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Brain artwork by Holden Dougherty '25. But just what is growth mindset? According to Dr. Carol S. Dweck, author of Mindset: e New Psychology of Success (Ballantine Books, 2006) and professor of psychology at Stanford University, growth mindset is the belief that our human qualities and abilities can change and improve. While many teachers have been familiar with Dweck's theory for years, the work was embraced school-wide when Dweck protégé and business partner, Eduardo Briceño, visited Latin in January 2017. Briceño, who is co-founder and CEO of Mindset Works in San Jose, California, outlined the growth mindset philosophy, which is backed by years of quantitative research. One of the hallmarks of growth mindset is trying and failing in what is often called productive struggling. According to Briceño, "Failure means that you are challenging yourself to go beyond what you normally can do." Of course, the challenging task has to be deep, engaging and just out of reach. "If it's something that's too hard, it won't be useful because it won't be the right level," he said. Growth mindset encourages schools to have their students spend most of their time in a learning zone where experimentation, trying new things and failure happens, versus a performance zone, where students are tested on what they know. "School should mostly be a learning zone with very brief periods of the performance zone," said Briceño. "If students spend too much time in the performance zone where they are being graded all the time, they will be afraid to make mistakes for fear that their fellow students will think less of them. If students are not making mistakes, they are not learning." e benefits of growth mindset to students are many, according to Briceño. "Life becomes more fun because students learn to like learning. ey are better able to achieve their goals. ey have more positive relationships with people because they listen better. And they gain greater resiliency because they learn that struggling is part of the learning process." Teachers benefit too. "ey see greater improvement and greater results for their instruction." Briceño touched on several ways that schools can cultivate growth mindset. First, students need to know that the brain is malleable. e brain can actually be rewired through learning, and students who understand this know that challenges are an opportunity to grow. Second, teachers should focus on praising the process rather than the person. Praising students for being smart may lead some to think they are dumb when they struggle with a task or assignment. Briceño pointed out that praise sometimes creates unintended consequences when a child takes on a challenge only when she or he is being praised. "We don't want students to work hard to get praise. We want students to work hard because they care about getting better and improving their abilities," he said. More powerful than praise is asking questions such as, "What did you learn today?" and, "What mistakes did you make, and what did you learn from them?" Finally, teachers and parents need to celebrate mistakes. If students see that adults value the learning process over getting the right answer, students will take more risks. "If you don't give students permission to make mistakes, they will only raise their hand and contribute to a discussion if they have the right answer," said Briceño. Getting younger students to understand and value growth mindset can never start too early. In fact, students in the lower school react quite well to the philosophy. Julie Brooks, director of the lower school, said that one thing her staff in particular is focused on is making sure students know it is acceptable to make mistakes. "Brandi Lawrence, a third-grade teacher, actually asks her students, 'What mistakes did you make today?' Another teacher, Anne Johnson, had her second graders remove all the erasers on the pencils in the classroom," said Brooks. One of the challenges of having growth mindset accepted by the entire school community is changing the culture of the school to one where mistakes and productive struggling are valued because they lead to learning and growth. Brooks admits this is made all the more difficult because of Latin's prestigious reputation. Shortly after Briceño spoke, Brooks invited junior kindergarten parents to a coffee to discuss growth mindset, what it would mean for students and how parents could promote it at home. "e junior kindergarten parents were interested and curious about how this would begin at the early childhood level. is is a relatively unknown field, so we are still exploring what this means," said Brooks. "But there is a definite interest among lower school families." Fourth-grade teacher Loomis thinks that changing the culture includes the students' willingness to change their language. "We are trying to minimize or eliminate negative self-speak," said Loomis. "Instead of students saying, 'I'm not good at this,' we encourage them to change that to, 'I'm not good at this yet.' Instead of 'is is too hard,' we want them to say 'is is hard, and it may take some time.'" Loomis also thinks it's important to minimize praise. "As a teacher, I want our students to focus on the journey and the process. I have to refrain from telling students 'You're right,' because when you say that, students think 'Oh I've got it!' and they stop thinking. Instead I try to say 'What makes you think that?' or 'Can you explain how you arrived at that answer?'" Brooks also thinks it's important that teachers model lifelong learning. "When I go into a classroom to observe a teacher, sometimes the students ask why I am there. I love it when the teacher tells the kids, 'Miss Brooks is helping me be a better teacher.'" Latin Magazine » Summer 2017 27