Growth Mindset: How Great K-12 Leaders Cultivate Continuous Improvement

Having a fixed vs. a growth mindset: it’s a concept, pioneered by psychologist, author and researcher Carol Dweck, that gets a fair amount of attention in K-12 education, and rightfully so. The difference between a fixed mindset (when learners believe that intelligence is an inborn trait you’re either good or bad at) and a growth mindset (when learners view the learning process as an ever-evolving experience) is something educators think about when it comes to student learning.

Growth mindset is also a concept that we tend to overlook when considering our own learning engagement and growth as adults—but Dweck’s research especially rings true for us, too. When we believe that we can improve through hard work, persistence, being open to feedback, and embracing new learning methods, we can improve both the level and the frequency of our achievements, both personal and as a school or district community. 

Growth mindset is also a concept that we tend to overlook when considering our own learning and growth as adults—but Dweck’s research especially rings true for us, too. 

As school and district leaders, you have the opportunity to set a tone where a culture of growth mindset is the norm within your teams—and it begins by putting the systems and structures in place that make it possible for your teachers, staff, and leaders to lead with that mindset on a daily basis. Embedding this ethos into your schools has countless benefits: a continued love of learning among your teams, increased innovation, and collective resilience building. Below, we’ve outlined three key growth mindset strategies for beginning to put these systems in place. 

Acknowledge that the journey to a “growth mindset” isn’t linear

While there’s no doubt that educators have had tremendous success in applying Dweck’s mindset principles in their classrooms, schools, and districts, it’s worth noting that Dweck herself felt it necessary to update her thinking around the concept several years after her research came out. 

Dweck says that by delineating between a growth mindset and a fixed mindset, she may have been inadvertently giving the impression that we’re either one or the other, and that’s that. In reality, everyone has both types of mindsets—and getting to a growth mindset is a learning journey, not a proclamation. She also goes on to say that being in touch with our fixed mindsets is what will help us rewire our brains for growth. Here’s how to keep this “mixture of mindsets” front and center:

• Remember that your teams will have fixed or growth mindsets depending on the context: Some teachers, for example, might have a fixed mindset when it comes to incorporating technology or artificial intelligence into their classroom teachings, but display a growth mindset when it comes to social-emotional learning. Our personal experiences and perspectives—how we learned as children, how we were taught—can have a significant impact on our own perception of effort and what’s possible.
• Create space for teachers, staff, and leaders to identify their “fixed mindset triggers”: To develop growth mindset beliefs, it’s critical to use the fixed-mindset thoughts and actions that come up when we’re facing challenges to self-reflect and learn a new way forward. Encourage your team to ask these questions when they’re feeling fixed:some text
  • When you face a setback or challenge in your teaching or leadership, do you feel incompetent or defeated? Do you look for an excuse?
  • Watch to see whether criticism brings out your fixed mindset. Do you become defensive, angry, or crushed instead of interested in learning from the feedback?
  • When you see an educator who’s better than you at something you value, do you feel envious and threatened, or eager to learn from them?

In reality, everyone has both types of mindsets—and getting to a growth mindset is a learning journey, not a proclamation. 

Normalize a culture of meaningful, constructive feedback

Feedback often has a negative connotation, and that’s usually because it isn’t always given consistently or in a way that’s useful. 

At its core, feedback is simply information that can be used as a basis for improvement. And, the feeling around feedback can shift when we can show our teachers, staff, and leaders that it’s a vehicle for learning, not an assessment of it. Here are a few strategies that can help:

• Co-construct a definition of “impactful feedback” with your team: If your teachers and leaders have a baseline understanding of what effective feedback is and how it gets delivered, there’s less risk that it will be seen as negative or get misinterpreted as such. Ask your teams what they prefer and expect when receiving feedback—and use their insights to agree on what “feedback” means in your school or district. Is it targeted and actionable feedback that helps to improve teaching and learning? How often does it happen? What happens after the feedback gets delivered? 
• Personalize, personalize, personalize: Research has shown that in the case of students, most teacher-delivered feedback is directed to the whole class, rather than to individual students. Because of this, students often don’t listen or make use of the feedback because they don’t think it applies to them. Why would it be any different for adults? When delivering feedback, think about quality—feedback specific to and understood by an individual teacher or assistant principal, for example—rather than giving the same feedback to your entire team. 
• Be timely and consistent: Think of a time when you received feedback several months after performing a task—or, when you were provided feedback after months of receiving no feedback at all. Were you taken by surprise? How did it affect your mindset? When feedback is given promptly—and often—individuals have more opportunities to learn from their actions and make adjustments. And, when it’s given regularly, it’s less jarring—and therefore becomes part of a culture committed to personal growth. 

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Support your staff in accomplishing stretch goals 

Nothing promotes growth mindset and continuous improvement like job-embedded professional learning. And much like feedback, professional development works better when it’s personalized to how teachers (or leaders) want to grow. We know that it’s tough (and in some cases, downright impossible!) to create individualized PD plans for everyone. The practical strategies below are a good way to promote growth mindset beliefs as teachers or leaders work toward their professional development goals. 

• Find places where individual and school or district goals align: When you meet with your teachers, staff, and leaders to talk through PD goals, ask what they want to achieve when it comes to student outcomes and what they’d like to learn to enhance their own careers. Are there ways both of those needs can be met? 
• Take a pulse on potential leadership opportunities: We’ve talked before about the importance of distributed leadership—where decision-making is spread from a district or school leader to your team. This kind of leadership approach gives you the chance to engage your team in collectively problem-solving. Take notice of who seems to be an aspiring principal or teacher leader. What kind of leadership opportunities—and accompanying professional learning needs—will activate their growth mindset and help meet the needs of the community? 
• Understand that PD needs will shift: Fostering a growth mindset in your team means that learning priorities may shift throughout the year depending on a myriad of variables. What your individual team members may have identified as the biggest priority for themselves at the beginning of the year might be different by the spring, and that’s okay.

Nothing promotes growth mindset like job-embedded, continuous professional learning. 

Adopting a collective growth mindset is a process

As much as it would be nice, there’s no step-by-step process to follow for cultivating a growth mindset within your school or district community. Like most actions and approaches that move the needle on both student and adult achievement, it takes time, commitment, and most of all, having a system in place to cultivate a growth mindset across your school or district community.

However, it’s precisely this process that can help you foster your own growth mindset. Because even if you’re not exactly where you want to be yet, having a growth mindset means you’ll get there with a healthy dose of effort and perseverance.

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