Growth Mindset Feedback
Overview
Providing feedback that focuses on the process of developing skills conveys the importance of effort and motivates students to persist when learning. When students believe that their skills can be developed through dedication and hard work instead of innate abilities, they can develop a growth mindset. Research has shown that this type of feedback is particularly supportive of marginalized students, especially for math achievement, as it supports a positive Math Mindset.
Example: Use This Strategy in the Classroom
Watch this informational video about the most effective type of praise to increase a student's growth mindset.
Design It into Your Product
Videos are chosen as examples of strategies in action. These choices are not endorsements of the products or evidence of use of research to develop the feature.
Learn how Motion Math provides a variety of adaptive games that playfully teach conceptual foundations of math while also fostering a love for challenge by providing growth mindset feedback.
Additional Resources
Additional examples, research, and professional development. These resources are possible representations of this strategy, not endorsements.
Factors Supported by this Strategy
More Teacher Modeling & Support Strategies
Teachers support language development by using and providing vocabulary and syntax that is appropriately leveled (e.g., using simple sentences when introducing complex concepts).
Content that is provided in clear, short chunks can support students' Working Memory.
Building positive and trusting relationships with learners allows them to feel safe, a Sense of Belonging, and that their academic, cognitive, and social and emotional needs are supported.
Actively and authentically encouraging all students to seek support, ask questions, and advocate for what they believe in creates a safe space for risk-taking and skill development and supports a Sense of Belonging.
Teachers can help students understand that learning involves effort, mistakes, and reflection by teaching them about their malleable brain and modeling their own learning process.
By talking through their thinking at each step of a process, teachers can model what learning looks like.
Teachers sharing math-to-self, math-to-math, and math-to-world connections model math schema building.
Maintaining consistent classroom routines and schedules ensures that students are able to trust and predict what will happen next.
Providing students a voice in their learning is critical for making learning meaningful.
Wait time, or think time, of three or more seconds after posing a question increases how many students volunteer and the length and accuracy of their responses.
