by Suzanne Summers

A common point of frustration for many of us, as educators, is seeing students, many of whom lack self-confidence academically and/or socially, give up when confronted with difficulties. So what can we do to encourage our students to persevere?

Educational researchers have explored the idea of “fixed” vs. “growth” mindsets. Those with “fixed” mindsets believe that either one is good at something or one isn’t; intelligence and talent are in fixed supply and can’t be increased or learned. By contrast, a “growth” mindset stems from the belief that the acquisition of needed skills is possible.

One way we can encourage a growth mindset is to encourage our students’ “metacognition” – thinking about their thinking. In my History classes, I talk to students about test-taking as a learnable skill. We do practice questions in class before the exam so we can talk about how to approach each question type. When I give back exams, I ask them to look over the questions they missed and to identify the thought process that led them to choose the wrong answer. Then we talk about the clues that might have pointed them to the right answers. I also tell them that, historically, students in my classes do progressively better from Exam 1 to 4 because they are learning how to study more effectively for the exams and how to approach the questions with greater skill. In short, the message I want them to take away is that they can improve by moving from a fixed to a growth mindset.

There’s a lot of power in sharing with our students our own struggles and how we got through them. After I gave back the first exams in my HIST 1301 this semester, the scores of which are usually not very good, I shared with students my own struggle to learn a difficult topic and my fear of looking stupid, especially when I was sure that everyone else automatically got it. It was not something I was innately good at, and I had to seek help. The look on my students’ faces as I shared with them my own struggle to learn and master the topic was priceless. I could see their minds churning: “But she’s smart. Nothing is hard for her!” Wrong. I told them that although I wasn’t an “A” student, I did pass which made me feel like I’d accomplished something valuable. Then I asked them to pair up and share with each other one time in their own lives when they’d faced a challenge and had gotten through it. What kept them going even though it was difficult? How could they adapt the lessons from that experience to this class?

Our students come to us with a wide array of backgrounds and experiences. Many do not see themselves as “college material.” Encouraging them to develop the skills and mindset they need to succeed academically is one of the most important and gratifying things we can do as educators.