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Portrait of a Learner PK-3

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Portrait of a Learner PK-3 > Factors > Learner Mindset

Learner Mindset

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Factor Connections

Hover to see how factors connect to Learner Mindset. Then click connected factors to explore strategies related to multiple factors.

A learner's Mindset is a lens through which children see the world, which affects their beliefs, attributions, attitudes, and behaviors that can either help or hinder their learning. A learner's Mindset about their intelligence and abilities, for example, can have a huge impact on how they approach learning challenges and in turn impacts academic achievement achievement. Environmental factors ranging from feedback from teachers and caregivers, adults' reactions to mistakes, or school and classroom performance indicators, play an influential role in the development of children's Learner Mindsets. Therefore, throughout the school years, educators and caregivers can play an important role in facilitating positive Learner Mindsets.

Main Ideas

How children think about and respond to situations impacts how they perceive their ability to learn and handle problems that come their way. For example, children may believe that they have a certain amount of intelligence that they cannot do much to change (a "fixed mindset"). Or, children can view intelligence as something that can be developed through hard work, good strategies, and input from others (known as the "growth mindset”). As a result, children with growth mindsets see failure and effort as useful and necessary for learning. Importantly, mindsets vary by context: children can feel more or less oriented towards growth (or fixed) mindsets in response to different challenges, at different times, and across different disciplines and areas.

When children are given the support and opportunities that promote their sense of self as capable and ever-growing learners, they can develop the capacity to see themselves as problem solvers capable of addressing challenges that present themselves. In turn, children improve their skills for effectively solving problems that may challenge them. These mindsets are also related to other beliefs and perceptions of abilities and attributes that influence Motivation and learning including:

  • Self-efficacy: Self- efficacy refers to a learner's beliefs in their abilities to achieve their goals. Learners with a strong sense of self-efficacy are more likely to persist when faced with a difficult task and put forth a higher degree of effort to achieve their goals. Young children who struggle with aspects of learning and who may, in time, be identified as having a learning disability may have a more fixed mindset about their academic ability due to a low sense of self-efficacy.
  • Academic self-concept: Academic self-concept refers to the image that students have of themselves as learners and includes how they think about, evaluate, and perceive their general ability in school. Students with a strong sense of academic self-concept feel they can do well in their school work.
  • Agency: Children's sense of agency refers to the amount of volition they think they have to act independently while learning. Children with a strong sense of agency recognize that they are capable of initiating their own learning.
  • Metacognition: Metacognition refers to children's ability to monitor and manage their own thinking and learning. Children who recognize what they understand or don't understand about a problem can go about solving that problem in a methodical way.

Educators can support a Learner Mindset by demonstrating the values of challenges as well as providing feedback that highlights these values, for example, focusing learners' Attention on the process of learning, for instance by trying multiple different learning strategies. To that end, it is important that educators provide many opportunities for students to practice with feedback, and encourage development of mastery through mistakes and challenges rather than focusing on underlying abilities. In addition, research shows that educators' own beliefs and mindsets can influence their students' Learner Mindset, which can be particularly important for those students who may not hold a growth mindset, including those who may have lower academic self-efficacy, such as students with learning disabilities and ADHD or who have been historically and systematically excluded.

Learn More

  • Mindsets matter: A resource that explores how mindsets can affect learning, and how caregivers and educators can foster positive mindsets.
  • Growing lifelong learners: A resource with some free and some paid educational content aiming to positively influence students' Learner Mindsets.
  • Encouraging a growth mindset: A resource that explores how caregivers and educators can foster positive Learner Mindsets
  • Benefits of a growth mindset: A resource that explores why mindsets matter, and how to foster positive mindsets for learners

View Measures and References

Research-Based Strategies For This Factor

Games

Games support learning as learners engage with new information in fun and informal ways.

Flexible Grouping

Flexible grouping is a classroom practice that temporarily places students together in given groups to work together, with the purpose of achieving a given learning goal or activity.

Strengths-based Approach

A strengths-based approach is one where educators intentionally identify, communicate, and harness students' assets, across many aspects of the whole child, in order to empower them to flourish.

Goal Setting & Monitoring

Goal-setting and monitoring involves teachers working with students to set individualized academic or behavioral goals, plan actions to achieve those goals, and track progress.

Positive Self-talk

When students are able to encourage themselves through kind and motivating self-statements, they are practicing positive self-talk.

Communication Boards

Communication boards are displays of graphics (e.g., pictures, symbols, illustrations) and/or words where learners can gesture, touch, or point to the displays to extend their expressive language potential.

Brief Instruction Steps

Providing instructional steps clearly and concisely can help learners understand classroom expectations and complete tasks efficiently.

Encourage Student Self-advocacy

Self-advocacy is the ability of an individual to understand and effectively express and assert their own rights, needs, desires, and interests.

Selecting Culturally Responsive Texts

Culturally responsive texts include those that reflect different facets of students' identities, including race, ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic, and disability status, as well as the intersections of those identities.

Equitable Grading

Equitable grading systems and practices reimagine how to communicate student progress and mastery through various methods that reduce subjectivity and increase opportunities to learn.

Incorporate Students' Cultural Practices

Learning about students' cultures and connecting them to instructional practices helps foster a Sense of Belonging, increase positive student Identity development, and mitigate Stereotype Threat.

Family Engagement

Family engagement happens when educators and schools collaborate with families to collectively support their child's learning in meaningful ways, both at school and at home.

Translanguaging

Translanguaging is a flexible classroom practice enabling students to listen, speak, read, and write across their multiple languages or dialects, even if the teacher does not have formal knowledge of these additional languages.

Empathy Interviews

A first step to supporting learners is truly understanding who they are.

Check-ins

Checking in with learners, or taking the time to talk with individual learners about their experiences or goals, is important for fostering a positive classroom environment.

Respectful Redirection

Respectful redirection, or error correction, outlines a clear and concise way that educators can provide feedback on behaviors that need immediate correction, in a positive manner.

Building Empathy

Developing empathy in educators and in learners is an iterative process that requires taking the time to understand and honor others' perspectives.

Interactive Writing

Interactive writing activities for young learners can include cooperative activities to practice their foundational writing skills and can support engagement with content knowledge as they write and draw to reflect upon what they have learned.

Spaced Practice

Spaced practice is a learning strategy that deliberately spaces out learning or study sessions over varying periods of time, with the purpose of increasing retention, understanding, and long-term knowledge acquisition.

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