1. An Introduction to the Mindsets Behind Academic Success
LEARNING MINDSETS SESSION 1
An Introduction to the Mindsets Behind Academic Success
Source: 2018 NYC Department of Education Transfer School Conference

2. “It’s okay to mess up and get back up
“It’s okay to mess up and get back up. And so with that I continued to mess up and get back up and mess up and get back up, until I finally finished.”
ESMERALDA FANERTE, TRANSFER SCHOOL ALMUNA

3. Objectives:
Explore the connection between student achievement and learning mindsets.
Identify strengths and areas for growth for developing practices that support learning mindsets. 3

4. A Story about Mindsets:
As you listen to The Story Behind Mindsets, note any connections to your own experiences as a teacher and learner. 4

5. Discuss Connections:
Individually reflect in writing and then discuss in pairs:
Think of a student who you think experienced a “flipping the switch” moment.
Who were they?
What happened?
What do you think caused that change? 5

6. Three Learning Mindsets
Mindsets For Perseverance
To persist in hard work, students need to learn from setbacks, believe that effort will pay off, and have a sense of belonging and ownership over their own learning. #1
Growth Mindset #2
Value for Learning #3
Sense of Belonging 6
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7. Mindset #1: My effort leads to growth.
Claudia Mueller & Carol Dweck (1998)
After an easy task, praising effort or intelligence led to similar student performance. But after failure, students whose effort was praised took on challenges.
Effort praise
Intelligence praise
“You must have worked hard!”
Easy Task
“You’re so smart!
Problems Solved 6 5 4 3 2 1
Difficult Task 7
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8. Mindset #2: This work has value to me.
Hulleman and Harackiewicz (2009)
Every 3-4 weeks after an assignment for a semester, randomly selected ninth-grade science students either wrote about the utility value of the material in their own lives or summarized the material.
Control Group
Part A: Pick one of the topics or concepts that we have covered in this unit.
Part B: Summarize main parts of this topic/concept.
Relevance Group
Part A: Pick one of the topics or concepts that we have covered in this unit and briefly summarize the
main parts.
Part B: Apply this topic/concept to your life, or to the life of someone you know. How might the information be useful to you/them in daily life? How does learning about this topic apply to your future plans? 8
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9. Mindset #2: This work has value to me.
Hulleman and Harackiewicz (2009)
Students in the relevance group who did not expect to do well reported higher levels of interest in science and improved their grades.
Do not expect to do well
Expect to do well
Science Class GPA
3.5
3.0
2.5
2.0
1.5
Control
Relevance 9
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10. Mindset #3: I belong here.
Claude Steele & Joshua Aronson (1995)
Researchers found a racial achievement gap when students were told “this is a test of your verbal abilities,” before an assessment. That gap was erased when researchers told students, “we're trying to understand the factors involved in solving verbal problems,” prior to taking the same assessment.
Testing Abilities
Mean Items Solved
Black Students
White Students 12 10 8 6 4 2
Testing Factors 10
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11. Mindset #3: I belong here.
David Yaeger et al., (2013)
Students were given two different kinds of feedback: either generic comments such as “I'm giving you these comments so that you’ll have feedback on your paper;” or feedback expressing high expectations: “I'm giving you these comments because I have very high expectations and I know that you can reach them.” The racial achievement gap all but disappeared for those who received feedback expressing high expectations.
Standard
Standard Feedback
Revisions Submitted
Black Students
White Students
100%
80%
60%
40%
20% 0%
High Expectations 11
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12. Discuss: What resonated with your experience?
What challenged or extended your thinking on this subject?
What implications do you see for your school, classroom, and students? 12

13. Self-Assess:
Consider practices in your own classroom that cultivate learning mindsets.
Which practices have a strong presence in your own work with students?
Which do you think would be valuable to implement?
Star the top three practices you would like to strengthen. 13

14. Share and Synthesize:
In pairs, share the top three practices you would like to strengthen.
Discuss:
Where did we rate ourselves in similar ways?
Where did our ratings diverge?
What might be the reasons behind that?
What are potential next steps for cultivating positive learning mindsets for our students? 14

15. Learning Wrap-Up Reflect on what you learned today.
How do your takeaways compare to the session’s Learning Objectives? How were these objectives addressed today?
LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
Explore the connection between student achievement and learning mindsets.
Identify strengths and areas for growth for developing practices that support learning mindsets. 15

16. What’s next?
Learn more about how schools have developed practices for cultivating mindsets.
Further explore research behind learning mindsets.
Understand the impact of mindsets on students’ experiences in school.
Explore research behind and strategies for fostering growth mindset, value for learning, and sense of belonging.
Develop instructional practices that build student mindsets. 16