“Teaching is a very noble profession that shapes the character, calibre, and future of an individual.” – A. P. J. Abdul Kalam.

Teachers work towards preparing their students to take on the challenges of their future with confidence and skills. These skills consist of both life skills and academic skills. Developing a growth mindset in students is crucial in cultivating these skills.

In this article, I will share a list of questions that will help you to gradually cultivate a growth mindset culture in your classroom. You can use these questions as the cheatsheet to guide your conversations with your students.

Use the questions below appropriately at different situations inside and outside the classroom.

Don’t forget to check the two handy infographics at the end of this article.

1. What did you learn from that session?

You can use this question to let your students know that learning is a part of every experience. Do not forget to ask this question even after the students faces a negative outcome.

Takeaways: Learning, Self-learning

2. What are the steps you took to achieve a favorable outcome today?

A successful outcome deserves a growth-oriented praise. However, you should not forget to help your student reflect on the process he/she adopted that made this success possible. Acknowledgment of the process helps them to repeat the processes and steps that worked.

Takeaways: Reflect and acknowledge steps that led to success

Advertisement

3. What are the things you learned from that disappointment?

A failure is not just time for disappointment. Failure can teach your students valuable lessons and to step up their performance in the future. Cultivating a habit of learning from failures will help your students to be prepared better the next time.

Takeaway: Failure is a great teacher

4. What are the other strategies you could have used to do this?

There are times when one question has multiple answers. Then there are other times when multiple routes lead to the same answer. When your students look at alternate strategies, it will lead them to develop their critical thinking.

Takeaways: Having a strategy is good. Identifying a better strategy is even better.

5. What did you do when you faced difficulties and challenges?

It is crucial for your students to know that coming across difficulties and roadblocks is part of success. It is even more important for them to know that facing such situations head on enhances their chances of future successes.

Takeaway: Perseverance

Advertisement

6. What did you learn from others in the game?

Learning from others helps  to reduce the learning curve. We can learn directly from others or we can learn by observing others. We can learn from people who perform better than us or worse than us. Let your students realise they can learn from their teammates and competitors and learning from others is an important part of every activity.

Takeaway: Learn from others

7. What are the preparations you did to achieve this result?

Making the right preparations is part of working towards a goal. This preparations could be in the form of prioritising, managing time, learning new skills to learn and so on. If your students realise the preparations that led to an outcome, they can fine tune it.

Takeaway: Planning

8. How did you work for this?

Efforts pave way to results. Not just the efforts, the right kind of efforts pave way to excellence.

Takeaways: Hard work is important. Working hard the right way is essential.

Advertisement

9. How often did you practice before the test/game?

Having a regular practice schedule helps to make the neural connections stronger.

Takeaways: Practice and revision help the brain to make its connection stronger.

10. How did you keep motivating yourself when things were going bad?

Having the belief in our ability to learn and apply new things help us to persist at times of difficulty. Other than that, people use many techniques such as stress-release techniques, approaching mentors, self-coaching etc. to keep the vigour and passion up.

Takeaways: Self-belief, self-motivating

11. How would you give yourself a challenge?

Being in the comfort zone does not add value to the progress of your students. They need to learn to stretch their comfort zones and to do things they are not comfortable with. Success usually happens when we venture outside our comfort zones. Remind your students to find things outside their comfort zones to try on.

Takeaway: Get out of your comfort zone to breakthrough to your success

Don’t forget to read these articles too on growth mindset

5 Strategies Good Teachers Adopt to Provide Effective Feedback to Students

The secret ingredient that makes our children future-ready

14 things a teacher with a growth mindset doesn’t do

Shooting in the self created darkness: A growth mindset story

How To Boost Academics By Growing Growth Mindset

Have you read my latest book Infinite Possibilities: Unlock your real potential with the secret recipes from superachievers? It comes with 10 case studies, 11 manifestos and 55 steps to unleash your own real potential by boosting your growth mindset. Furthermore, it will show you how you can apply Infinite Possibilities in your personal, professional and academic lives. You can get a copy of it here or at Amazon for yourself, your team, your student or child.

After reading this article, could you please do the three simple steps below?

