Mindset Interventions & Individual Skills-Building

Encourage a Growth Mindset

Growth mindset is the belief that intelligence and the ability to learn is not a fixed trait but, rather, is malleable and can improve (Dweck, 1986; Dweck & Leggett, 1988; Blackwell, Trzesniewski & Dweck, 2007). Having a growth mindset has been shown to be positively correlated with student achievement scores, as well as with adaptive coping strategies after academic failures or challenges (Bostwick et al., 2017; Dweck, 2006). You can support your students in applying a growth mindset, altering how they see themselves in relation to academic challenges. See Professor Sarah-Jane Leslie’s published work on this in relation to discipline-specific beliefs about ability.

Research into growth mindset shows that any student can become more knowledgeable and skilled and achieve at high levels in most fields if they invest effort, attend to their methods of learning, utilize resources, tap into their enduring motivations, and actively engage in a supportive community while maximizing their existing abilities.

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Example practices

The strategies below are organized along the timeline of a course: from development and syllabus planning, to early weeks / ongoing throughout the semester.

Course Development and Planning

  • Allow graduate students to submit drafts of Generals materials a few weeks ahead of time, to create space for a “revise and resubmit” process.

Early (First Two Weeks)/ Ongoing

  • Endorse a growth mindset: In addition to conveying your own experiences and beliefs, include some of the many resources created to support students’ development of growth mindset.
  • Allow students to fix mistakes and work through problems they’ve encountered so they can see the progress being made.
  • Help students focus less on competition and performance and more on learning and mastery. Recognize that grading systems which put students in direct competition for limited rewards (e.g., high grades) can increase students’ focus on competition.
  • Discuss and model self-regulation strategies (such as goal-setting, self-talk, time management plans, and addressing emotions) for learning and applying content. Refer students to the McGraw Center and elsewhere to work with trained personnel on these methods and processes.
  • Find small ways to make faculty struggles visible such as “the CV of failure.”
  • Don’t assume that all students enter your cohorts or classrooms with the same familiarity with academic culture and customs. Make explicit the invisible expectations and academic processes that undergraduate and graduate students may not yet have encountered or fully understood. Provide “how to” advice, which may include who/when to write thank you notes, how to respond to reviewers of publications, what happens in office hours, how to ask for recommendation letters, and format presentations, for example.
  • Consider bringing in your own works in progress or showing earlier stages of papers and presentations.