This is a different sort of neuromyth than most I’ve researched in that most people, including teachers, don’t know about mindsets. And mindsets aren’t inherently bad unless they are inaccurate or they fall into the category of fixed mindsets, which qualify as neuromyths.
Simply put, a mindset (in this context) is a belief you have about yourself. For example, we all have a belief about how smart or organized we are, or how good we are at cooking. Conscious or unconscious, these mindsets have a huge impact on us. Carol Dweck, who wrote the highly influential book Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, writes that mindsets “can have profound effects on learning achievement, skill acquisition, personal relationships, professional success, and many other dimensions of life.” And it can be very difficult to question or alter our mindsets, especially if they are unconscious. Yet, critically, some of these mindsets are quite harmful.
For example, I’ve often encountered “I’m not a good writer” from students who were easily in the top 10% of the class in terms of writing ability. Their lack of confidence in their writing held them back in many ways, including making the process of completing writing assignments more difficult and painful than it needed to be. We also carry mindsets imposed upon us by others, including our parents or teachers. College students will typically come to us with very powerful mindsets since those influences are current or recent. These mindsets, when they are inaccurate or fixed, are important to discover and address.
The key aspect to this concept is whether a mindset is fixed or growth-oriented. Dweck writes, “In a fixed mindset [or entity theory], people believe their basic qualities, like their intelligence or talent, are simply fixed traits [that can’t be changed]. They spend their time documenting their intelligence or talent [or lack thereof] instead of developing them. They also believe that talent alone creates success—without effort.” A growth mindset [or incremental theory], on the other hand, “is based on the belief that your basic qualities are things you can cultivate through your efforts. Although people may differ in every which way … everyone can change and grow through application and experience.” Fixed mindsets are a huge problem because they discourage effort and struggle, which are essential for learning. And they are simply not accurate. Research clearly shows that, by a variety of measures, intelligence can be increased through many different interventions. See the “Introduction” of “A Relational Frame Skills Training Intervention to Increase General Intelligence and Scholastic Aptitude” for references to many relevant studies (Cassidy et al.).
Holding fixed mindsets about learning is particularly harmful for faculty, who can pass on those notions to students. For example, educators with a fixed mindset about math ability were “more likely to diagnose a student as having low ability based upon a single test score” (Rattan et al. 5). In addition, these educators were “more likely to opt to comfort students for their (presumed) low ability, and more likely to use teaching strategies that are less conducive to students’ continued engagement with the field.” Comfort-oriented feedback led students “to view their professor as having lower engagement in their learning. Moreover, the comfort feedback led students themselves to feel less motivated and to expect lower final grades than did the strategy or control feedback.” Rather than letting these students off the hook and giving them permission to fail, we need to cheer them on, tell them we know they are capable, and push them to embrace the effort that learning requires. Carol Dweck addresses a variety of research, much of it from the teacher or parent’s perspective, in the video below. And significantly more information can be found on her website.
As for students’ fixed mindsets, there are many common ones that are especially harmful for them, including things like, “I’m just not a good student,” “I’m terrible at math,” or “I can’t learn languages.” (I’ve said that last one myself, more than once!) The first step to helping students shed their fixed mindsets is to learn what those mindsets are. I would recommend a more comprehensive approach in some freshman classes (like a first-year-experience course or a University 101-type course) or, say, in a relevant psychology or education class, and a more targeted approach in classes in subjects including math, science, writing, etc. You might start by asking in a survey something as simple as, Do you think you’re good at math? Are you skilled at learning languages? Do you think you can earn an A in this class? The next step would be to teach students, briefly, what fixed mindsets are and to emphasize that they are incorrect and harmful. From there, it’s worth taking steps to help them cultivate a growth mindset. This is not as easy as it sounds, so it’s worth expending effort on learning how to accomplish it. One possibility is offering students an article or a video to watch, such as the one below, and then asking them to reflect on how they can develop or improve their own growth mindsets.
These are also important concepts for faculty to engage with because we have fixed mindsets about ourselves. One of mine is, “I just can’t learn all these students’ names.” There are times I tell myself that, without really thinking about it, and then I just stop trying. But the truth is, unless I have an especially large class, I can and do learn names if I put the work in. And it helps students engage more when I use those names, so it’s worth really working at it. (At the same time, I recognize that overwhelm is a real issue, especially mid pandemic [but not only then!], and we need to cut ourselves and our students a certain amount of slack.) What I know for sure is that being aware of growth mindsets and their importance is not enough. We have to work at it and practice it regularly. I hope you will do this work—it will be worth it!
Sources and Resources
An article in The Atlantic focusing on math in relation to fixed and growth mindsets: The Myth of ‘I’m Bad at Math’
Cassidy, Sarah, et al. “A Relational Frame Skills Training Intervention to Increase General Intelligence and Scholastic Aptitude,” Learning and Individual Differences, vol. 47, 2016, 222-235, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lindif.2016.03.001.
Dweck, Carol S. Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. Ballantine, 2013.
Rattan, Aneeta, et al., “’It’s Ok — Not Everyone Can Be Good at Math’: Instructors With an Entity Theory Comfort (and Demotivate) Students,” Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 2012, doi:10.1016/j.jesp.2011.12.012
Note: Many thanks to Dr. Kim Gerecke of Randolph Macon University for generously agreeing to review this article for me. Any errors are mine.
