1.6 Cultivate a Growth Mindset in Yourself First (Required to earn certificate)

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  Posted by CUNY Mindset Initiative on March 11, 2024 at 11:01 am

  💬  Reflection/Discussion:

  • How can you authentically model a growth mindset through your attitude, behaviors, and teaching practices? How can you support and inspire other faculty and staff to cultivate a growth mindset and related behaviors in their academic department and college?

• Mark Zelcer

  Member

  July 31, 2024 at 2:02 pm

  That sounds very true. Modeling a good response to ignorance let’s our students see a good way to react to not knowing as opposed to, say, making something up or being ashamed that they don’t know. Students need to see questions as a way to learn and grow, not the price they pay for getting information that they will need for an exam.
  Karyna Pryiomka

  Member

  August 7, 2024 at 4:04 pm

  thank you Mark. Couldn’t agree more.
  Lara Stapleton (She/her)

  Member

  August 13, 2024 at 4:54 pm

  I have worked very hard to have a growth mindset. We educators may have confidence academically, but the way I really wanted to grow was emotionally. During a depression in my thirties, I read that people who meditate have the same brain chemistry as people who had stable or happy childhoods. I started the next day, and within a couple of months, I was a different person. I became about twenty percent happier, which is a big deal. After this, I began to work on myself year after year. Recently, I began doing a meditation that helps me release anger. I have seen for myself that people are often capable of much more growth than they might have believed. I constantly tell my classes stories about students who first struggled, then took over. One of my favorites is the student who had about a B- average. He decided to stop playing video games and to read instead. His final essay was an A-, in just a couple of months his use of language became more agile, and his vocabulary grew. He never would have done that without a growth mindset.
  Lara Stapleton (She/her)

  Member

  August 13, 2024 at 4:56 pm

  I’m glad you mentioned the way you speak to colleagues. I can certainly think about this more, and suggest the modules to coworkers. We have to see our students as full of potential– and our colleagues as well! When people say, “I’m not good at…” I think: well, do you want to be good at that thing? You may never be great at it, but odds are you can be better.
  Cynthia Chris (she/her)

  Participant

  September 11, 2024 at 11:29 am

  When I was teaching for the very first time many years ago, I recall that I was afraid of making a mistake in front of my students. But it was tiresome to be nervous and so vigilant all the time, and I learned that one could use mistakes productively. Something as seemingly trivial as a typo on a Powerpoint slide can be recognized and corrected in real time, a micro-lesson in proofing and editing one’s own work. If a student asks a question to which I do not know the answer, I try to make it something that we all research and come back to later (if it’s relevant). Sometimes I wondered how students really saw me in these moments. Then last year I was working with a group of students in an art gallery and we had a task to do that I had never done before. I knew what the outcome was supposed to be, we had the tools, but we were on totally equal footing in being new to the task, and I made it clear we were going to learn together. A couple of students told me that this really helped them approach the task with confidence and not feel bad that they didn’t come in knowing everything already. Nice moment.
  Diana Samaroo (she/her)

  Member

  October 16, 2024 at 11:15 am

  Sharing your failures and lessons learned afterwards with students are ways to model growth mindset.  It is also one of the ways to connect with students.
  Mowmita Jabir (She/her)

  Member

  October 18, 2024 at 2:10 pm

  I try to model growth mindset by embracing challenges, engaging in continuous learning, and by celebrating effort over results. I also try to encourage persistence by normalizing mistakes and welcoming feedback. When we work with students or faculty, our goal is to provide tasks that are challenging but achievable. We emphasize the learning process over immediate success and use growth-oriented language to inspire resilience. To support and inspire colleagues, we offer professional development opportunities on growth mindset and foster a culture of collaboration and reflection. Recognizing and celebrating effort, sharing strategies, and encouraging open discussions helps us create a department-wide focus on continuous improvement and growth.