Teaching the Science Behind a Growth Mindset

Overview

In Carol Dweck’s book, “Mindset: The New Psychology of Success,” she discusses the differences between having a fixed vs growth mindset and how those two beliefs can greatly affect how you learn. The effects of having a growth mindset has become an increasingly popular topic in education, as Dweck argues that it (when done correctly ) could help reduce the achievement gap in schools. You can read a brief summary of her book here or the first few chapters available on Stanford’s website .

As an educator, I wanted to share this information with my students and encourage them to embrace challenges. Here are the lesson plans I use at the beginning of the year.

Materials

Projector, worksheets, laptops, butcher (or poster) paper.

Resources

• Mindset Quiz (Student) | Mindset Quiz (Teacher)

• Growing your mind | Khan Academy + Video Questions (PDF | Word )

• Growth Mindset Article + LP | Brainology | Student Version

• Famous Failures (video)

• Famous Failures Infographic | ReachOut

• Mindset Lesson Plans | Khan Academy & PERTS

Additional Reading

• How to correctly encourage/develop a growth mindset | Carol Dweck

• Common Misconceptions about having a “growth mindset” | Carol Dweck

• Summary of “Mindset” by Carol Dweck

Pacing

Suggested Pacing

Day 1 - mindset quiz | science behind a growth mindset article

Days 2-3 - famous failures | growth mindset scenario posters

Pacing w/ Teacher Notes

Day 1 - I start this lesson with a warmup question asking, “What is a neuron and what does it do?” After giving them a couple of minutes to write or guess, I have a few students share and we come up with a definition and how it functions. I let them know that we will be doing a short lesson on how our brain learns.

Before we delve into the science, I share the mindset quiz with everyone and tell them that it will not be graded, so they won’t need to try to get a “right” answer. Once they finish, I show the scoring ranges and I ask them to share which range they fell in. Regardless of how high or low they scored, this is just to give them an idea of what beliefs they might hold and something they can think about throughout the lesson.

For the second half of class, I show them a video on how our minds grow and have them answer some questions (PDF ) in their science notebooks. The discussion questions are optional, but they can prompt interesting discussions. As homework, I have them read the Brainology article and answer questions (only Option A ).

Days 2-3 - For the following days, I use previous worksheet questions as their warmups to briefly review what they read. I then show them a video on famous failures , as well as an infographic . I supplement this with research on London taxi drivers that shows their hippocampi are larger and a personal story where I tried to do something I thought wouldn’t succeed, but eventually did.

For the rest of class, I split them into groups of 4 and let them work together on creating a poster. On the growth vs fixed mindset poster, I ask them to create 1-2 relatable scenarios and describe how someone would approach it from both perspectives. They can draw and color each scenario like a two-frame comic.

Once they’re done, I have them share a scenario of their choice and I put their posters up on the classroom wall.

Credits: Dr. Carol Dweck, Khan Academy, Brainology, ReachOut, PERTS. Cover image by dose via Unsplash.