Growth Mindsets

Module 4 – Embracing Challenge

Introduction

Welcome to your final module for your course on ‘Growth Mindsets’. You will learn how growth mindsets affect how
we approach challenge and the importance of integrating challenge into your lessons.

On completion of this module, you will be able to:

• understand why challenge promotes a growth mindset
• see how this is implemented with example scenarios
• assess what the right level of challenge is for the students
• understand what trial and error is and how it is beneficial for students’ learning.

Challenge and progress

What differences do you notice between doing something you find easy and doing something you find challenging?

Write your answer here:

When doing something we find easy, we learn little. We already know what we are doing, how to do it, and what the
expected result ought to look like.

When challenged, there is potential to learn a lot. Challenges cause us to think more deeply, experiment, use trial
and error, and possibly make mistakes.

We might give up when we find ourselves faced with a challenge but giving up reduces the possibility of future
progress in relation to that challenge.

Example

A student is offered the chance to take up a musical instrument at the beginning of the school year. They have a
choice: clarinet, violin, or piano. On a whim, they settle on the violin.

At first, things are relatively easy. The lessons simply focus on getting to know the instrument, on playing around
with it, and getting a feel for how it works. Then the challenge comes. They must learn to use it in a certain way and
to play certain notes in a certain order, at certain speeds.

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Scenario A

The student has a growth mindset and persists despite the high degree of challenge. The experience is at times
frustrating, and the learning curve is steep, but over time, they come to improve.

Scenario B

The student has a fixed mindset and so gives up. They feel the challenge is too much for them and they don’t believe
their efforts can lead to change. The violin goes into its case, and they forget about it. The door is shut on future
learning.

This example illustrates a few important points about challenge.

• Whether you have a growth or fixed mindset, this does not stop the challenge from being hard and at times
uncomfortable.
• Persisting is generally better than giving up. The latter shuts doors whilst the former keeps them open.
• Persistence does not automatically mean you will become brilliant at the thing in question, but it does
increase the likelihood that you will learn from the experience and become better than you were.

It is for all these reasons that turning challenge into a standard feature in our classrooms is a vital route through
which to promote growth mindsets.

Scenario task

1. Think about the year group or subject that you teach. Describe a scenario where students would be faced with
challenge.

Write your answer here:

2. How would you expect a student with a growth mindset to react to the challenge?

Write your answer here:

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aspects, Tes Global Ltd exclude their liability of the consequences of any errors, omission or incorrect statements to the fullest extent permitted by law and Tes Global Ltd make no warranty or
representation as to the accuracy, completeness or fitness for purpose of any statements or other content in the course.

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3. How would a student with a fixed mindset react?

Write your answer here:

4. How could you help the student with the fixed mindset approach the challenge more positively?

Write your answer here:

Integrating challenge

How can teachers integrate challenge into lessons?

Write your answer here:

Challenge is a fundamental element of a growth mindset. Without challenge, students are not exposed to situations
where they need to take risks, make mistakes, and persist despite this.

Frequently including challenging tasks, asking challenging questions, and setting high expectations for learners are
common ways in which teachers can embed and integrate challenge into their lessons.

Teachers should ensure that all students are appropriately challenged, and that challenge is not seen as something
for the early-finishers or the ‘more-able’ students.

Help them to embrace the challenge

Teachers need to help students embrace challenge and facilitate this in a way that makes challenge accessible,
motivating, and a positive experience.

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aspects, Tes Global Ltd exclude their liability of the consequences of any errors, omission or incorrect statements to the fullest extent permitted by law and Tes Global Ltd make no warranty or
representation as to the accuracy, completeness or fitness for purpose of any statements or other content in the course.

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Here are some examples of how this can be achieved.

Students set the challenge

Instead of providing students with a challenge, ask them to come up with one instead. This encourages them to buy
into the idea of embracing challenges.

When first using this technique, you might find that you need to make the ideas students come up with a little more
challenging than they are. This is fine; it is part of the modelling process which will help students to gain a better
understanding of what real, personalised challenge looks like for them.

Find a mistake

Invite students to look back over their work and to find at least one example of a mistake. Explain that when they
find this, their challenge is to explain why it happened, what they can learn from it, and how they will put this
learning into practice in the future.

Finally, ask the student to devise a question or task they could use to test themselves to see if they have successfully
internalised the information they drew out of the mistake.

Scaffolding

Scaffold challenges for students by providing structured support or by giving hints or clues. This will help them to
access the challenge if they are finding it difficult, without doing the work for them.

This is especially important for students who generally find the work difficult as it ensures that they are included in
being challenged. The level of challenge should be appropriate for their ability and made accessible.

Partner and group work

Working with a partner or within a group can be effective for helping students to embrace challenge. For certain
students, working with others relieves the pressure of challenging work and can help them find enjoyment in
challenge.

The right level of challenge

Getting the level of challenge right for students is important in helping them build a growth mindset. This involves
teachers knowing their students well and pitching it at a level that will challenge them without discouraging them.