1. Share this article with your friends and colleagues, so that they too are aware of this amidst their busy schedules.
2. Have you written an article that complements this article? Please share it in the comment section below with one or two lines explaining what that is about.
3. Do you have any insights or tips that you use? Would you like to share that? Please use the comments section below and let me know!

You can find another version of this article here.

Have you read Sindu Sreebhavan’s latest book Infinite Possibilities? You can find it here.

Share this article with your friends and colleagues, so that they too are aware of this amidst their busy schedules. 

Do you have any insights or tips that you use? Would you like to share that? Please use the comments section below and let us know!

Good teachers know that effective feedback is an essential tool for empowering a student to perform better. When you include growth mindset components to that feedback, it could transform your student’s goals, aspirations and efforts for the better

An effective feedback consists of 5 components. In this article I will outline the TIPSE^TM model –  a feedback model which I developed based on growth mindset.

Giving effective feedback to students is a skill. You can make use of the TIPSE components below to give effective feedback and coach your students to perform to their real potential.

Advertisement

1. Affirm your TRUST in your student’s ability to grow

In order for your student to be ready to listen to you and take your feedback seriously, they need to believe that you genuinely trust in their ability to grow and excel.

• Remind your student of their brain’s amazing ability to rewire and  grow their talents and intelligence. Take example of some of the areas they grew to stress your point.
• Never tell them that their results are due to their natural ability or what they achieved is the best they can.
• Remind them that preparation and ability are not the same. So, irrespective of where they are they will be able to set goals and work towards it.

2. Focus on the PROCESS

Everybody is working towards obtaining results. However, results are the outcomes of following certain processes. A good feedback will recognize the process that the student undertook. Irrespective of whether the result was positive or not, acknowledging the process will help your student look at various aspects of their .

• Acknowledge your student’s hard work
• Acknowledge the strategies and plans they adopted in achieving their results
• Acknowledge the difficulties faced and the risks took on by your student

An effort may or may not have brought the desired result. But, taking that effort is a great step. This reminds me of what one teacher told me. She has a student who usually gets failing grades. After one particular test, she observed that although the score has not improved, the student had taken the time to attempt all questions. She told him how proud she was to see his commitment to attempt all questions.

Advertisement

3. Point out areas for IMPROVEMENT

A feedback is incomplete without highlighting areas to improve.

• Even with a great result, there is still scope for improvement. Your students are naturally resourceful and have the ability to improve better than their current best.
• Tell them that some goals might seem unattainable. But, with proper planning and strategy, they will be able to reach there steadily and gradually. Do not lower the standard on what they can achieve.
• Are there any skills, habits and topics they need to pick up? Discuss it with your student.

4. Guide them with actionable STEPS to move forward

• Provide specific steps to your student to improve from where they are and move towards their goals. A generic goal such as “do better in the next test” does not provide an actionable task to the student. Tell them what they can do to get better. Some of the action oriented phrases you could use are, “Having a study/revision plan will help you to stay focused and score better next time,” “Do you need my help in brushing up some of the basics so that you can better understand the topic,” “Do you think you can keep your mobile phone and tablet away during your study time? That will help you to study better.”
• Help them devise a strategy to move forward. Show them how they can break their goal into smaller tasks. Give them measurable and achievable sub-goals to encourage a habit of taking action. This will help your student to find a sense of purpose.
• Highlight the importance of time management and its effect on reducing their stress.

Advertisement

5. Provide an ENVIRONMENT where your students feel encouraged to discuss their progress with you from time to time.

If you want  your student to listen to you, they should feel comfortable to have an open discussion with you from time to time.

• Do not judge your students by their academic results. They might be better in other areas, talk about those areas to understand what drives them to perform better in those areas.
• Your communication skills play an important role in deciding how your feedback will influence and persuade your child. Have a patient ear, pause before you respond and make an effort to know more about your student.
• Find time to have one-on-conversation with your students. Two minutes is enough for a meaningful conversation. Over time, it paves way for forming a good relationship.

