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Portrait of a Learner 9-12

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Portrait of a Learner 9-12 > Factors > Learner Mindset

Learner Mindset

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Factor Connections

Hover to see how factors connect to Learner Mindset. Then click connected factors to explore strategies related to multiple factors.

A learner's Mindset is a lens through which learners see the world. It affects their beliefs, attributions, attitudes, and behaviors that can either help or hinder their learning. For example, a learner's Mindset about their intelligence and abilities can have a huge impact on how they approach learning challenges, affecting academic achievement in turn. Environmental factors ranging from feedback from teachers and caregivers, adults' reactions to mistakes, or school and classroom performance indicators, play an influential role in the development of learners' Mindsets. And research suggests learners can change their Mindsets at any age (not just early in childhood). Therefore educators and caregivers can play an important role in facilitating positive Learner Mindsets for learners of all ages.

Main Ideas

How learners think about and respond to situations affects how they perceive their ability to learn and handle problems that come their way. For example, students may believe that they have a certain amount of intelligence that they cannot do much to change (a "fixed mindset"). Or, students can view intelligence as something that can be developed through hard work, good strategies, and input from others (a "growth mindset”). As a result, learners with growth mindsets see failure and effort as useful and necessary for learning. Importantly, mindsets vary by context: learners can feel more or less oriented towards growth (or fixed) mindsets in response to different challenges, at different times, and across different disciplines and areas.

When learners are given the support and opportunities that promote their sense of self as capable and ever-growing learners, they can develop the capacity to see themselves as problem solvers capable of addressing challenges. In turn, learners improve their skills for effectively solving problems that may challenge them. These mindsets are also related to other beliefs and perceptions of abilities and attributes that influence Motivation and learning including:

  • Self-efficacy: is a learner's beliefs in their abilities to achieve their goals. Learners with a strong sense of self-efficacy are more likely to persist when faced with a difficult task, and put forth a higher degree of effort to achieve their goals. Students with learning disabilities may have a more fixed mindset about their academic ability due to a low sense of self-efficacy.
  • Academic self-concept: is the image that students have of themselves as learners and includes how they think about, evaluate, and perceive their general ability in school. Students with a strong sense of academic self-concept feel they can do well in their school work.
  • Agency: is the amount of volition students think they have to act independently while learning. Learners with a strong sense of agency recognize that they are capable of initiating their own learning.
  • Metacognition: is a learner's ability to monitor and manage their own thinking and learning. Learners who recognize what they understand or don't understand about a problem can go about solving that problem in a methodical way.

Educators can support the development of positive Learner Mindsets by demonstrating the values of challenges as well as providing feedback that highlights these values, for example, focusing learners' Attention on the process of learning by trying multiple different learning strategies. Educators can foster positive mindsets when they provide many opportunities for students to practice with feedback, and encourage development of mastery through mistakes and challenges rather than focusing on underlying abilities. In addition, research suggests that it can be difficult for students to develop a growth mindset in the classroom if their teacher does not hold a growth mindset. This is especially true for students with learning disabilities and ADHD, and those who have been historically and systematically excluded who may have reduced self-efficacy in the classroom and are more influenced by their teacher's self-efficacy that they can effectively teach these students. As such, it is important for educators to practice and model their own growth mindsets, to best support their learners.

Learn More

  • Mindsets matter: A resource that explores how mindsets can affect learning, and how caregivers and educators can foster positive mindsets.
  • Growing lifelong learners: A resource with some free and some paid educational content aiming to positively influence students' Learner Mindsets.
  • Encouraging a growth mindset: A resource that explores how caregivers and educators can foster positive Learner Mindsets
  • Benefits of a growth mindset: A resource that explores why mindsets matter, and how to foster positive mindsets for learners

View Measures and References

Research-Based Strategies For This Factor

Games

Games support learning, as learners engage with new information in fun and informal ways.

Flexible Grouping

Flexible grouping is a classroom practice that temporarily places students together in given groups to work together, with the purpose of achieving a given learning goal or activity.

Think-Alouds

Incorporating think-alouds, or verbalizing thinking while reading or working through a new concept, can be a powerful way to help learners explore disciplinary texts, learn new skills, and retain content.

Strengths-based Approach

A strengths-based approach is one where educators intentionally identify, communicate, and harness students' assets, across many aspects of the whole learner, in order to empower them to flourish.

Goal Setting & Monitoring

Goal-setting and monitoring involves teachers working with students to set individualized academic or behavioral goals, plan actions to achieve those goals, and track progress.

Positive Self-talk

When students are able to encourage themselves through kind and motivating self-statements, they are practicing positive self-talk.

Communication Boards

Communication boards are displays of graphics (e.g., pictures, symbols, illustrations) and/or words where learners can gesture or point to the displays to extend their expressive language potential.

Brief Instruction Steps

Providing instructional steps clearly and concisely can help learners understand classroom expectations, reduce cognitive load, and complete tasks more efficiently.

Encourage Student Self-advocacy

Self-advocacy is the ability of an individual to understand and effectively express and assert their own rights, needs, desires, and interests.

Student Choice

Providing students a voice in their learning is critical for making learning meaningful.

Selecting Culturally Responsive Texts

Culturally responsive texts include those that reflect different facets of students' identities, including race, ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic, and disability status, as well as the intersections of those identities.

Equitable Grading

Equitable grading systems and practices reimagine how to communicate student progress and mastery through various methods that reduce subjectivity, and increase opportunities to learn.

Incorporate Students' Cultural Practices

Learning about students' cultures and connecting them to instructional practices helps foster a Sense of Belonging, increase positive student Identity development, and mitigate Stereotype Threat.

Family Engagement

Family engagement happens when educators and schools collaborate with families to collectively support their child's learning in meaningful ways, both at school and at home.

Translanguaging

Translanguaging is a flexible classroom practice enabling students to listen, speak, read, and write across their multiple languages or dialects, even if the teacher does not have formal knowledge of these additional languages.

Empathy Interviews

A first step to supporting learners is truly understanding who they are.

Check-ins

Checking in with learners, or taking the time to talk with individual learners about their experiences or goals, is important for fostering a positive classroom environment.

Respectful Redirection

Respectful redirection, or error correction, outlines a clear and concise way that educators can provide feedback on behaviors that need immediate correction, in a positive manner.

Building Empathy

Developing empathy in educators and in learners is an iterative process that requires taking the time to understand and honor others' perspectives.

Flipped learning

Flipped learning is when the delivery of traditional content (i.e., lectures, videos) occurs outside of the classroom, allowing class time to be used for more active and application-based activities.

Socratic Seminars

Socratic seminar refers to a discussion technique that engages learners in the exploration of content through Critical Thinking and classroom dialogue in order to help learners make meaning from what they are learning.

Youth Participatory Action Research

Youth participatory action research (YPAR) is a student-centered approach that puts the learner at the helm of the research process, from ideation to dissemination, to investigate and advocate for change they want to see in their schools and communities.

Open Classroom Climate

An open classroom climate is an educational environment where students feel comfortable and confident expressing their opinions in class.

Collaborative Writing

Collaborative writing activities allow peers to work together to plan, draft, edit, and revise during the composition process, supporting writing skills and engagement with content knowledge as students write to reflect upon and apply what they have learned.

Retrieval Practice

Retrieval practice requires students to access information, or get information “out” from Long-term memory in order to support better retention and understanding.

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