Developing a growth mindset is an important factor to achieving professional success, as it makes you more open and willing to take on new challenges such as our Teacher Professional Development and able to recognise that by working hard, you can achieve what you have set out to do. A growth mindset can benefit individuals working in any sector but in education its impact can extend beyond you as a teacher, and help to improve outcomes for those you teach.

Here at Teach2030, we’ve compiled this guide of everything you need to know to begin developing your own growth mindset and how to encourage it in your learners.

What is a growth mindset?

The term growth mindset was developed by Dr Carol Dweck after years of studying student’s attitude towards failure.

‘A growth mindset is when students understand that their abilities can be developed.’ (Dweck, 2014)

‘In a growth mindset, people believe that their most basic abilities can be developed through dedication and hard work—brains and talent are just the starting point. This view creates a love of learning and a resilience that is essential for great accomplishment.’ (Dweck, 2015)

Teach2030 resources promote a growth mindset by encouraging you to:

• Welcome challenges as you see them as a chance to learn.
• Continually ask yourself if you can improve something. 
• Persevere when things get difficult, and keep going.
• See effort as a path to getting better at a skill, not as a reason to stop. 
• Believe feedback is incredibly helpful, and positive criticism is a way to get better.
• Be inspired by the success of others, and see it as another way to learn and succeed yourself.

Fixed mindset v growth mindset

‘In a fixed mindset, people believe their basic qualities, like their intelligence or talent, are simply fixed traits. They spend their time documenting their intelligence or talent instead of developing them. They also believe that talent alone creates success—without effort.’ (Dweck, 2015)

Why does a growth mindset matter in teaching?

A fixed mindset can affect how your students see themselves and their learning. If they have low confidence in your subject, then they will never believe that they can be successful. This may lead to them believing they have a low ability – a feeling that they cannot ever do something.

Alternatively, a growth mindset is encouraging and focuses more on attainment, where there is room for progress and achievement. Often, students may still lose faith in themselves, as it is hard to try or learn something new, but, by using growth mindset language, as teachers, we can inspire and motivate our students to believe in themselves. When they then achieve success, they are spurred on to learn more and their confidence grows.

The mindset that we present to our students can affect them for life, as they may carry these feelings about themselves outside of the classroom.

How do you develop a growth mindset?

The words that we use to describe ourselves and our students can determine whether they have a growth or fixed mindset.

How we carry and present ourselves can also project what we believe. For example, if we are slouched, closed and downbeat, it can suggest we have a fixed mindset as we are almost giving up. However, if we are open, enthusiastic and optimistic, it presents more of a growth mindset that is encouraging.

Examples of a growth mindset

Your language is vital to showing a growth mindset. Key phrases that you can use are:

• ‘Keep going. You can do this.’
• ‘It may be hard but keep persevering.’
• ‘Well done on using that technique correctly.’
• ‘That isn’t quite the answer but can you try again.’
• ‘You worked really hard this lesson.’

Examples of a fixed mindset

Have you ever told a student that they could not do something? Or, that they weren’t as clever as their older sibling? Here are some other examples of a fixed mindset:

• ‘You will never be able to do this.’
• ‘Stop doing it that way. Let me do it instead.’
• ‘You’re wrong. I will ask someone else now.’
• ‘He is stupid and not capable of doing it’ or ‘you’re so clever.’
• ‘My group will never be able to do that.’

What language are we encouraging students to use about themselves?

The mindset we present to our students will affect how they see themselves. Here are some phrases that show that our students have developed a growth mindset phrases:

• ‘I can do it.’ (Instead of ‘I will never be able to do this.’)
• ‘I will work it out.’ (Instead of ‘can you do it for me?’)
• ‘I want to keep trying. (Instead of ‘I give up. It’s too hard.’)
• ‘I made a mistake but I learnt from it.’ (Instead of ‘I won’t do it because I will get it wrong.)
• ‘I am working on this.’ (Instead of ‘I am not doing it.’)
• ‘I will do it.’ (Instead of ‘I’ll never be able to do that.’)
• ‘How can I keep improving?’ (Instead of ‘I will never get better at this.’)

These phrases are ones that we can also use about ourselves when we are completing our own Teacher Professional Development (TPD)!

Embrace TPD with a growth mindset with Teach2030

Dweck, C. (2014). Carol Dweck: The power of believing that you can improve.. TED. Retrieved from: https://www.ted.com/talks/carol_dweck_the_power_of_believing_that_you_can_improve.

Dweck, C. (2015). Carol Dweck Revisits the ‘Growth Mindset’. Education Week. Retrieved from: http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2015/09/23/carol-dweck-revisits-the-growth-mindset.html