We are happy to introduce MC Mindset Project, a new offering for a cohort of MC schools, designed to build educators’ capacity to support mindsets for learning. Leading this work is our new Mindsets Director Deb Gordon, former Director of the Academic and Personal Behaviors Institute in NYC DOE Office of Leadership, and new member of the MC team. Deb is working with Dr. Chris Hulleman at Motivate Lab to support 11 MC schools in the first cohort of our Mindsets Project. We asked Deb to give our community a quick intro to mindsets for learning.
Welcome, and take it away, Deb!
By Deb Gordon, MC Mindsets Director, Office of Leadership, NYC Department of Education
What are mindsets for learning, and what benefits do they provide?
Learning mindsets (also called mindsets for perseverance) are ideas we have about ourselves as learners, and about learning in general. They are the foundation of motivation, and are crucial for success in school, as well as postsecondary life. An abundance of research in recent decades has shown that strong learning mindsets lead to a cascade of positive outcomes for students: better rates of high school graduation, college enrollment and retention; higher future income; and even better health.
Mindsets for learning drive our desire and ability to persist through learning challenges. While research has shown that persistence itself does not appear to be directly “teachable,” the good news is that it is in fact changeable, and the way to develop the capacity to persist through the challenges that learning presents is through developing positive mindsets.
Three key learning mindsets
While “growth mindset” has received the most attention in recent years, there are in fact three major mindsets that are equally important for increasing engagement in learning and motivation to persist: growth mindset, value mindset, and belonging mindset.
Source: Motivate Lab
Learning mindsets overlap and reinforce one another, and it is all three in conjunction that set the conditions for deep learning and drive students to engage. One strong mindset is not enough without the others. For example, a student might believe that she is capable of improving her knowledge and skills (growth mindset) but not feel that what she’s learning is relevant to her life (value mindset), or that she belongs in school (belonging mindset), so despite having confidence in her ability to learn, she may wonder: Why make the effort?
Mindsets can support the learning process
Learning mindsets encourage students to stay the course during the productive struggle that is necessary for independent mastery of skills and knowledge. Making mistakes is a part of learning, and yet it’s easy to disengage when we experience failure or when a new skill or concept does not come easily right away.
When students understand that mistakes are not only normal but a valuable part of the learning process, the belief that “I’m not smart” or “I’m not good at this” can be converted to “I don’t know this yet but I will if I keep practicing.”
Equally important, when students feel they belong in an academic community, and see what they are learning as valuable in their lives, they feel comfortable and motivated enough to engage in deeper learning. While students’ beliefs about themselves and school can sometimes seem set in stone, these beliefs can in fact be changed. By understanding how to foster positive learning mindsets, educators can support students along the bumps that they will and should encounter along their learning journey. And the good news is that educators don’t have to invent the wheel on their own: a growing body of research points to numerous concrete strategies for strengthening students’ mindsets.
Deb Gordon, MC Mindsets Director
While fostering learning mindsets is beneficial for all students, it is particularly crucial and impactful for students who are most likely to not see themselves in the classroom... students who are impacted by structural racism, students for whom curricula is not yet designed and written. Namely, black and brown students. Therefore, using pedagogical strategies and creating learning environments that support positive mindsets is a critical element of educating for equity. When students’ individual and cultural identities are seen and valued, negative stereotypes that can hijack the brain during learning lose some of their hold; the brain can relax, and is then primed for optimal learning. When students understand that brains are wired to learn, and that the way abilities and intelligence grow is through engaging in challenges, struggling may no longer be attributed to “innate” deficits that cannot be changed. Failure and effort can be reframed, and students are motivated to pick up and try again. Persistence is not only necessary in school but in all of life. Strong mindsets encourage us to keep on going when the going gets tough. Strong mindsets create resilience.
The MC Mindsets Project will build on cutting-edge research as well as resources developed by NYC schools that have been pioneers in bridging this research to practice. Mastery-based learning is all about learning mindsets and strategies, and I am excited to see how we can make those connections even more explicit. I’m thrilled to be working with the MC team in such a vibrant community of educators!