Instilling a Growth Mindset in Students

(Grades K-12) / Flex Course

PDI Course Number: 115T02 / UCSD Course Number: EDUC40265

Course Description

Are you finding that no matter how hard you try, it seems that some of your students cannot break out of the “I’m no good at this” cycle, and therefore they stop trying? After all, perhaps they just are not “math people” or “good at reading,” right? Wrong! According to recent research, there are two types of mindsets with which students come to school — growth and fixed — and each of them empowers its owner, for better or worse. This online course is designed for K-12 teachers who wish to explore the concept of growth mindset in detail. Teachers will be introduced to the concept of growth mindset and will understand how it differs from its counterpart — fixed mindset. This course takes teachers through the entire process of instilling a growth mindset in students as well as teaching students strategies to become confident risk-takers. Specific topics include learning how to make mistakes meaningful, the importance of meaningful feedback during the learning process, the role that growth mindset plays in both literacy and mathematics, and how to integrate the mindset model in a data-driven classroom. Teachers will learn how to ask better questions so that students are supported in the development of their social-emotional skills and soft skills as they work through productive struggle. Teachers will also learn how to model through think alouds in order to model a growth mindset attitude. By the end of this course, teachers will feel more confident in implementing growth mindset best practices into their teaching repertoire. This course is worth 3 ⅓ semester units/5 quarter units (50 hours of training) from University of California San Diego (UCSD) Division of Extended Studies. For detailed information on university credit, click here.

"The content of this course helped me to better understand how to help my students struggle productively and the kind of language I can use to support a growth mindset in my classroom." - Moira Kaufhold