We can use Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development to help us. There are three broad levels of challenge that a
task could fall into.

Too easy

Students are comfortable, unchallenged, and will likely become bored as they already have the knowledge and skills.

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aspects, Tes Global Ltd exclude their liability of the consequences of any errors, omission or incorrect statements to the fullest extent permitted by law and Tes Global Ltd make no warranty or
representation as to the accuracy, completeness or fitness for purpose of any statements or other content in the course.

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Too hard

If the challenge is too far beyond what students can do, they will likely become stressed and frustrated, and give up
easily.

At the right level

When the level of challenge is right, just above what the student can already do, they are more likely to take the risk
of being challenged and engage with the learning.

The most significant learning tends to occur when we are presented with something which is a little beyond what we
are presently capable of achieving.

What do you think are the benefits of getting the challenge right for students? How can teachers achieve this?

Write your answer here:

Using trial and error

Trial and error is a powerful tool. It is one of the fundamental ways in which we learn.

It is a method where mistakes will happen and helps to teach students that this is expected and acceptable. It
involves students trying, failing, and repeatedly trying again until they succeed, promoting resilience and
perseverance.

Students with growth mindsets are more likely to use this approach independently and to see the mistake-making it
involves as something positive. By promoting trial and error in our teaching, we can help to foster growth mindsets
in all students.

How can we apply trial and error techniques?

Demonstrate the process

Model the process of trial and error for them with a piece of work connected to your subject or age-group.

For example, you might show how, after they have written an answer to a question, they can go back and analyse
how successfully they have answered that question, before they take steps to improve the quality of their answer.

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aspects, Tes Global Ltd exclude their liability of the consequences of any errors, omission or incorrect statements to the fullest extent permitted by law and Tes Global Ltd make no warranty or
representation as to the accuracy, completeness or fitness for purpose of any statements or other content in the course.

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Plan activities

Plan activities that involve students actively using trial and error and share this with them. Explicitly providing
students with tasks where they use this skill will help them to recognise it as a viable option in the future when they
are unsure.

Provide question banks

Provide students with a set of questions they can use to analyse their work during a given activity. Encourage them
to apply these (modelling, if necessary) and to use the information they elicit to improve their work.

Use rough books

Giving students a designated place in which to use trial and error (for example, a notebook) with a task can help
them to see the benefit and assign it a purpose to help them.

For example, a student who struggles with spelling may use the book to try out multiple ways of spelling the word
before making their decision.

Activities which use trial and error

Here are three activities you can use to promote trial and error in your lessons.

Problem-based activities

Set students one or more problems they need to solve. Provide them with some of the means to do this.

For example, provide the resources required for research, and then invite them to work individually or in pairs to try
to solve the problems.

You can scaffold the activity by suggesting different starting points for students or by suggesting some ideas they
might seek to apply but which you know will not fully solve the problem unless adapted based on the results of trial
and error.

Hypothesis testing

Present students with a problem or topic area and ask them to create a hypothesis they then must test during the
activity. Highlight the importance of trial and error in this process and give students a sheet on which they can make
notes of what their various trials reveal.

You can scaffold the activity by presenting students with a selection of hypotheses and asking them to select one.
This makes it easier for some students to access the task.

Stepped complexity

Set students a task which appears straightforward. Plan two or three extra things you will ask students to do as the
task progresses. These will increase the level of complexity.

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aspects, Tes Global Ltd exclude their liability of the consequences of any errors, omission or incorrect statements to the fullest extent permitted by law and Tes Global Ltd make no warranty or
representation as to the accuracy, completeness or fitness for purpose of any statements or other content in the course.

No part of this material may be reproduced or utilised in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system
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Students will have to go back, review their original work considering the changes, and then try again. The approach
manufactures trial and error through your various interventions.

In each of these examples, we are promoting growth mindsets. This is because we are helping students to see the
benefits of trial and error; particularly, the way in which mistakes can be used as an opportunity for learning.

Summary

You have now completed your course on ‘Growth Mindsets’, where you learned about what growth mindsets are,
and some of the strategies that develop this mindset, including the use of trial and error and mistake making. You
also looked at the power language has over students’ attitudes and ways of thinking, and how altering this can have
a big impact on the mindset students adopt.

You are now ready to complete the corresponding questionnaire. Click Questionnaire 4 to begin the questions.

When you have completed the questionnaire, there is the opportunity for you to leave feedback on the course and
we would be very grateful if you would take a minute to do so.

Whilst Tes Global Ltd have made every effort to ensure that the courses and their content have been devised and written by leading experts who have ensured that they reflect best practice in all
aspects, Tes Global Ltd exclude their liability of the consequences of any errors, omission or incorrect statements to the fullest extent permitted by law and Tes Global Ltd make no warranty or
representation as to the accuracy, completeness or fitness for purpose of any statements or other content in the course.

No part of this material may be reproduced or utilised in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system
without permission in writing by Tes Global Ltd.