1. Fixed or Growth Mindset?
Carol Dweck’s research on students’ self- theories and how they affect motivation, resilience and aspirations.

2. Carol Dweck’s Self-Theories
Their Role in Motivation, Personality & Development (Psychology Press, 1999)

3. Carol Dweck’s self-theories
Carol Dweck has done research over the last 30 years with children and young adults in the USA
She is particularly interested in how students view themselves as learners
Their self-theory is likely to have a major effect on their self-belief, their motivation to learn and their resilience

5. Logan – Y5 Bailey Green Primary School
“Intelligence is where you have the capacity to work out something you might not know”
Logan – Y5
Bailey Green Primary School

6. Fixed Mindset – Entity Learner Growth Mindset – Incremental Learner
Carol Dweck’s research into self-theories has shown most people have one of two mindsets
Fixed Mindset – Entity Learner
Growth Mindset – Incremental Learner

7. Self-Theories: Entity(Fixed) v Incremental(Growth)
Carol Dweck - Self-Theories: Their Role in Motivation, Personality and Development, Psychology Press, 1999
Self-Theories: Entity(Fixed) v Incremental(Growth)
Mindset
About 40% of US students hold an incremental theory of ability
Slide 7

8. Self-Theories: Entity(Fixed) v Incremental(Growth)
Carol Dweck - Self-Theories: Their Role in Motivation, Personality and Development, Psychology Press, 1999
Self-Theories: Entity(Fixed) v Incremental(Growth)
Mindset
About 40% of US students hold an entity theory of ability
Easy praise is not the answer - it makes the situation worse
Slide 8

9. Do you recognize these traits in students you teach?
Discuss in pairs

10. OFSTED – outstanding grade descriptor
The pupils acquire knowledge, develop understanding and learn and practise skills exceptionally well.
Pupils demonstrate excellent concentration and are rarely off task, even during extended periods without direction from an adult.
They have developed resilience when tackling challenging activities in a range of subjects.
Their keenness and commitment to succeed in all aspects of school life and abilities to grasp opportunities to extend and improve their learning are exceptional.
Progress is at least good in each key stage, key subjects and for different groups and is exemplary in some.

11. What promotes motivation for learning?
The hallmark of successful individuals is that they love learning, they value effort and they persist in the face of obstacles. In her book “Self-theories”, Carol Dweck presents research that explains why some students (incremental learners) display this growth mindset and others (entity learners) do not. She also shows how, in the right environment, students can learn to become incremental learners.

12. What promotes motivation for learning?
Four Beliefs and Four Truths about Ability, Success, Praise and Confidence
(Carol Dweck – Self-Theories, 1999)

13. 1. The belief that students with high ability are more likely to display a growth mindset
You might think that students who were highly skilled would be the ones to relish a challenge and persevere in the face of setbacks. Instead, many of these students are the most worried about failure, and the most likely to question their ability and to wilt when they hit obstacles (Leggett, 1985)

14. 2. The belief that success in school directly fosters a growth mindset
You might also think that when students succeed, they are emboldened and energized to seek out more challenging tasks. The truth is that success in itself does little to boost students’ desire for challenge or their ability to cope with setbacks. In fact we can see that it can have quite the opposite effect. (Diener & Dweck, 1978, 1980)

15. 3. The belief that praise, particularly praising a student’s intelligence, encourages mastery-oriented qualities (growth mindset)
This is a most cherished belief in our society. One can hardly walk down the street without hearing parents telling their children how smart they are. The hope is that such praise will instil confidence and thereby promote a host of desirable qualities. Far from promoting the hoped for qualities, this type of praise can lead students to fear failure, avoid risks, doubt themselves when they fail and cope poorly with setbacks. (Mueller & Dweck, 1998)

16. 4. The belief that students’ confidence in their intelligence is the key to mastery-oriented qualities (growth mindset)
In a way, it seems only logical to assume that students who have confidence in their intelligence – who clearly believe they are smart – would have nothing to fear from challenge and would be somehow inoculated against the ravages of failure. But many of the most confident individuals do not want their intelligence too stringently tested, and their high confidence is all too quickly shaken when they are confronted with difficulty. (Henderson & Dweck, 1990; Dweck & Lin, 1998)

17. Task Work in pairs or threes.
Take three cards from the envelope: two horses and one card with two jockeys.
Position the three cards so that each jockey is sitting on horseback.
Do not fold the cards.

18. How do you view yourself – an incremental learner (growth mindset) or an entity learner fixed mindset)? Has your self-theory changed or stayed the same since your school days?
Discuss in pairs or threes for two or three minutes –
Explain why you think you have this self-theory

19. How do we move our pupils from Entity Learners to Incremental Learners?
Teachers are incremental learners – good role models
Essential that we show them we believe their intelligence is not fixed
We need to make them believe they can improve
We need to ensure they know how to improve
Collaborative classroom environment where pupils take responsibility for their own learning
Pupils understand the Growth Mindset and how it can help them

20. Carol Dweck interview (1)
The origins of Growth Mindset

21. Process Praise We need to praise: Effort
Strategies that lead towards success
Good learning processes (AfL strategies)
Resilience
We should not praise:
Intelligence, “cleverness” or talent

22. A different view of self-esteem
Self-esteem for Entity Learners can be boosted in the short term by easy success – but does not last and is just as easily diminished by failures
Self-esteem for Incremental Learners is much more resilient and less likely to be affected by failure
It is a positive way of experiencing yourself when you are fully engaged and using all your abilities in pursuit of something you value
True self-esteem is not something we give people by telling them about their high intelligence

23. When failure undermines and when failure motivates: helpless and mastery-oriented responses (C.Dweck)
Y5 & Y6 students were given a series of conceptual problems to solve
All children could solve the first eight problems, with hints or training if needed
They could not solve the next four problems as these were too difficult for their age
What happened to their thoughts, feelings and actions when confronted with this failure?

24. Entity Learners
Quickly began to denigrate their abilities and blame their intelligence for failures (“I’m no good at this”)
Moments before they had been successful and their performance was just as good as Incremental Learners
Following failure, many now thought they could not solve the problems they had just got right!
They also thought they had got more problems wrong than right! (in fact they had got twice as many right)
Their fragile self-belief quickly disappeared

25. Incremental Learners
Did not blame their intelligence for failure, in fact most did not even see themselves as failing!
Tended to issue instructions to themselves on how to improve performance (eg “I should try to slow down and figure this out”)
Remained confident that they would succeed
Retained the positive mood that they had shown while solving the easier problems
Retained their self-belief in the face of difficulty
(Dweck – Self-Theories 1999)

26. Discuss in pairs for two minutes
How can we promote a positive view of failure & mistakes in the classroom?
Discuss in pairs for two minutes

27. Y6 Shiremoor Primary School
Children discuss how they would react with a Growth Mindset in different scenarios
Y6 Shiremoor Primary School

28. Bright Girls’ Helpless Responses
In Dweck’s research, students with the most striking history of success were often the most, rather than the least, vulnerable when confronted with difficulties or failure. These are the bright girls.
Bright girls were more vulnerable than lower achieving girls (with boys it was the opposite) and more concerned with looking smart.

29. How did a rigid setting system affect students?
There was no evidence that setting raised achievement
But there was evidence that setting diminished achievement for some students
There was much evidence that the students who were disadvantaged by this system were predominantly working class, female or very able.
Jo Boaler, 1997

30. Jo Boaler’s research: setting & high achieving girls
“In set 1 for example, the students who experienced the most difficulties in response to setting were originally the highest attainers in the group. At the end of Y8, immediately before the students were setted, Carly & Lorna attained the highest and second highest NFER scores in the school. At the end of Y11 these two students achieved the lowest GCSE grades in set 1 (grade E)”
Setting, Social class & Survival of the Quickest,
Jo Boaler – British educational Research Journal, 1997

