Shifting Gears from Fixed to Growth Mindset

Suraasa Team

Suraasa Team helps teachers in their career needs - mentorship, upskilling, and jobs.

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Jaime Escalante, a Bolivian-America mathematics teacher, came into the limelight when 18 of his students cracked the Advanced Placement Calculus exam with flying colours. If you like to watch inspirational movies, ‘Stand and Deliver’ (1988) is a must-watch movie based on his life as a teacher.

‍He is a part of this post because the growth mindset is what his students portray. Whether or not he was aware of the concept of growth mindset, we would not know, but his understanding of the concept was quite deep and he implemented it quite effectively. Thankfully, today, we have a lot of information available on the concept and can use strategies to change the fixed mindset of our learners to a growth mindset.

Fixed Mindset- A belief that intelligence is static.	Growth Mindset- A belief that intelligence can be developed.
When the learners:	The teacher must encourage them to:
Avoid challenges	Embrace challenges
Learner says– I am not good at maths.	Teacher says– You are not good at maths yet. Struggle is a part of the learning process. When you keep trying you will become good at maths.
Give up when faced with obstacles	Persist despite obstacles
Learner says– I can’t do it.	Teacher says– When you learn something new, your brain becomes stronger.
See effort as fruitless	See effort as a means to success
Learner says– What’s the point of doing this, I won’t get it anyway.	Teacher says– Brain is a muscle that needs to be exercised, you must work out to make it stronger.
Are discouraged by constructive feedback	Learn from constructive feedback
Learner says– I am not intelligent.	Teacher says– Whenever this thought comes to your mind, say I am capable of learning and growing.
Are easily threatened by others' success	Be inspired by others' success
Learner says– She is so smart, I can never be like her.	Teacher says– Let’s figure out how she solved the problem, if she can do it, so can you.