Following are a few surveys conducted with current, new, and experienced teachers to gain insight into their experiences with growth mindset in mathematics and to see if and how they found it beneficial to the students.
Donna Biberdorf; Upper Elementary Teacher for 30 Years
Donna identifies herself as being new to the idea growth mindset and has recently made attempts to implement it in her own classroom. In her class, they spend a lot of time "talking about how our 'words' affect our thinking and our ability to attempt/complete tasks." She has noticed in just a few short months, the students are using their words and phrases to help themselves through frustrating experiences and to help coach others around them.
In math, Donna finds in using a growth mindset her students have the opportunity to show their preferred strategies when solving equations. This has given other students more motivation to try these new ideas when they are struggling and they are developing "a bank of learning strategies to help in future lessons."
One challenge Donna has found when incorporating growth mindset is with students transferring what they know about perseverance from one task to another; however, with support and reminders, she finds they can let go of some of their frustrations and are willing try again.
Donna's biggest piece of advice for trying to create a culture of growth mindset in your classroom is that "[it] needs to be specifically taught first and then practiced in ALL areas of school," including both socially and academically. An effective activity Donna tried with her students when teaching growth mindset was to relate it to videos and stories that they could connect to and related it to real life experiences.
Sayde Evahnenko; First Year Upper Elementary Teacher
Sayde considers herself to be mostly familiar with concept of growth mindset. She is still new to the idea, but in her classroom she makes sure they know it is okay to make mistakes. Her students know the marking is not the priority in math. They know "the importance of math is to learn, not to get a good score."
Sayde has a powerful strategy she likes to do when one of her students says something is too hard. Sayde will sit on the floor with them and have them stretch their legs bit-by-bit until it becomes too hard. Then she asks, what would make it easier? Eventually, they will come to the conclusion that stretching everyday builds our flexibility. Then she says, our brains are the same. "[Our brain is] a muscle that needs to be worked to grow and unless we actively are challenging it daily we won't get any better."
Anonymous; Teacher of Grades 1-9 for 10 years
This teacher is familiar with the idea of growth mindset, but is still new to it. They have experience in a variety of grades, but most notably with Grade 6 for 7 years and has been with Grade 1 for the past 2.5 years.
In their classroom, they talk a lot about how "every expert was once a beginner," and although you may not know something yet, with practice you will get better at it.
From the perspective of the teacher, they make sure to view every student as an opportunity and not a problem. There is always the chance to "change [a student's] thoughts, which will change their feelings, which will change their actions, which will/should lead to the results they want." For the older grades, they would let their students know they were there to support them and if they worked together, they could learn and master concepts as a team.
The greatest benefits they noticed about cultivating a growth mindset culture in their classroom was when students began seeing concepts as challenges and would view themselves as learners and risk-takers.
As a teacher, the biggest challenge they found when implementing a growth mindset was the time to teach it and the patience to stick by them. They mention, "it [can be] exhausting to always be the cheerleader," but some students are so stuck in their fixed mindset they need the motivation and support to keep trying.
Another challenge they noted was sometimes with the parents. Some parents view math as an "inherited trait," which seems to be an excuse or an out if their child also struggles. They use this to try and get out of helping with math at home or as a scapegoat for their child's struggles.
All in all, the big questions is, "How do you carve out time in your day to give enough support to those who really need it?"
Anonymous
One teacher who is fairly familiar with growth mindset, but has not implemented it into their own classroom explicitly has still found some benefits that growth mindset can have.
In their classroom, they do not solve the problems for the kids. They find using open-ended questions and wait-time allows the students the opportunity to discover the answer for themselves. "There is such confidence built in teaching them strategies and for them to pick the best fit." In their math classroom, they have noticed an increased ability to problem solve stemming from the idea of growth mindset.
Anonymous; Upper Elementary Teacher for 29 years
This teacher considers theirself to be mostly familiar with the concept of growth mindset. In their classroom, their motto is, "1% better with every day - learning something new every day." Through this, they have cultivated a "never give up" attitude where students are encouraged to keep trying and persevere.
One strategy they found has worked well in their classroom is to pair students up depending on their mentalities. Students with a growth mindset will get paired with those who do not, to help encourage and model for one another.
The biggest challenge they noted when implementing a growth mindset is that many students come in with fixed mindsets. Even though it may not be easy and may take time, "it is our job as educators to create learning environments that produce positive results."
Their last piece of advice to those in the teaching field is to, "never give up on any kid NO MATTER WHAT," and to also "look for 1% growth in you as an educator." The key is to never stop learning!