A growth mindset is the mentality of a person who believes that his or her skills, capabilities, and knowledge can improve over time. If you have a growth mindset, you will thrive on adversity. Don’t allow failures to define you, and look for ways to grow as a result.
Students that have a growth mindset know that intelligence is not innate and that they may get better at it by working at it. That’s why they’ll put in extra time and effort to successfully finish a task. They also see learning as a process that goes on over time, not as a one-time accomplishment.
Developing a growth mindset in students will help them succeed in their studies because how they view their lives will be different.
Their struggles with homework, school projects, and other school performance will be seen as opportunities to grow, improve, and learn more. They take failures and setbacks as part of their learning process and let them give them the strength to keep moving forward.
Teaching children to have a growth mindset is something that can be learned, but it takes time and practice. To be effective, this strategy calls for continuous teaching that both teaches students and shows them that they can get better at what they’re doing. Here are some activities that will help students develop a growth mindset:
Reflection and Self-Assessment – Give them time to think and reflect on the work they are doing. Make them write a list of what they are lacking, what they need to improve on, and what they did best for that activity. This is a powerful tool to assess and understand their behavior.
Praise the effort, not the accomplishment – Praising their effort and their strategy to approach the assignment rather than recognizing their talent will give them a guide for future improvement.
Teach them to embrace their flaws – One of the finest things you can do for your students is to help them change the way they think about their own mistakes. Motivate your kids to see their failures as building blocks on the way to success.
Teach them to see challenges as an opportunity to grow – Keep in mind that in every challenge there’s a lesson, whether you win or lose. Talk together about their mistakes and analyze how they can still benefit from them. The more students feel comfortable talking about their own failures, the less they will worry about making similar mistakes in the future.
Encourage positive self-talk – Teach them positive phrases that illustrate a growth mentality. Turn their “I can’t” into “I can,” “this is too hard” into “I need to put more time and effort in,” and “I can’t make it” into “not yet.”
Parents influence the self-perceptions of children with their words and deeds. Since they are together every day, children usually learn from their parents. That’s why it is important that they be careful with their words and actions towards their children. One of the primary responsibilities of parents is to encourage their children to adopt a growth mindset. But how can parents help their children?
Parents can share stories with their children when they possess a growing mindset. With this, children will realize that there’s room for improvement and that anything can change and be achieved if they put more time and effort into it.
Parents should be careful about praising their children. Make sure to praise the effort, hard work, and perseverance they put in rather than praising the accomplishment itself.
Praising their achievement, like saying “You are smart, you learned so fast.” might hurt their feelings and make them think that they need to be smart or intelligent to achieve things.
Parents should see challenges and failures as an opportunity for their children to grow and learn.
Avoiding them from encountering setbacks might be harmful in the future since they don’t know how to handle challenges in life. If they encounter any failure, do not whitewash the failure; instead, tell them that you understand it is frustrating and that they can still improve; they just have to put in more effort and work harder if they really want to excel.
Parents can also teach their children to not be envious of the success of other people.
Tell them the process of how they became successful—the time, hard work, practice, and perseverance they put in to achieve that success. With this, children can learn from other people, and the success of others will be an inspiration to them.
Encourages more effective study techniques—Adopting a growth mindset teaches students that their innate intelligence is malleable and that they can push their limits.They are more resilient and self-motivated, able to handle the challenges of school with ease. They are also inspired to take responsibility for their own education and actively seek out strategies that will improve their learning.
Motivates students to take risks—Students that have a growth mindset are able to maintain a positive perspective despite setbacks. In addition, it encourages them to broaden their horizons beyond their current set of skills and to look within for ways to improve themselves
Help students to be more flexible – Students will develop resilience and a willingness to stick with a challenge if they are taught to adopt a growth mindset. They will learn that changes are really part of life and it encourages them to venture outside their comfort zone and pursue new experiences.
Maintain a Healthy Mind and Body – Students who have a growth mindset understand how to deal with stress and difficulties in their lives. Being able to face challenges with ease will contribute to their overall well-being.
Success in life/career – Students with a growth mentality aren’t afraid to try and fail repeatedly until they succeed. In spite of setbacks, they keep moving forward.
