Supporting students’ mindset development as they navigate challenges
Driving Question
“How can you support P-12 students in building their academic mindset towards persisting and persevering with challenging activities?”
Overall Learning Goal
For candidates to design deeper learning opportunities that integrate support for academic mindset development as students persist & persevere with challenges.
Mindset Module Overview
This module focuses on the "academic mindsets" competency.
It helps candidates support P-12 students in building their academic mindset towards persisting & persevering with challenging activities.
Faculty/instructors who are integrating this module into their courses can have students access the materials directly here on this website, or view it within the Canvas Free for Teachers course platform.
This site contains all of the core module material, but the Canvas version provides more directions, sequencing, and additional resources like supplemental classroom video examples and transcript files. Note that when students are watching the included videos, they can also use built-in transcript/closed captioning features.
Note that we've also included a faculty guide to support your planning. We welcome you to access this free, open-source module to enrich your teaching and address this important aspect of deeper learning!
Section 1
What Is Your Mindset Towards Tackling Challenging Activities?
Candidates directly engage in a challenging collaborative learning activity & reflect on their own mindset (e.g., attitude/beliefs) towards navigating it together, while making connections to implications for P-12 learning.
Section 2
What Is an Academic Mindset?
Candidates explore foundational concepts such as academic mindset, persistence, and perseverance through assigned readings, supplemental resources & discussion.
Resources
Section 3
How Can Persisting & Persevering Through Productive Struggle Help Build Academic Mindset?
Candidates examine the role of “productive struggle” in building academic mindset, using videos of classroom practice to identify the skills, strategies and supports that help students persist/persevere through challenging deeper learning activities.
Section 4
Analyzing How Teachers Can Foster Academic Mindset Development
Candidates analyze & discuss case examples that demonstrate how teachers can 1) intentionally design opportunities for students to develop their academic mindset within the context of content instruction and 2) offer meaningful feedback/support for persisting/persevering through productive struggle throughout the cycle of teaching and learning.
Resources
Section 5
Designing a Challenging Activity that Integrates Academic Mindset Development
(CORE ACTIVITY)
Candidates design a P-12 learning activity that includes support for academic mindset development as students persist/persevere in their work together & then use peer feedback from other candidates to refine their design further.