Teaching to promote a growth mindset

The purpose of this paper is to describe a special session intended to help instructors better understand the difference between fixed versus growth mindset and how instructional approaches can implicitly or explicitly promote one or the other. Originating with Carol Dweck, individuals with a fixed mindset believe that a specific ability or intelligence is innate and fixed. In contrast, individuals with a growth mindset believe that ability or intelligence can be improved with training and practice. Through implicit and explicit messages to their students, instructors may inadvertently trigger students to approach tasks with a fixed mindset. The interactive session will focus on common messages and strategies that will help students to approach tasks in a class with a growth mindset.