Growth mindset: whose responsibility?

Carol Dweck has popularised the ‘growth mindset’ concept. At Imperial we were recently treated to a broader view of this concept, grouping the ‘discovery’, ‘scout’, and ‘growth’ mindsets. Each is a different take but there is a common theme, the implicitly virtuous person strives to grow, explore, and challenge themselves. The implicitly weak are stubborn, not open to change, and miss opportunities. At least, that’s the impression it gives me.

The implication for education is that we implicitly want our students to have the virtuous and not the weak mindset. There are a couple of problems with this. Firstly, why do people even adopt these unpopular mindsets in the first place? I’m certainly guilty at times of closing shop and sticking to my familiar mental patterns to avoid the pain and discomfort of new and challenging ideas – why do I do that? I’m also guilty at times of being overly explorative and taking on too many challenges – at great cost to my wellbeing and those around me. Staying put can be virtuous and going out hunting can be foolish so it is not as simple as one mindset being good and another being bad.

The second problem is the implication that students are the cause of their ills. Despite our heroic work as teachers, desperately trying to bless our students with our special knowledge, the students still don’t learn because of their terrible mindset. Although teachers don’t express it quite like that, it is a parody not far from the truth. Is it fair though?

Obviously it isn’t fair. So what’s happening? Well, students do indeed struggle; because they are people, like everyone else, and we all struggle. That is not a symptom of their mindset necessarily. We musn’t lose our empathy.

It’s more than that though. I thank my colleague Camille Gajria for making this point. What is the teacher’s mindset … towards the student? Does the teacher perceive the student as a fixed object with permanent characteristics? Or are they a growing, discovering person on a journey? Now it’s obvious what the ‘right’ answer is – of course they’re experiencing change. Of course they’re on a journey. But is that present in our minds when we interact with students?

What is our role in their journey? To judge them at a point in time and cast this into stone? Put like that, of course not. But what is on our mind? In our own mindset, in our attitude, we sew the seeds of the relationship. It is manifest in our lesson plans and our written feedback; in our tone of voice and our body language.

If a student is on a journey, what kind of feedback do they need? Are you helping them on their journey? What are you doing to help them? We need to ask ourselves these questions before we comment on student mindsets. Students are a reflection of their experiences. We need to take the lead not just in our attitude to ourselves, but in our attitude to our students too. When I enter the classroom, I remind myself that these are people on a journey, growing into themselves. Much of their competence is latent, awaiting the call to wake up and flower. We must have the mindset of the gardener, not the architect.