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4 Ways to Help Your Students Develop a Growth Mindset in Math

A positive attitude and growth mindset can help students persevere and see the rewards of productive struggle.

According to a new study from the Stanford University School of Medicine, children with a positive attitude towards math in school were more likely to succeed in solving a math problem than those with a negative attitude. Study author Professor Vinod Menon says, “We saw that if you have a strong interest and self-perceived ability in math, it results in enhanced memory and more efficient engagement of the brain’s problem-solving capacities.” Read more about the study here.

A positive attitude and growth mindset are critical for math learning. They can help students persevere and see the rewards of productive struggle. Without a growth mindset, it becomes easy for students (and adults!) to fall into a pattern of avoiding risks and feeling defeated.

Sami Briceño, one of our Master Math Practitioners, recently shared a few strategies for helping students develop a growth mindset:

  1. Give students quality math tasks. “Students can grasp high-level ideas, but they will not develop the brain connections that allow them to do so if they are given low-level work and negative messages about their own potential.” (Boaler & Foster, 2014)
     
  2. Create a culture that recognizes and values mistakes as opportunities to learn. Brain growth comes from the experience of struggle. Being outside your comfort zone is an extremely important place to be!
     
  3. Utilize peer-/self-assessment, feedback and revision in the math classroom. Research shows that only providing positive examples does not eliminate some of the incorrect things students may think. Consistent peer analysis helps students analyze their own work for errors and correctness.

    How to Learn Math
     
  4. Be mindful of mindset messages you and your students communicate to yourselves and each other. Words have power!

    Change Your Words, Change Your Mindset

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  • Carnegie Learning

Carnegie Learning is shaping the future of education. Born from more than 30 years of learning science research at Carnegie Mellon University, the company has become a recognized leader in the ed tech space, using artificial intelligence, formative assessment, and adaptive learning to deliver groundbreaking solutions to education’s toughest challenges. With the highest quality offerings for K-12 math, ELA, literacy, world languages, professional learning and more, Carnegie Learning is changing the way we think about education, and creating powerful results for teachers and students alike.

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  • January 30, 2018

Create a culture that recognizes and values mistakes as opportunities to learn. Being outside your comfort zone is an extremely important place to be!

Sami Briceño, Master Math Practitioner, Carnegie Learning

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