Don’t forget to read these articles too on growth mindset

The secret ingredient that makes our children future-ready

14 things a teacher with a growth mindset doesn’t do

Shooting in the self created darkness: A growth mindset story

How To Boost Academics By Growing Growth Mindset

Have you read my latest book Infinite Possibilities: Unlock your real potential with the secret recipes from superachievers? It comes with 10 case studies, 11 manifestos and 55 steps to unleash your own real potential by boosting your growth mindset. Furthermore, it will show you how you can apply Infinite Possibilities in your personal, professional and academic lives. You can get a copy of it here or at Amazon for yourself, your team, your student or child.

After reading this article, could you please do the three simple steps below?

1. Share this article with your friends and colleagues, so that they too are aware of this amidst their busy schedules.
2. Have you written an article that complements this article? Please share it in the comment section below with one or two lines explaining what that is about.
3. Do you have any insights or tips that you use? Would you like to share that? Please use the comments section below and let me know!

You can find another version of this article here.

Have you read Sindu Sreebhavan’s latest book Infinite Possibilities? You can find it here.

Share this article with your friends and colleagues, so that they too are aware of this amidst their busy schedules. 

Do you have any insights or tips that you use? Would you like to share that? Please use the comments section below and let us know!

An earlier version of this article was published on the Empowered Teacher magazine. “Our education systems do not make children future-ready”, sounds all too familiar? I guess we all agree that what we need is an education system which is more than just academics and standardised tests. So, what is that secret ingredient that makes our children future-ready?

So, what does future-readiness mean in the VUCA world? We need people who are problem finders and problem solvers. That essentially means, we need the flames of creativity and exploration inside the kindergarten students to shine long after they leave kindergarten, instead of compelling them to kill it. If our education systems do not serve this purpose, it is impossible to guarantee that no child is left behind when it comes to future readiness.

Advertisement

In order to create a pool of innovative people, our children should be equipped to learn how to learn, unlearn and relearn. With this intention, schools usually set out to create innovation projects and technology classes. But what most forget about is the mindset. Nurturing the right mindset in children is essential to enable them to create their own future possibilities.

Secret Ingredient for infinite possibilities and success

In my work helping educational institutions and corporations build growth mindset and innovation, I come across one question very often — What is the secret ingredient that helps individuals, children and organizations ready for the future? There is only one answer – grow your growth mindset.

So, what is growth mindset all about? Growth Mindset is a term that Stanford Professor Carol Dweck introduced after her years of studies on the psychology behind academic success. She classifies our mindset into two – growth mindset and fixed mindset.

People who consciously cultivate a growth mindset believe that they have direct influence in changing themselves for the better. They cultivate attitudes, behaviors and beliefs that position themselves towards progress and success. So, is growth mindset all about having a positive outlook in life? The answer is – it is not, although that helps.

Advertisement

People with a growth mindset think that they have the ability to change their intelligence, talents and attitudes. They believe that they can do it with hard work, planning, learning and reflection. They focus on the process rather than the outcome. Studies have found that in a growth mindset environments innovation, collaboration, learning and growth flourish.

So, why does growth mindset work?

Growth Mindset is enjoying much acceptance and popularity in the education industry. Many successful corporations too have embraced growth mindset. Organisations like Microsoft have adopted growth mindset for developing their employees’ potential and innovative mindset.

The effectiveness of growth mindset is hugely supported by the latest discoveries in the neuroscience field. Our brain has an amazing gift called neuroplasticity. As the word suggests, it means that our brain is like a plastic. It means that we can mold our brain in any way we want to.

Advertisement

Neuroplasticity is our brain’s marvelous ability to reorganize itself based on the experience and exposure we subject it to. This reorganizing could come from our actions, efforts, thoughts, beliefs and attitudes among other things. In simple words, we can rewire our brain. So the question is, if we can really rewire our brain, how do we do that? Growth Mindset is the way to make that possible.

Advertisement

Why do several growth mindset initiatives fail?

Despite the wide acceptance of growth mindset, many educational institutions fail at implementing or sustain growth mindset initiatives. Some of the main reasons behind that are

1.   Lack of implementation tools

Teachers and schools find it difficult to find step-by-step processes to implement growth mindset as part of their pedagogy. As a result, the adoption is left with individual teachers or implementing it wrongly or abandoning it altogether. Having a clear implementation plan and sufficient resources is essential for the success of growth mindset project that lasts.

