Growth Mindset in Teaching: A Case Study of a Finnish Elementary School Teacher

Rina Ronkainen, Elina Kuusisto, Kirsi Tirri

Abstract


This study investigates how a growth mindset is actualised in one first-grade teacher’s classroom. Mindset refers to implicit beliefs that individuals hold about basic human qualities. A person with a growth mindset sees these qualities as malleable and subject to development, whereas a person with a fixed mindset sees these qualities as static and unalterable. Previous research has shown that teachers’ mindsets have an influence on their pedagogical thinking and practice. The data in this study include classroom observations, videotaping and stimulated recall interviews. Deductive content analysis was used in the inquiry. The teacher’s growth mindset pedagogy was actualised with one student in particular when the teacher gave critical feedback in the form of “not yetâ€. This gradually changed the student’s fixed mindset behaviour towards a growth mindset. The teacher’s growth mindset was also actualised in the class as a whole when she fostered students’ process-focused thinking with concrete and immediate praise, indicating her high expectations. The teacher studied can be regarded as an example of a growth-mindset teacher, and her actions and reflections on the teaching-studying-learning process provide illuminating examples of growth mindset pedagogy in classroom interactions.

https://doi.org/10.26803/ijlter.18.8.9


Keywords


Growth mindset; growth mindset pedagogy; elementary school teacher; Finland

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References


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