2017 Annual Conference

Melanie Cannon
mmrackley@valdosta.edu
Cell Number: 229-854-9774
Valdosta State University School Counseling Graduate Student

Cherelle Townsend
cltownsend@valdosta.edu
Cell Number: 229-588-1820
Valdosta State University School Counseling Graduate Student

Stuart Evans
stuevans@valdosta.edu
Cell Number: 951-491-1506
Valdosta State University School Counseling Graduate Student

Elementary
Middle

In recent years, Growth Mindset has gained attention in the school setting. This presentation will inform the audience the basics of Growth Mindset, evidence base practices related to Growth Mindset, person-praise, and how to start implementing this concept in the schools. Participants will learn if they have a fixed or growth mindset and how to develop a growth mindset throughout their school.

Learning Objectives: Participants will learn the basics of growth mindset, person-praise, and how to start implementing growth mindset in their school.

Participation: Learn if they have a fixed or growth mindset, practice person-praise.

Handout: Growth Mindset basics handout, Growth Mindset Quiz, Person-Praise handout.

Growth Mindset Proposal

The power of yet. That is the basis behind this phenomenon known as growth mindset. Growth mindset is the belief that basic abilities and intelligence can be developed through dedication and hard work; whereas, a fixed mindset is the belief that abilities are fixed traits that should be documented, not developed. Those with a growth mindset will challenge themselves to learn that which they do not know, they listen to feedback so they can learn from it, and they believe effort and facing challenges are developing their intelligence (Dweck, 2006). Those with a fixed mindset see challenges as weakness and would rather not try than look unintelligent. Carol Dweck (2006) who is a psychologist at Stanford University has discovered this idea during decades of research on success and achievement. Since then many studies have been conducted on growth mindset and the benefits for students, teachers, and school systems as a whole.

Mindsets are simply a person’s beliefs on their abilities and intelligence. Like any other belief, mindsets can be changed. Those who suffer from a fixed mindset can develop a growth mindset. This begins by teaching someone that intelligence is malleable (Dweck, 2006). That is why it is important for school systems to have a system wide growth mindset focus. Developing a growth mindset environment starts with the adults. Teachers, school counselors, and administrators first need to develop their own growth mindset. Carol Dweck (2006) gives four easy steps to doing just that. First, the person must hear their own fixed mindset, then recognize that they have a choice. Change the fixed mindset to a growth mindset. For example, do not say “I cannot do this” instead say “I cannot do this yet”. Finally, take action. Someone with a growth mindset will face the challenge and learn from it.  Once the adults have a growth mindset, the students can begin to learn to have a growth mindset as well.

To begin implementing a growth mindset in a school system, it is important to establish high expectations of student and make sure they know they can reach these expectations.  Praise students for their progress, not for perfection. Allow the students to face challenges and learn from their mistakes. Help students to understand that the brain is malleable and people learn from mistakes (Dweck, 2006).

Rationale

Research has shown the benefits of training students to have a growth mindset. These benefits include improving test scores (Blackwell, Trzesniewski, & Dweck, 2007), helping students to use deeper skills to solve problems (Grant & Dweck, 2003), and even closing the achievement gap for minority students and females (Aronson, Fried, & Good, 2002). School counselors aim to help students with academic, personal/social, and career development. Implementing a growth mindset focused school environment will help the students in every aspect of their lives. This will support the achievement of the mission and vision of a school counseling program. A growth mindset will be taken with the students throughout the rest of their lives, which will help them be productive members of society.

Growth mindset is an easy intervention to implement because it can align well with any school counseling program. Workshops can be implemented to teach administrators and teachers about this concept. The ideas behind growth mindset can be a support for small groups, classroom lessons, and individual sessions of all topics.

Theory

In reviewing the literature, the best theory to use with the concept growth mindset is Rational Emotive Based Therapy (REBT). The ABC model of REBT is a great way to help change students from a fixed mindset to a growth mindset. The first step for students to overcome a fixed mindset is to be aware of it. In the ABC Model, the antecedent is the belief that the student has the ability to do something but are presented with a problem that eludes their current understanding. Then the behavior is that the student chooses not to try to solve the problem because they do not want to look unintelligent. The consequence is that the work is not completed, and the student does not learn (Corey, 2016). The school counselor can help change the fixed mindset by implementing interventions focused on a growth mindset. School counselors can also create workshops with teachers to help them break the mold of fixed mindsets. For the teachers, they must first create a growth mindset for themselves before they can help students.

People with a fixed mindset tend to document their talents and believe that only their current abilities will solve whatever problem they are faced with (Dweck, 2010). When the student realizes that their talent cannot get them through the problem, they become bored or frustrated with whatever it is they are working on. The student may give up or not believe that they can grow their talents to solve the problem. These mindsets are not simply dichotomous because there is room to have a growth mindset in one area while having a fixed mindset in another (Mercer & Ryan, 2010).