2.   Not starting from the right group

Many educational institutions embark on their growth mindset journey with growth mindset workshops for students. This is a wrong approach. A growth mindset journey should start with the school management, school leaders and educators.

Advertisement

3.   Confining growth mindset within the classroom

Four centuries of conventional school system has conditioned our brains to look at everything about education as subjects and academics. Anything that is not part of the conventional ‘subjects’ is termed ‘extra-curricular’. Whereas, when you decide to adopt a growth mindset, it is essential that you take the decision to create a culture of continuous improvement in every area of the life of your students and faculty – a culture that makes children future-ready. Furthermore, teachers who practice growth mindset is an essential component to ensure the success of a growth mindset initiative.

As you will read in my book Infinite Possibilities: Unlock your real potential with the secret recipes of superachievers, many successful people in the world today were not academically exceptional. It is the growth mindset in their overall outlook of their life and dreams that helped them to achieve their stupendous stature. Schools need to Implement growth mindset in every area, from classrooms to the sports field and the school canteen to faculty rooms.

Advertisement

Adopting a growth mindset is a culture change project. Experience, tools, and a long-term approach really matter here. If you would like to read more about growth mindset and its application in education, read Infinite Possibilities. If parents and teachers of today embrace a culture of growing their growth mindset, that will do wonders in developing generations of future ready children.

Growth Mindset is the only way you can develop, boost and sustain the growth mindset in your school.

You can download a complimentary copy of the high resolution Growth Mindset Infographics for your school or home at www.asmanyminds.com/growth-mindset-resources/

Have you read my latest book Infinite Possibilities: Unlock your real potential with the secret recipes from superachievers? It comes with 10 case studies, 11 manifestos and 55 steps to unleash your own real potential by boosting your growth mindset. Furthermore, it will show you how you can apply Infinite Possibilities in your personal, professional and academic lives. You can get a copy of it here or at Amazon for yourself, your team, your student or child.

After reading this article, could you please do the three simple steps below?

1. Share this article with your friends and colleagues, so that they too are aware of this amidst their busy schedules.
2. Have you written an article that complements this article? Please share it in the comment section below with one or two lines explaining what that is about.
3. Do you have any insights or tips that you use? Would you like to share that? Please use the comments section below and let me know!

You can find another version of this article here.

Have you read Sindu Sreebhavan’s latest book Infinite Possibilities? You can find it here.

Share this article with your friends and colleagues, so that they too are aware of this amidst their busy schedules. 

Do you have any insights or tips that you use? Would you like to share that? Please use the comments section below and let us know!

Success is not the result of mere talent and intelligence. In fact, success is the result of how we fuel our skills with attitudes, beliefs, behaviors and habits. It is the result of cultivating a growth mindset.

Teachers have a major role in setting a child for success. Teachers who practice a growth mindset culture, follow certain processes, beliefs and practices that help them to cultivate a growth mindset in their students.

Between two students, one who says, “This is hard. I don’t want to do it now” and the other who says “It is hard. But, I am going to figure it out”, who has got a better chance to succeed?

According to Stanford psychologist Carol Dweck, one thing that determines the success of a child (and an adult) is having a growth mindset. A growth mindset is the result of carefully cultivated attitudes, thoughts, behaviors and habits that set a child on the path of developing abilities and courage over a period of time.

Take a look at the chart below to find how different a person with a growth mindset thinks compared to a person with a fixed mindset.

Advertisement

Check out these things that growth mindset teachers don’t do so that you too can boost your classroom’s growth mindset culture.

1.  They don’t let their students forget their failures

At the same time, they do not let their students beat themselves up for their failure. They teach their students how to look at failures constructively. They teach them how to find valuable lessons from their failures.

2. They don’t label their students

They would not make comments such as “That was a clever answer” or “Don’t be so lazy” or “Don’t be shy.” A label is an attitude setter. A label, set by self or by others, has the power to make a person believe that is what they are. It has lifelong effects. They will develop a habit to protect that label instead of taking steps to come out of their comfort zone or taking up challenges. They encourage students to encourage each other and themselves with process-based praises rather than outcome based labels. I have written about how I strived to live up to my label of “Math-dumb” in my book Infinite Possibilities.

