This week, 6th-grade students are beginning to learn about growth mindset, the belief that with effort and perseverance, they can succeed! If you’ve never heard about growth mindset, Dr. Carol Dweck, a researcher at Stanford University, has identified two belief systems that impact student achievement and success–fixed mindset vs. growth mindset.
A fixed mindset is one where we believe that our children’s innate abilities, talents, and intelligence are fixed. They are either “good” or talented at something or they are not. With this mindset, a child may think to themselves, “I’m not good at this,” and feel that they do not have the ability to get any better at something.
A growth mindset is the belief that intelligence, skills, and talent are malleable, and they can change with effort, perseverance, and practice. For example, with this mindset, your child believes that they may struggle with math, but if they keep trying, they will get it. Having a growth mindset also means believing that it’s okay to struggle or fail because we learn from our mistakes.
While it’s difficult to watch our kids fail or struggle when they are working toward something, it’s important to help our kids understand that mistakes and failure are part of the learning process, just as it was when they were learning to walk or talk or ride a bike.
Here are links to videos we watched during our growth mindset lesson this week as well as other informative videos so that you can better understand what your child is learning, and I encourage you to visit with them about it at home.