The assumption behind Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy is that the counselor works with the client to help them identify their irrational beliefs and change their worldview. It is the duty of the school counselor to help the students create a growth mindset. For many cases the students need to understand that they have irrational beliefs about their own intelligence. The counselor can make this known to the student that they have a fixed mindset, but this mindset can be changed to a growth mindset. The students self-fulfilling prophecies need to be addressed. In an article by Sparks (2013), the author explains that students who were always labeled as ‘smart’ by the system had a closed mindset and always thought themselves to be intelligent. When these students faced a challenge that was too difficult for them, they began to shut down. This closed mindset set led them down a path where they no longer believed they had enough potential to be smart anymore. By using a REBT intervention, students will overcome that self-defeating fixed mindset. When the school counselor changes their own mindset, they can begin to transform the mindset of the students that they counsel.

By doing a workshop with teachers, the counselor can educate the teachers about mindsets and how they can help implement this intervention in their classrooms. Working with the teachers to implement a growth mindset classroom will immensely help the students develop this growth mindset. A study conducted by Dweck (2010) shows that students can change from a fixed mindset to a growth mindset when teachers are properly taught how to implement this intervention. Dweck (2010) has stated that when teachers foster a growth mindset, the students are better able to identify what they need to improve on.

Research Literature

Ever since Carol Dweck introduced the idea of a growth mindset with her book Mindset in 2006, researchers have created studies to learn more about this concept. Carol Dweck (2006) explained what a mindset is and how her research on achievement led her to this discovery. She found that in the United States around 40% of students have a fixed mindset, 40% have a growth mindset, and the other 20% have a mix of both (Dweck, 2006). An intervention was done with middle school children to teach them to have a growth mindset, and these students began to receive higher grades (Dweck, 2006).

A study conducted by Blackwell et al., (2007) implemented an intervention with African American and Latino students who were going into the seventh grade. These students had poor grades and were continually declining. Both the control and experimental group went through an eight-week study skills training; however, the experimental group also received training on growth mindset. Results show that those students who were in the experimental group began to improve drastically in regards to their grades.

Aronson et al. (2002) conducted an experiment with a growth mindset intervention for college students. The control group did not have a change in achievement, while the growth mindset intervention showed an increase in achievement. The most significant part is that the achievement gap between Caucasian and African American students no longer existed. Boaler (2013) came to the conclusion from her study that “fixed mindset beliefs contribute to inequalities in education as they particularly harm minority students and girls; they also contribute to overall low achievement and participation” (p. 143).

A study conducted by Grant and Dweck (2003) showed that students with a growth mindset were able to bounce back from a poor grade. This is not to say that a student with a growth mindset will not be upset by a poor grade; however, the actions they take afterward are much different from someone with a fixed mindset. The students with a growth mindset studied more effectively and ended up doing much better on the next test, while those with a fixed mindset did poorly again.

Finally, a study conducted by Claro, Paunesku, and Dweck (2016) in Chile showed that even students who had a low socioeconomic status were more likely to achieve higher grades if they had a growth mindset rather than a fixed mindset. This shows the importance of students to have a growth mindset, especially if they also suffer from other obstacles such as a low socioeconomic status. Students with similar characteristics and socioeconomic status were more likely to be successful if they held a growth mindset.

There is an abundance of research that supports the beneficial impact of teaching growth mindset to students. It is in the best interest of school systems to take this information and begin implementing a growth mindset intervention.

Best Practice

 

Social-Psychological interventions are relied on heavily when implementing a growth mindset. Social-Psychological interventions are brief interventions used in education that target a student’s thoughts, feelings, and beliefs in and about school (Yeager & Walton, 2011). Social-Psychological interventions come out of the theory of social psychology. Social psychology theory asserts that people’s thoughts, feelings, and beliefs are influenced by the actual, imagined, or implied presence of others. 

These interventions increase academic achievement even though they are not designed to teach the student academic related information. By changing the student’s thoughts, feelings, and beliefs about school and education, allows the student increased learning capacity because they believe that they can learn and achieve (Wilson & Burrick, 2016). Social-Psychological interventions use several different strategies and methods. Using specific types of praise and teaching short lessons on the intelligence malleability theory (brains ability to grow), and implementing a growth mindset culture and system are most commonly used.

When using praise, evidence suggests that receiving feedback is beneficial to students, there have been many studies focused on whether process or person praise is most efficient. Supporters of growth mindset support the idea that process praise is more beneficial than person praise. In 1999, Carol Dweck and Melissa Kamins described person praise as being based on a specific behavior or performance of an individual student. This type of praise teaches children to appraise themselves by their performance and ultimately produces more helpless reactions which can result in learned helplessness. Carol Dweck developed her theory of Growth Mindset because of her study of learned helplessness in animals and attribution theory.

During her studies, she concluded that how people attribute the cause of their success or failure influences how much effort they apply in the future (Yeager & Walton, 2011). If the way individuals evaluate their selves is cognitively, evaluation leads to a positive emotional outcome. Also, if there is a high expectation of future success, the person typically shows greater willingness to undertake such tasks in the future. Conversely, if the attribution leads to a negative feeling and low expectation of success, the person tends to act in a more helpless manner when placed in a similar situation. In contrast, process praise is focused on effort and strategy behind a behavior. This type of praise is focused more on the mastery of a behavior rather than the results yielded from the behavior. Phrases such as “you found a really good way to do that”, “I can tell you’ve really been practicing that”, and “you seem to really understand the process”, are all examples of process praise and are phrases that may be used when implementing a Social-Psychological intervention.

In general, intelligence is thought to be a result of genetics and environmental factors. The intelligence malleability theory asserts that human intelligence can be changed and increased. A study by Jones, Rakes, and Randon (2013), concluded that Malawian students who viewed intelligence as malleable and able to change and increase, did better academically than those who saw intelligence as a fixed construct. Therefore, teaching lessons that present intelligence in this manner supports the concept of growth mindset in its entirety.  

 A growth mindset culture consists of having small groups using growth mindset curriculum, educating teachers and staff about growth mindset, and making growth mindset a school wide theme. Research shows that kids who are taught about Growth Mindset perform better (King, 2016). Small group topics should include lessons on mindfulness, identifying brain basics, and self-talk. Classroom curriculum should also include these topics but will be taught on a larger scale to all students. It comes as no surprise that as the concepts of growth mindset is taught to students, faculty and staff will become interested. Conducting staff professional development training on what growth mindset is, is vital to successfully creating a school climate that promotes growth mindset.

Conclusion

In conclusion, fostering the development of a growth mindset will help to move students out of their fixed mindsets that they often find themselves trapped in. By teaching students how to view intelligence as being malleable, they can go from believing that they cannot accomplish something to believing that if they do not have the ability, they can gain that ability to do so. Students with a growth mindset have been shown to have better test scores and problem solving skills. By using a theoretical background of Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy, school counselors can help students break out of their fixed mindset and be on the road towards a growth mindset. Many studies have shown that by having a growth mindset, there can be a great amount of growth in the students' academic work, social lives, and eventually careers.

By using brief Social-Psychological interventions, the students can foster their own growth mindset. Teachers and counselors can implement change by praising student's work instead of praising their intelligence. By doing this, the students will believe that they can gain the ability to succeed instead of languishing in their fixed mindset. This comes from the irrational belief that since they are smart, then they should automatically be able to do anything, without the effort. By having a growth mindset culture, the students and teachers can have a better time in working together to accomplish their goals.

References

Aronson, J., Fried, C. B., & Good, C. (2002). Reducing the effects of stereotype threat on African American college students by shaping theories of intelligence. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 38(2),113-125.

Blackwell, L. S., Trzesniewski, K. H., & Dweck, C. S. (2007). Implicit theories of intelligence predict achievement across an adolescent transition: A longitudinal study and an intervention. Child Development, 78(1), 246-263.

Boaler, J. (2013). Ability and mathematics: The mindset revolution that is reshaping education. Forum, 55(1), 143.

Claro, S., Paunesku, D., & Dweck, C. S. (2016). Growth mindset tempers the effects of poverty on academic achievement. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 113(31), 8664-8668.

Corey, G. (2017). Theory and practice of counseling and psychotherapy. Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.

Dweck, C. S. (2010). Even geniuses work hard. Educational Leadership, 68(1), 16-20.

Dweck, C. S. (2006). Mindset: The new psychology of success. New York: Random House.

Grant, H., & Dweck, C. S. (2003). Clarifying achievement goals and their impact. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 85(3), 541-553.

Jones, B. D., Rakes, L., & Landon, K. (2013). Malawian secondary students’ beliefs about intelligence. International Journal of Psychology, 48(5), 785-796.

Kamins, M. L., & Dweck, C. S. (1999). Person versus process praise and criticism: Implications for contingent self-worth and coping. Developmental Psychology, 35(3), 835-847.

King, L. (2016). Mindset matters: a counseling curriculum to help students understand how to help themselves succeed with a growth mindset. Chattanooga, TN: National Center for Youth Issues.

Mercer, S., & Ryan, S. (2009). A mindset for EFL: Learners' beliefs about the role of natural talent. ELT Journal, 64(4), 436-444.

Sparks, S. D. (2013). Growth mindset gaining traction as school improvement strategy. Education Week, 33(3), 1-21.

Wilson, T. D., & Burrick, N. R. (2016). New directions in social psychological interventions to improve academic achievement. Journal of Educational Psychology, 108(3), 392-396.

Yeager, D. S., & Walton, G. M. (2011). Social-Psychological interventions in education: They're not magic. Review of Educational Research, 81(2), 267-301.