Advertisement

3.  They don’t let their students feel superior for a great result

Since the students are on a journey to achieve more than the results at school, it is important for them to understand the process that leads to better results. A great result is the opportunity to learn more about the process of reaching that result. A great result is the result of hard work, planning, strategies, various learning styles, multiple mistakes or failures, practice routines, habits and behaviors.

4.  They don’t punish students for making mistakes

Instead, they encourage students to take a closer look at those mistakes and provide them with the strategies to learn from those mistakes. They encourage them to look at it from various perspectives such as the approach they adopted, the understanding of the topic, thinking patterns, emotional factors, routines and so on.

Advertisement

5.  They don’t control the Growth Mindset culture

In a classroom where growth mindset is celebrated, it is not the teacher who is actively driving it, students are also enthusiastically involved in suggesting and leading activities related to growth mindset.

They let their students have a say in the resources and activities needed to help them reinforce and practice growth mindset in and outside the classroom. They let your students learn how to communicate and brainstorm to find solutions for tough challenges, both academic and non-academic.

6.  They don’t consider growth mindset as an additional chore

They truly believe in what they are doing since they are practitioners of growth mindset too. Hence, they find personal growth and collective growth in incorporating a growth mindset into their pedagogy and classroom.

Advertisement

7.  They don’t preach to students about growth mindset

In a classroom, you see students of multiple intelligence. Teachers who practice growth mindset use various auditory, verbal and kinesthetic methods to make students understand the neuroplasticity elements that outline why growth mindset works. They incorporate effective thinking routines and projects in the curriculum to enable these concepts stick.

8.  They don’t give unattainable goals to students

Taking up challenges is something children need to feel comfortable with practice. In order to create a risk-taking culture in the classroom, it is essential to make the students tolerant to taking challenges. Teachers who are passionate about creating a growth mindset culture in their students, start with attainable goals and then gradually increase the intensity of those challenges. They believe in creating an environment for consistent, incremental progress.

Advertisement

9.  They don’t ask students to just sit down and follow what they ask them to do

They provide opportunities for students to verbalize their thoughts. They give their students pointers to verbalize different aspects of their progress, challenges, mistakes, self-reflection and feedback for other students’ growth mindset efforts and so on.

10. They don’t use words that reflect a fixed mindset

They actively practice a growth mindset in their lives. They use vocabulary that reflects they are persistent, confident, lifelong learners and enablers. They do not use phrases such as “I wish I were young enough to do that” or “I wish I had picked up that skill when I was younger.” Instead, they use phrases like that reflect their ability to be a lifelong learner such as, “I am not good at it yet, but will some practice I am sure I will be able to get better at it.”

Advertisement

11. They don’t shy away from receiving feedback

They demonstrate genuine grace and kindness when they receive a feedback. In fact, they create a culture in the classroom where the students have the right to give feedback to them. They teach them how to receive a feedback with grace and kindness. Moreover, they teach students how to make any feedback a ‘helpful feedback’ by asking questions to know more about the reason and the situations behind the feedback. Such teachers also present themselves as exemplary feedback recipients by incorporating feedback into their attitudes and behaviors. In addition, they find time to they share with their students how their feedback have been useful in becoming a better teacher or a person.

12. They don’t cultivate a one-sentence-feedback culture

They teach students how to give and receive constructive feedback. They believe in the power of constructive feedback. They create an environment which focuses on process-oriented feedback. In such an environment, both areas of excellence and areas for improvement comes into discussion. And they ensure that such discussions are focused on the process that led to excellence and the process that will lead to excellence.

Advertisement

13. They don’t just focus on individual learning

They make students understand the value of collaboration. They promote a collaborative learning culture where students learn in groups and understand how their efforts and participation results in the success of their group. This helps them to take responsibility for the group and to encourage each other to work hard for the group’s performance. They learn from each other’s learning and working styles, gain confidence and feel a sense of accomplishment from these group activities. Moreover, they will be able to carry these learnings on other areas of their lives as well.

