Fixed and Growth Mindset

I’m a big fan of the concept of moving from fixed to growth mindset, and include this in a number of training sessions. If you notice students who express negative comments or actions around their studies, rather than cajole and coax into (reluctant) action which could be seen as ‘nagging’, open some dialogue to help flip this thought process.

You could create a simple sorting activity which describes fixed and growth mindset, something along these lines:

If you’re able to embed these phrases with students, I believe that it’s possible for them to begin to understand where they fit into this way of thinking. Then you can create opportunities to break it down further, and start to rebuild confidence and regain some impetus to make some changes.

Recently I saw a task on Twitter shared by @kwiens62 which I think is a most effective way to implement and extend the elements of growth mindset. Described as ‘permission tickets’, it provides an opening to gain some trust with students by creating a focus to help them to grow. Contextualised for the age group that you teach, you could easily use this idea as simple and manageable goals: