Building Growth Mindset in the Classroom: Concrete Practices to Support Student Persistence

Teachers at PS/IS 266, a public elementary and middle school in New York City, share the ways they have integrated growth mindset approaches and language into the classroom to help build student persistence. These approaches include establishing structures for peer-to-peer feedback, explicitly discussing the value of mistakes as students learn in order to encourage academic risk-taking, and creating opportunities for revision to give students a chance to apply what they learned through making mistakes or getting feedback. Together, these practices help students see mistakes and feedback on their work as a natural part of the learning process, rather than indicators of failure.

PS/IS 266 undertook this work as a member of the Academic and Personal Behaviors Pilot, an initiative of the New York City Department of Education Office of Postsecondary Readiness, and received coaching provided by OPSR partner Eskolta School Research and Design.

[SweetonSucculentswithMay]

Great practices. I utilize these practices and it builds an environment in which students feel comfortable taking academic risks.

[supersuper]

Good job that teachers made for their students.

[tiaturnbullchampionscoachi]

Ooooh my god! Wow! I haven't watched the whole video yet but I just heard an opportunity to do test corrections!!! When I went to school every test score was a whole life sentence on your never changing intelliegence and a justification why you would never get anywhere in life!! Thank god this is changing!!! All the horrible damage those fixed mindset schools did and are still doing to young people is a crime against humanity.

[JuanRios-khsq]

Great work. I love that I can relate to the look on some of the students faces when receiving feedback. It really is a love/hate thing. If I don't get feedback I'm like "hey wheres my feedback?" When I do get feedback half of my focus is diverted to managing the negative feelings that can crop up when receiving criticism, so I end up sitting there looking powered down while listening, trying to extract value, and actively managing my knee-jerk emotional response.

[trudysmith]

I like the idea of giving the students feedback slips with the growth mindset language on it. I also give my student the opportunity to revise their work-I can tell what the revisions are because of the color of pen or pencil that they use on their work. I am going to adopt the growth mindset bulletin board with the growth mindset ideas and strategies. I think it is very powerful if the students can look at it each day. I also like the sheet that gave suggestions for peer review. My students are younger and I think that would be helpful for them.

[englishispossible]

congratulations for your job! can you please tell me where i can find this chart. thank you.

[Theyluv_angie]

I GO THERE I SAW MY COUNSELOR FROM AFTER SKLL

[avenger]

Now I know why kids have so much attention.