Education Week - September 21, 2016 - 10

As K-12 Embraces 'Growth Mindset,' More Guidance Sought
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

going to get discarded," said Jacquie
Beaubien, a senior program manager for the Project for Education
Research That Scales, or PERTS,
a Stanford University research lab
that investigates practical ways to
put mindset research to work in
K-12 schools.
Without effective, research-based
practices, teachers may abandon
growth mindset as just another
buzzword or fad, Beaubien said.
That's why the Stanford lab is offering online training modules for
teachers, creating a diagnostic tool
to determine if their classroom
practices are supported by mindset
research, and assessing their professional-development needs around
the subject.
In its survey of teachers, the Education Week Research Center found
that 53 percent of respondents said
that their use of growth mindset
was a very important factor contributing to academic achievement,
ranking it below others such as
motivation, teaching quality, and
school climate. An online poll of a
national sample of more than 600
teachers who are registered users of
edweek.org was conducted in May.

Demand for Practical Training
It's not uncommon for teachers to
want more practical training in how
to use mindset research, even if they
are very interested in the concept,
educators noted. Many teachers
didn't learn about this approach to
student motivation in their preservice training, instead picking up on
it from books, articles, and discussions with peers.
As a result, Stanford researchers
working with focus groups found
that those teachers often have misconceptions about the research.
Among them: equating a growth
mindset with a general sense of
optimism, emphasizing sheer effort
instead of teaching students to develop new learning strategies, and
focusing on how they communicate
with students rather than adapting
broader classroom practices.
"They become very focused on labeling students' behavior and not
really probing what's driving that
behavior," Beaubien said, adding
that some teachers mistakenly identify a student with a lack of interest
in a subject as someone who has a
fixed mindset and a fear of making
mistakes in front of his or her peers.
Just 35 percent of teachers surveyed by Education Week's Research Center said their training
and professional development had
included strategies for collaborating
with other teachers on incorporating
growth-mindset concepts into their
classroom practices, which researchers have identified as an important
way to develop strong and meaningful approaches to using their work.
Respondents did demonstrate an
understanding of mindset research.
A majority identified the kinds of
student praise that would be more
likely to nurture a growth mindset.
(The Education Week Research Cen-

SURVEY QUESTION:

How often have you engaged
in the following practices
in your typical classroom?
More than 600 teachers responded. The results:
■ Every day ■ A few times a week or month ■ A few times a year, or never

PRACTICES THAT FOSTER GROWTH MINDSET

Praising students
for their effort

74%

Encouraging students who are
already doing well to keep trying
to improve

61

25

1

38

2

Staying Informed Is a Challenge

Encouraging students to try
new strategies when they are
struggling

58

Praising students for their
learning strategies

41

50

Suggesting that students seek
help from other students on their
schoolwork

48

56

38

1

3

6

PRACTICES THAT DO NOT FOSTER GROWTH MINDSET

Telling students that it is alright to
struggle because not everyone is good
at a given subject

43

36%

Praising students
for their intelligence

27

Praising students for earning good
scores or grades

27

Encouraging students by telling them
a new topic will be easy to learn

16

56

42

To learn more about educators' experiences and views regarding the concept
of growth mindset, the Education Week Research Center administered an online survey
to a national sample of classroom teachers who are registered users of edweek.org.
Although the sample for the survey is not statistically representative of the nation's
teachers, the study captures the views of a diverse group of respondents whose schools
vary in size, poverty level, and location.
Note: Percentages may not total 100 because of rounding.
SOURCE: Education Week Research Center, 2016

21

36

37

ABOUT THE SURVEY

10 | EDUCATION WEEK | September 21, 2016 | www.edweek.org

ter consulted a panel of experts on
the subject to formulate that question). And a majority of respondents
reported using on a daily or weekly
basis practices that experts have
linked to promoting growth mindsets-such as praising students
for effort. Fewer respondents said
they used practices known to lock
in a fixed mindset, such as praising
students for their intelligence, on a
daily or weekly basis.
When asked how they integrated
growth mindset into their teaching
practices, 33 percent of respondents
said they did so by praising students
for taking risks and persevering, the
most popular answer.
Less popular among respondents were other strategies that
researchers say promote growth
mindsets: using formative assessments, self-evaluation, and assignment revisions, 18 percent;
encouraging multiple strategies
for learning, 17 percent; and supporting peer-to-peer learning, 13
percent. Leaders of ongoing schoolwide and districtwide professional
development in mindsets say those
deeper changes to classroom practices are necessary to help students
learn how to respond to mistakes.

Another problem identified by the
Stanford lab-high teacher-turnover rates in high-poverty schools-
makes it difficult to keep a teaching
staff informed about the concept.
That's especially problematic because researchers have found that
while students from low-income
families are less likely to have a
growth mindset, their learning is affected more dramatically than their
wealthier peers' when they adopt
the approach to learning.
Some districts, both high- and
low-income, have worked to address
that churn effect by making mindsets part of ongoing discussions and
working groups.
In Baltimore, what the Stanford
researchers call a "mindset revolution" started when two teachers became interested in the concept and
formed a group of peers in their
school to read books and share

17

41

Great job. You must
have worked really
hard on this.

This is easy, you will
get it in no time.
TEST YOURSELF.
Which statements would promote
a growth mindset in students?

TAKE OUR QUIZ
www.edweek.org/go/
MindsetGrowthQuiz
http://www.edweek.org http://www.edweek.org http://www.edweek.org/go/MindsetGrowthQuiz http://www.edweek.org/go/MindsetGrowthQuiz http://www.edweek.org
Education Week - September 21, 2016

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