14. They don’t create a culture of downplaying successes  

They encourage students to celebrate another student’s achievement. They encourage their students to praise the achiever with process-oriented praises. This provides an environment where other students gain the courage to ask the achiever for their tips than feeling jealous or intimidated by their achievement. This also fosters a culture of success mantras being shared for collective excellence.

Have you read my latest book Infinite Possibilities: Unlock your real potential with the secret recipes from superachievers? It comes with 10 case studies, 11 manifestos and 55 steps to unleash your own real potential by boosting your growth mindset. Furthermore, it will show you how you can apply Infinite Possibilities in your personal, professional and academic lives. You can get a copy of it here or at Amazon for yourself, your team, your student or child.

After reading this article, could you please do the three simple steps below?

1. Share this article with your friends and colleagues, so that they too are aware of this amidst their busy schedules.
2. Have you written an article that complements this article? Please share it in the comment section below with one or two lines explaining what that is about.
3. Do you have any insights or tips that you use? Would you like to share that? Please use the comments section below and let me know!

You can find another version of this article here.

Have you read Sindu Sreebhavan’s latest book Infinite Possibilities? You can find it here.

Look out for our next Growth Mindset for Teachers workshop at www.asmanyminds.com/gm-tw

Share this article with your friends and colleagues, so that they too are aware of this amidst their busy schedules. 

Do you have any insights or tips that you use? Would you like to share that? Please use the comments section below and let us know!

How do we make today’s children future ready to help them face the uncertain world of artificial intelligence with confidence?

Over lunch my friend was talking about her daughter Evelyn. Evelyn studies in a high profile secondary school that focuses on hardcore science and technology. They are at a stage where the daughter has to start considering the choices for her university education. To the dismay of the family, the daughter announced that she wants to major in psychology in her undergraduate degree.

Before jumping into conclusions, let me state this. The parents are both doing great as technology leaders in their careers and they want to give freedom to their daughter to make her own decisions about her future. Yet, they are in a dilemma. They want to want to make sure that Evelyn is taking the right decision. They are also not sure whether studying psychology will give her enough job opportunities in the future.

Here is my take: Psychology graduates will have a bright future.

Advertisement

There are three aspects that we need to consider when we think about the future.

1. Artificial Intelligence and the job landscape

Artificial intelligence has already started disrupting many traditional job roles. The impact of the new disruptive forces in the global economy is massive. This impact is estimated to be 3,000 times larger compared to the impact from the industrial revolution in 18th and 19th centuries (as stated in the book No Ordinary Disruption.) So, are our children future ready?

2. What are the new job opportunities emanating from the widespread use of AI?

Accenture’s global study of 1,000 companies that are already using/planning to use AI has identified three new categories of jobs that would emerge as AI gets sophisticated. Surprisingly, these are not jobs that require deep technological knowledge. These are jobs that will require humans as intermediaries to include, review or correct empathy and emotions in the machine-learning algorithms.

Advertisement

3. What are the driving factors for these new jobs?

A major hurdle in the progress of AI taking over a large part of our lives is one factor – our emotion. Human emotion is the final frontier for AI. Effective ways to read and replicate human emotions are yet to be invented.

I believe that the way we see psychology will change in the future. We will certainly see dramatic changes in the role of psychologists in the workplace. This means that we need to consider that when we talk about future readiness of today’s children.

Advertisement

Should Evelyn pursue psychology?

Today’s and tomorrow’s job market and requirements are very different from yesterday’s. Any field that will provide more insight into human emotions and consciousness will be of demand. So, I think she should. What do you think? Leave your thoughts in the comments section below.

After reading this article, could you please do the three simple steps below?

1. Share this article with your friends and colleagues, so that they too are aware of this amidst their busy schedules.
2. Have you written an article that complements this article? Please share it in the comment section below with one or two lines explaining what that is about.
3. Do you have any insights or tips that you use? Would you like to share that? Please use the comments section below and let me know!

You can find another version of this article here.

Have you read Sindu Sreebhavan’s latest book Infinite Possibilities? You can find it here.

Share this article with your friends and colleagues, so that they too are aware of this amidst their busy schedules. 

Do you have any insights or tips that you use? Would you like to share that? Please use the comments section below and let us know!