Beechwood Primary School

Why is Growth Mindset important?

Dweck and colleagues conducted a number of studies – the results of which suggest that mindset is critical to learning.

For example, one study found that students with a fixed mindset listened to feedback reflecting their current ability, but largely stopped listening when information was shared that might help them to improve. The students with a growth mindset, meanwhile, remained attentive to feedback whether they’d answered the question correctly or not.

Another study examined ‘the praise effect’.

Some children were praised for intelligence (“Wow, that’s a really good score. You must be smart at this”) while others were praised for effort (“Wow, that’s a really good score. You must have tried really hard”).