Growth Mindset Presentation:

Main Points:
● Personal interest
○ I was assigned this book Mindset by Carol Dweck in my foundations of education
class last year and I found it very interesting!
○ So after reading this book, I wanted to dive deeper into the subject and write a
review of literature about growth mindset in the music classroom, and my
findings are what I would like to share with you today!
○ So here we are, lets get started! Click Slide
● What is Growth Mindset?
○ Mindset is based on one’s perception of their core qualities and their ability to
improve or stay stagnant.
○ Those that believe they can hone their abilities, improve attributes about
themselves, and learn from failure have a growth mindset.
○ Meanwhile, those that believe that their abilities are set in stone, that they can not
improve attributes about themselves, and that failure defines who they are, have a
fixed mindset. Click slide
○ EXAMPLE: teachers
■ According to Dweck, teachers with a growth mindset believe that a
student’s ability can improve.
■ Teachers with a fixed mindset believe that they have no impact on a
student’s ability because they know who the dumb ones are
■ Looking back, my high school band director was very growth mindset. He
believed any kid could march and play, which is why we didn’t have
auditions. And we got the highest score at state festival every year.
■ On the other hand, a choir teacher I read about with fixed mindset would
tell their student’s to “just mouth the words” because they thought those
students couldn’t sing.
● This literature review started with the idea that the language that we use with students can
impact their mindset. Specifically how we praise them. Click slide
● Process vs. talent praise (Through their process or through their talent)
○ Using process praise puts emphasis on learning and practicing, which would
inevitably create the thought process of appreciating the learning process more
than the outcome.
■ “I can tell you practiced this piece a lot. Hard work pays off!”
○ Meanwhile, when teachers use a talent praise, it creates the opposite effect where
they are only looking at the end goal instead of what they need to do to
accomplish that goal to the best of their ability along the way.
○ “You are so talented”
 ○ Now in the last five years, there has been an outbreak of false growth mindset.
Teachers claiming to have growth mindset, but doing the opposite in class.
Especially on the praise side of things.
■ Even if students didn’t do a good job they told them “well at least you
tried hard” as a consolation, which is lazy. That is because this fixed
teacher does not want to waste time on a QUOTE “dumb student”
■ What this does to the student is, they dont learn anything, they try the
same unhelpful strategies, they dont grow, they dont improve, therefore
fulfilling the teacher’s prophecy of the “dumb student” and cycles again.
○ Okay, so how would a growth mindset teacher help this student that is struggling?
○ This is where process and outcome come together to make process reinforcement.
Click button
● Process reinforcement
○ No matter the circumstance, our language in process reinforcement is focused on
the process itself. But with the consideration of the student’s outcome.

○ If they put in the effort and the outcome is correct that is where the process praise
from above comes in. “You worked hard on this”

○ If there is effort put forth and the outcome is incorrect this is where we need to
ask about their process to see where the disconnect happened. “What did you try
before, what can we try next?”

○ Neither example addressed their ability, it was just on their work!

○ You don’t want students to keep trying strategies that don’t help them. You want
them to know when to ask for help and when to use their resources and what those
resources are.
● How do we implement this?
○ Several articles talked about “Turning our students into problem solvers” by
modeling with questions and giving them practice and performance strategies
■ Group: “What did you notice in that passage? How can we improve that in
our next run through?
■ Individual: “How have you been practicing this?” “Can we look over this
passage together?”
○ In order for our students to become problem solvers we must: embrace the
struggle
○ Embracing the struggle
■ This gives them a chance to ask themselves those questions so that they
can grow and learn on their own.
 ■ finding ways to incorporate growth mindset into our classrooms will

change student’s reactions to failure. By teaching students problem solving

strategies and analysing what went wrong with the student, they will be

able to learn from their mistakes and grow by themselves with the

resources given to them!

● Looking forward
○ Possible research study in the future is to see what process reinforcement
language provides to praising studies. And I could possibly do this in my graduate
studies.