Whether you are a teacher or a tutor, one of the most difficult things you face in your career is a student’s mindset. Teaching students and understanding their mindset is challenging, and do you know what is more difficult? Developing and Fostering a growth mindset in them.
The academic life, success, future, and motivation of a student totally depend on their mindset. As a teacher and educator, it is your responsibility to covert the fixed mindset of your students into a growth one. Want to know how? Don’t worry; we have got you covered!
In this post, we are going to share 5 ways to foster a growth mindset in students. But first, let's briefly go through what a growth mindset is.
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What Is A Growth Mindset?
According to science and research, there are 2 types of mindsets people have; Fixed and Growth. People with fixed mindsets think that abilities are inborn, and you can not develop new ones. While on the other hand, people with growth mindsets believe that they can learn new abilities with constant practice, study, and effort.
What are the Benefits of a Growth Mindset?
Now that you know what a growth mindset is, we will go through a few benefits of developing in it students. Here you go:
- Having a growth mindset prepares the students to face all sorts of difficult challenges in their lives.
- Students with a growth mindset are known to be more motivated than other students and perform better in school.
- A growth mindset can improve your self-esteem and self-confidence.
- It can make you skilled enough to accept new challenges and see new opportunities.
- Students with a growth mindset don’t lose motivation after failures or mistakes.
- With a growth mindset, you will never be stressed about being perfect.
How to Foster a Growth Mindset in Students
As promised, here are 5 effective ways for teachers to foster and develop a growth mindset in your students:
1. Talk About Growth Mindset
The best way to develop a growth mindset in students’ minds is to teach and talk about it. Teach them what a growth mindset is, tell them about its benefits, and give them examples of successful people with a growth mindset. The more they listen to it, the more they will become curious. And guess what? Curiosity is also a part of a growth mindset.
2. Normalize Struggle
If you want your students to keep trying, making efforts, and learning new abilities, you need to normalize and glorify struggle in front of them. Tell them inspirational stories about people who struggled hard and became successful. This way, they will positively handle all the challenges and struggles they might face in their lives.
3. Avoid Praising
This might sound a bit harsh and rude, but don’t praise the smartness of your students. If you keep praising them, they will think they are already smart enough, and they don’t need to work on their intelligence anymore. Do you know what will happen after this? Their “growth” will stop and they will stop trying to work on their abilities. Therefore, avoid praising your students as much as you can.
4. Acknowledge Efforts
Instead of praising their intelligence, you can acknowledge their efforts. Remember, just not the outcomes, efforts! Acknowledge the efforts they made to produce that outcome and praise them for trying again and again and learning new strategies. Also, compliment their hard work and learning process. This way, they will understand that hard work, learning, and efforts are necessary to produce successful results; not just intellect and smartness. After understanding this, they will keep working hard and keep growing.
5. Normalize Failures and Mistakes
Last but not the least, tell your students that making mistakes and failures are normal, and are a part of life. Failures help you learn new things and concepts. Also, tell them that no person has ever been successful without making mistakes. The more mistakes they make, the more they will learn; and the more they learn, the more they will grow. In short, every mistake and failure is an opportunity for growth.
Final Words
Having a growth mindset is extremely important; for both students and teachers. As an educator, it is your responsibility to foster this trait in your students. If you follow all the tips we mentioned above, we promise you will fulfill the responsibility with success!
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