What is a Growth Mindset?

Carol Dweck, a renowned psychologist at Stanford University has spent many years researching what it is that makes us achieve things and succeed. Her ground-breaking theories distinguish between the two different 'Mindsets', which all of us, including your students, will have.

In a 'Fixed Mindset', your students will believe that their intelligence, talents and qualities are something fixed and that their talents alone will lead to success without effort and development. That, according to Dweck, is untrue. In fact, the suggestion is that a Fixed Mindset actually stands in the way of your students’ success.

In a 'Growth Mindset', Dweck suggests that your students will realise that their abilities and talents can be nurtured and developed as a result of hard work and dedication. The talents and intelligence with which they are born merely provide a starting point.

When a person has a 'Growth Mindset', it creates a resilience and a love for learning ; two essential ingredients for long-term success and achievement. Dweck believes that almost all of the world's most successful people will have a 'Growth Mindset'. 

As a teacher, how powerful would it be if you could move all of your students to a 'Growth Mindset'? They would be motivated, resilient and above all, when things get tough, they will persevere. It will have a positive effect on their school work, social lives and relationships in general.

The Happy Puzzle Company’s workshops will cleverly start to instil in your students, the seeds of a 'Growth Mindset' and after the workshops, you will easily be able to see the progress each student continues to make. 

What your students will learn from our workshops…

1. Never give up: If your attempts to solve a problem do not seem to work, try something different. Look at the problem from a different perspective. Make the information in front of you work in a different way. Use different strategies.

2. Combine your skills with those of the people around you: Listen to the ideas of others. Think about how your ideas can be combined to come up with a solution. Above all, remember how much we can learn from each other.

3. Get involved: Everyone has something to offer. Don’t sit silently just listening. Remember that your ideas will also spark ideas in others.

4. Take calculated risks: Success often comes from trying and failing a few times. Each time you don’t succeed, use what you have learned to push forward towards a solution.

5. Challenge yourself: Don’t restrict yourself to attempting things that seem easy. Go for the harder option and consider the benefits that will come with success.

6. Be the best that YOU can be: Don’t worry about what everyone else can do, or how quickly they can do it. Concentrate on pushing yourself and being proud of your own achievements.

7. Become a master of new skills: Try something new, learn how to do new things, improve the range of things that you can do. Your confidence will grow when you master something new.

8. There’s no such thing as a wrong answer: An answer can be ‘not right’, but we can use that to help us get to the right answer. When an answer is not right, it allows us to eliminate possibilities and can lead us towards the right answer.

9. You can do anything you put your mind to: We are learning and growing the whole time. You really can make amazing things happen.

During the workshops your students may ask themselves; 'Am I sure I can do it? Maybe I am not clever enough!'. The 'Growth Mindset' will replace that with; 'I might not be able to do this now, but if I put thought, time and effort into the task then I believe I can learn more how to do it!'. 

Your students may also tell themselves; 'If I don't try then there is no chance of me looking stupid when I mess things up!'. The 'Growth Mindset' will change that response to; 'If I don't try then I have no possible chance of succeeding, which is what I want to do.'.

And perhaps most importantly, your students may tell themselves; 'If I don't succeed at the task, that will make me a failure.'. These workshops aim to change that response to an understanding that the world's most successful people have almost always experienced failures along the path to success. Of course, as teachers, we instil into our students the fact that it's ok to fail. These workshops will take that a stage further and turn a failure into something that drives you forward with determination and perseverance.