What Is a Growth Mindset?

Mindset Works co-founder, Carol S. Dweck, Ph.D., explains the concept of growth mindset.

A growth mindset is the understanding that we can develop our abilities and intelligence. Research has shown that our implicit beliefs about the nature of intelligence can have a great impact on our achievement. In this TED Talk, Dr. Dweck, who first coined the terms “fixed mindset” and “growth mindset,” explains how a growth mindset leads to a focus on learning, increased effort, and a willingness to learn from mistakes.

A Study on Praise and Mindsets

As Educators almost every thing we say to our students sends a message. Some messages enhance students’ motivation, but other messages undermine it. How can we know which is which? Common sense and intuition will always be a part of good teaching, but they are not always trustworthy guides. This is where research comes in and helps us put our common sense to the test.

Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance

At the University of Pennsylvania, Angela Lee Duckworth studies intangible concepts such as self-control and grit to determine how they might predict both academic and professional success.

Angela Duckworth left a demanding job as a management consultant to teach Math in public schools. After five years, she went back to grad school to complete her Ph.D. in psychology at the University of Pennsylvania. The purpose of her research is to determine how "grit" is a better indicator of success than factors such as IQ or family income.

Sparks: How Youth Thrive

Peter L. Benson, president and CEO of Minneapolis-based Search Institute, is one of the world's leading authorities on positive human development. Dr. Benson is the author or editor of more than a dozen books on child and adolescent development and social change, including, most recently, Sparks: How Parents Can Help Ignite the Hidden Strengths of Teenagers. Dr. Benson offers one of the most widely recognized approaches to positive youth development in the United States and, increasingly, around the world.

Why Having More Information Makes Learning Easier

Daniel T. Willingham is a professor of cognitive psychology at the University of Virginia. In this animated video, he explains that students with a broad scope of knowledge about many different things, along with a wide set of experiences that contribute to that knowledge, are not only more capable readers but also, better at reading comprehension. Since authors rely on the reader to have sufficient background information to generate a fuller understanding of the text, what happens to students who do not have a broad enough background and exposure? 

Multiple Intelligence

Psychologist Howard Gardner divides intelligence into 9 intelligence types. These intelligences (or competencies) relate to a person’s unique set of capabilities and ways they might prefer to demonstrate intellectual abilities. Schools are primarily designed to measure two types of intelligence: Language and Mathematics. Students whose primary intelligence fits this model fair better than students who, by the nature of their particular intelligence types, prefer to demonstrate their intellectual abilities in other ways. 

Conquering Math Anxiety

The Power of YAY Math!

Yay Math uses humor and positivity to conquer longstanding fears of Math, in order to enable Math success. Robert Ahdoot, high school Math teacher, offers live online classes produced in his "real-life" classroom with actual students. Through years of experience in high school Math classrooms, he discovered that humor reduced the anxiety about Math that many students bring with them to Math class. Together with his school community and his students, he began producing humorous live-lesson videos and posting these online to help students everywhere.