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Self-Growth/Growth Mindset (1992) LD
Learners with a growth mindset believe that they have the ability to increase their knowledge (learn)
as well as their capacity to perform on the basis of that knowledge (grow). Self-Growers are people
who consciously and continuously strive to mentor their own self-development, challenging and
assessing themselves to increase their capacity for performance.
Learning vs. Growing Students will need to learn at a continually increasing
rate
The importance of a growth mindset and the potential for
self-growth is only apparent if we’re able to differentiate Empower students to become better problem solvers,
between knowledge and growth. Professor of Psychology critical thinkers, and communicators
Cy Leise draws the difference succinctly: “Knowledge is
the result produced from learning. Growth is the result Developing students’ assessment skills
of personal development produced by self-assessment”
(2007). He further explains that while a learner can Educational process needs to focus on learning skills
easily increase the amount of knowledge they have, the
increase does not automatically lead to improved learning Students must learn how to learn
performance. This jibes with the experience shared in the
section Learning to Learn, in which freshmen and seniors This makes clear that improvement and growth are the
competed in a learning challenge, and although the seniors objectives of teaching and learning…not simply making
had much more knowledge, this did not correspond to an students more knowledgeable.
increased ability to perform as learners (Apple, Ellis, &
Hintze, 2015). In the simplest possible terms, learning Growth and Learning Skills
is about increasing knowledge, whereas growth is about
improving performance. In the textbook Learning Through Problem Solving
(Apple, Beyerlein & Schlesinger, 1992), a major focus
The term, “growth mindset” is properly attributed to was to help students learn how to learn, improve problem
psychologist Carol Dweck, author of Mindset: The New solving and critical thinking, and to improve their learning
Psychology of Success (2006). Dweck defines growth skills by using self-assessment; a fairly potent recipe for
mindset in apposition to “fixed mindset”: growth. This is because learning skills (see the section
Classification of Learning Skills) are one of the critical
ingredients for self-growth…so much so that perhaps they
should have been called “growth skills,” instead.
Fixed Mindset Teach for Learning — A Handbook for Process Education
(Pacific Crest, 1993) was used as the institute handbook
“In a fixed mindset, people believe their basic qualities, during Teaching Institutes in 1993 and 1994. It articulated
like their intelligence or talent, are simply fixed traits… a growth-oriented educational focus, explaining that the
They also believe that talent alone creates success— acquisition and improvement of learning skills would
without effort.” improve learning performance by increasing the rate of
learning.
Growth Mindset
“In a growth mindset, people believe that their most Assessment for Self-Growth
basic abilities can be developed through dedication
and hard work—brains and talent are just the starting Assessment is the trigger for improvement of performance;
point.” in 1995, Apple and Duncan-Hewitt, in their book A Primer
for Process Education set out a definition of Process
The goals of the first Teaching Institute were to improve Education as being comprised of
student learning, faculty teaching, and instructional design
to increase productivity (Apple, 1991). This focus on 1. Education focused on the development of learning
improvement has remained and is at the heart of Process process skills ("The rate at which you learn is a func-
Education. While the actual phrase “growth mindset” tion of your investment in learning how to learn and
is absent, its meaning and the emphasis on improving your commitment to developing your learning skills.")
learner capacity for performance is ever-present, even
in the earliest handbook. Throughout the handbook, one 2. The use of cooperative learning, problem solving,
finds phrases such as, and discovery-based learning in an environment of
continuous assessment and reflection
International Journal of Process Education (February 2016, Volume 8 Issue 1) 11
