Global Mindset Initiative Paper 1: Growth Mindset Cultures and Teacher Practices

Abstract

This article forwards a vision for enhancing equity and educational outcomes by creating growth mindset cultures in schools and classrooms. In growth mindset classroom cultures, teachers provide a coherent meaning system for students’ mindsets, goals, beliefs, and behaviors. By normalizing and infusing growth mindset beliefs and behaviors into routine practices and interactions, these classroom cultures give students (and teachers) a shared and productive way to understand challenges, setbacks, and learning inside and outside the classroom, ultimately benefiting their longer-term academic trajectories. In describing the possibility and promise of growth mindset cultures, we focus on the role of teachers and their instructional practices in creating these cultures. We provide a framework for integrating evidence-based instructional practices and growth mindset research. Finally, we chart an ambitious research agenda describing questions the field must answer if we are to create effective growth mindset cultures that spur students’ motivation and learning in school.

Keywords: growth mindset, interventions, inequality, motivation, education, classroom cultures, teacher beliefs, teacher practices