31. Interview with these two girls
JB: Can you think of some good and bad things about being in set 1? L: I can think of the bad things C: I agree. JB: OK, what are the bad things? L: You’re expected to know everything, even if you’re not sure about things C: You’re pushed too hard. L: He expects you to work all the time at a high level. C: It makes me do less work, they expect too much of me and I can’t give it so I just give up. (Carly & Lorna, Amber Hill, Year 11, Set 1)

32. Using Carol Dweck’s Mindsets with Y7 accelerated group
“I was surprised to find that two girls who came out as clear entity learners from the Carol Dweck Intelligence Theory Questionnaire were the top two in the year group in Midyis scores”
Louise Skinner, Longbenton College

33. High achieving girls and A level Maths
A level Maths requires students to fail intelligently (and learn from their failure)
Many high achieving girls (and boys as well) cannot cope with this unless they are incremental learners or unless their teacher promotes a Growth Mindset

34. How to maximise student achievement in a setting system?
Discuss with a partner for two minutes

35. How to maximise student achievement in a setting system?
Be honest with students about where they are and what they need to do to improve
High expectations for students in low ability groupings
Collaborative learning
Leave space in top set for promotion
Make sure they have the chance to progress to a higher set, so move between sets twice a term
Avoid reinforcing the fixed mindset!

36. How do we move entity learners towards becoming incremental learners?
Ask children when they feel smart……

37. When do you feel smart? Entity learners: “When I don’t make mistakes”
“When I finish my work first”
“When I get easy work
Incremental Learners:
“When I don’t know how to do it and its pretty hard and I figure it out without anyone telling me”
“When I’m doing school work because I want to learn to get smart”
“When I’m reading a hard book”

38. How do we move entity learners towards becoming incremental learners?
Ask students how they define intelligence…

39. What does intelligence mean?
Entity Learners:
“How smart you are”
“Inborn ability to learn complex ideas”
“The ability to survive with the least effort while still doing really well”
Incremental Learners:
“Studying hard”
“The amount of knowledge you possess and how you use it”
“How much effort you put into something”

40. How do we move entity learners towards becoming incremental learners?
Get Incremental Learners to give advice to Entity Learners:
Q. “What advice would you give to a child in your class who was having trouble with Math?
“Do you quit a lot? Do you think for a minute and then stop? If you do, you should think for a long time – two minutes maybe and if you can’t get it you should read the problem again. If you can’t get it then, you should raise your hand and ask the teacher.” (second grade child)
Mindset by C Dweck

41. How we promote an Incremental Mindset
Discuss the Incremental Learner & Entity Learner Mindmap slides with children
Ask them when they feel smart & why
Discuss easy work and difficult work (which helps you learn more?)
Discuss the importance of challenge and having a go at difficult tasks
Why mistakes are good
Discuss sporting and other role-models
Discuss the Growth Mindset & Process Praise with parents
Focus on Learning

43. Good KS2-KS3 transition – a key issue in EAZ
In Y7 the work may become harder in some subjects (may be easier in others!)
Grading may become more stringent
Instruction may be less personalised
Students may initially be less clear about what their teachers require of them
Classroom environment may seem less safe

44. What happens to entity learners after transition to High School
What happens to entity learners after transition to High School? Carol Dweck’s research findings
Many showed a marked decline in their class standing
Those who had done poorly in Y6 tended to continue to do poorly
Many who had been high achievers in Y6 were now among the lower achievers
Many who showed this decline had held high confidence in their intelligence
Were significantly more apprehensive about their school work and tended to be more anxious about school in general
Did show some recovery in their standing in Y8 but were still clearly below where they had been in Primary School
Henderson & Dweck 1990

45. What happens to Incremental Learners after transition to High School
What happens to Incremental Learners after transition to High School? Carol Dweck’s research findings
Many showed a clear improvement in their class standing
Those who had done well in Y6 continued to do well
Many of those who had been among the lower achievers in Y6 were now doing much better, often entering the ranks of higher achievers
Many of those making the most impressive gains were those with low confidence in their intelligence
Henderson & Dweck 1990

46. Y7 progress in relation to Mindset