fixed mindset. I was often intimidated by how my colleagues engaged with their students, planned their lessons, and even how they set up their learning environment. Now, I welcome feedforward from my peers and adjust my instruction and classroom setting as I see fit.

Angela Lee Duckworth (2013) explains that when she taught seventh grade, the students who were the smartest, did not do well, but her students who usually struggled performed better. Once she began her research, she found that the more successful employees and students had grit. Duckworth (2013) interprets grit as having perseverance and working tirelessly towards their goals to ensure their future each day. If our students are more focused on their goals instead of trying to meet the criteria on a rubric, they can produce more authentic work that expresses their true growth and knowledge gained. The challenging part about grit is that there is no specific way to instill it into our students. Although, we can guide our students to find their passions and help them understand how they learn to reach their goals.

Carol Dweck (2015) explains that we should instill determination and that success does not happen overnight. Due to people being lifelong learners, we are developing daily and should invite challenges into our life instead of running away from them. Dweck (2015) states that people that have a fixed mindset believe if they have an ability, they should not put in much effort, and if you must exert an ample amount of effort, you obviously do not have the ability. Although, with a growth mindset, one should engage in activities that are thought-provoking, challenging, and require effort and determination to achieve. Providing rigorous work for students provides them an opportunity to gain the knowledge they have yet to be exposed to and life experience for real-world problems.