Growth Mindset

Share / assign

Why it works

Research on mindset finds that students who believe ability can grow tend to persist and learn more, but it also shows that superficial applications, praising effort regardless of outcome, posters, telling students to have a growth mindset, do little. What matters is the daily practice: valuing strategies and progress, treating mistakes as learning, and giving feedback that points to a next step, within genuinely challenging work.

The research: Dweck's mindset research; critiques of superficial growth-mindset practice.

The run-of-show

Choose your slot. The agenda, timings, and length update to match.

The core activity: put growth mindset into practice

Teachers leave with a plan to respond to struggle and give feedback that builds a growth mindset.

Pick a moment where students struggle or make mistakes.
Plan how you respond in a way that treats it as learning, not failure.
Plan feedback that points to strategies and a next step, not just effort praise.
Pair it with genuinely challenging work worth the struggle.

It is in the response, not the posterGrowth mindset shows up in how you handle a wrong answer and a struggling student, not in slogans. Respond to struggle as learning.

Facilitator notes

Avoid empty effort-praise; value strategies and progress.
Treat mistakes as learning, and pair with challenge.
It is a daily practice, not a display.

Posters and effort-praise are not enoughThe superficial version does little and can backfire. Put mindset into how you respond to struggle and the feedback you give.

Adapt it

Elementary: model mistakes as learning and praise strategies.
Secondary: feedback toward next steps and normalize struggle.
All settings: daily response to struggle, paired with challenge.

Participant handout

One page for every teacher. Print it, or save it as a PDF.

K12 Academics · Professional Learning

Growth Mindset: in the response, not the poster

The substance: respond to struggle as learning, feedback toward strategies and next steps, paired with challenge.

A moment where students struggle or err:
How I respond so it is learning, not failure:
Feedback that points to strategies and a next step:
How I pair it with challenging work:
What I will stop (empty effort-praise):

Make it stick

Respond, do not decorate:

Respond to struggle as learning.
Give next-step feedback.
Bring a growth-mindset moment that worked to the next PLC.

Common questions

Doesn't growth mindset just mean praising effort?

No, and that is the common mistake. Praising effort on easy or failed work backfires. Value strategies and progress, and pair the belief with genuinely challenging work.

Do posters and pep talks work?

Not on their own. Mindset lives in how you respond to struggle and mistakes day to day, and in the feedback you give, not on the wall.

Is growth mindset overhyped?

The superficial version is. The substance, treating ability as developable and responding to struggle productively, still matters, especially paired with strong instruction.