Establishing a growth mindset culture takes time. Use these activities to foster determination among your students and help them realize that mistakes are part of learning.
Teach children that self-talk is critical to developing a growth mindset. Please encourage them to write down any negative self-talk they encounter regularly and then reframe these into more positive growth mindset statements.
Reframe Your Thoughts
Reframing your thoughts can help you see things more positively. For instance, instead of thinking that “you won’t ever find work,” try reframing that thought by visualizing that there may be another way for you to earn income. Or, if you feel let down after losing a game, try viewing it as an opportunity and finding ways that you could play differently next time around.
One helpful technique is keeping a thought record, wherein you document any negative thoughts and examine them closely as they arise. With each thought, note what type of cognitive distortion it represents and the emotions and behaviours related to that thought. Finally, add a column where you write an alternative, more positive and realistic thought.
Though reframing may take some practice, be patient as you go through the learning process and practice new reframing strategies regularly. A therapist could also be very beneficial in assisting in this regard and guiding the process along.
As an example of cognitive distortion, all-or-nothing thinking, a frequent cognitive error, means viewing every situation positively or negatively with no room for compromise or discussion. This type of thinking often leads to feelings of anxiety and depression, so it is essential to recognize that there may be other perspectives when looking at situations.
This activity helps children challenge self-limiting beliefs using an imagination tool called “future possibilities.” They can create a scenario in which they envision what life would be like without the negative thoughts they are having, making the transition easier towards adopting more productive mindsets. It may be easy to slip back into old patterns of thinking. However, as long as we continue identifying and challenging these negative patterns of thought, adopting more productive mindsets should become easier over time.
Create a Vision Board
A growth mindset requires learning how to adapt when experiencing setbacks or failure. This activity encourages kids to look for alternative solutions when encountering difficulties—an essential aspect of having a growth mindset. Plus, this fun activity provides them with an engaging opportunity to demonstrate the multiple approaches they can use when solving a problem or reaching success!
Use a poster board or canvas and have kids search magazines and websites for images, words, or quotes related to their goals and the growth mindset concept. Attach the content to their boards and encourage them to revisit it daily as a reminder that persistence and effort will enable them to achieve their goals.
Create a playful and interactive activity for kids to help them view obstacles as opportunities for growth while appreciating their achievements. Invite others to view and discuss the artwork created with growth mindset concepts like resilience and learning from mistakes. This activity allows children to express themselves creatively while exploring core principles like a growth mindset.
Maintaining a growth mindset involves accepting that everyone makes mistakes. This book helps children recognize that making mistakes doesn’t define who they are as individuals and provides strategies for turning negative self-talk into positive self-talk. It’s an excellent book to share with students of any age!
Practice Positive Self-Talk
Practice positive self-talk as part of building a growth mindset. How you talk to yourself has an enormous effect on your thoughts, beliefs, and what you believe you can achieve; conversely, negative self-talk can lead to feelings of hopelessness, frustration, and helplessness. To engage in effective positive self-talk dialogues with yourself, challenge negative thoughts with more balanced perspectives; eventually, it will become part of your internal dialogue.
Recognizing Your Thoughts: Notice how you respond to situations, such as what type of self-talk you engage in or the language you use throughout the day. Over time, you should become better able to recognize negative thought patterns more readily.
Positive self-talk starts with acknowledging your efforts rather than only rewarding the results. Instead of telling yourself, “You must be very clever if that worked so well,” try saying something like, “Great job trying out new strategies to solve this issue.” Ensure your praise is specific enough not to reinforce beliefs of talent or natural ability.
An essential aspect of having a growth mindset is accepting challenges and persevering through obstacles. To develop one in yourself, introduce some new challenges into your daily routine; perhaps make a pledge to learn something new every week or month—this will show the value of learning while broadening your knowledge and capabilities.
Create a Growth Mindset Book
As part of an effort to foster a growth mindset in their kids, encourage them to create a book about their goals and how they intend to attain them. Use images, quotes, and words from magazines that relate to your dreams or the steps needed to work hard towards reaching them; help arrange and glue this selected content onto a poster board or canvas to serve as a visual reminder. They can reflect upon this daily reminder and see how hard work over time leads to success.
Another way of nurturing creativity and teamwork in children is to consider engaging them in a collaborative storytelling game. Bring them together into one area, such as a backyard or classroom, and then have them contribute stories with growth mindset themes. Each addition should build upon the previous one for an evolving narrative arc that enhances creative thinking, problem-solving abilities and teamwork while cultivating growth mindsets. This activity enhances creative thinking while simultaneously developing teamwork capabilities while supporting a positive outlook and attitude.
Movies can also help foster a growth mindset. Blackburn suggests showing children stories about real-life characters who have overcome difficulties to achieve their goals, illustrating how a growth mindset can unlock one’s full potential.
Give children a set of daily growth mindset challenge cards to make an activity more engaging and interactive. These cards include trying something new, learning from mistakes or encouraging a friend to embrace challenges. Keep these cards in a container so they can pull one out each day and complete its activity; over time, this daily practice of growth-oriented behaviours will help your children build confidence and resilience.
Create a Growth Mindset Art Gallery
Integrate hands-on growth mindset activities into team-building events to foster an environment of continual learning and development. A growth mindset environment helps develop leaders willing to face challenges head-on while accepting feedback. Growth mindset activities also foster self-confidence and establish that success can come from anywhere, regardless of your background or circumstances.
Studies by Stanford University professor Carol Dweck reveal that students with a fixed mindset believe their intelligence and abilities are fixed; they can either do something or cannot. However, those with a growth mindset know they can improve their abilities over time to overcome barriers and achieve success with effort and persistence.
Encourage a growth mindset in the workplace by having employees create goal achievement charts to track their progress toward specific goals or habits. They can use blank charts or printable templates with columns that track daily progress; just remember to encourage small improvements each day so they can see the big effect their efforts can have on success!
Creative activities can help children and teenagers develop a growth mindset by teaching them perseverance and resilience to master new skills. You could set up an obstacle course and challenge children to complete it, motivating them to find ways to overcome problems or work around obstacles as part of this activity.
This growth mindset activity uses storytelling and art to help children understand that their beliefs about failure, success, and learning can change with time. To start this activity off right, purchase or create story cubes infused with growth mindset themes (e.g., challenges, effort resilience). Next, ask kids to roll them and create stories using them that highlight why adopting a growth mindset when encountering challenging situations is so essential.
