How A Growth Mindset Allows Students to Choose Their Future
Through incorporating a growth mindset into daily student learning, Athlos schools help students set a foundation of confidence and skills they can often rely on as they enter future education and career opportunities.
As Athlos students begin to take ownership of their learning, they also begin to view learning as more than grades, but as a life-long pursuit full of both challenges and success.
Mindsets often set the course for future decisions
Many students develop mindsets throughout their schooling that can greatly affect future life decisions.
Some of these mindsets can be classified as fixed or growth:
- A fixed mindset is the belief that accomplishments are trait-based and tied to pure intellect and natural ability.
- A growth mindset is the belief that one’s intelligence can be grown or developed with persistence, effort, and a focus on learning.
Studies show that elementary and middle-school aged students who excel at one subject over another are often encouraged to pursue a career based in the subject area they perform best in. This often shapes the student’s future for them, leaving them in a fixed mindset – knowledgeable in one subject while the other necessary skills go overlooked.
Athlos takes advantage of these impressionable years by providing students opportunities to develop skills in a wide variety of areas alongside their academic studies for a well-rounded education.
By helping students develop interests in multiple subjects at a young age, we are not only setting a foundation of study habits and growth mindset they can fall back on, but we are also allowing them to take ownership of their education.
Growth mindsets allow students to take ownership of their learning
Research has found that when a student’s future is shaped for them, they often develop a fixed mindset that holds them to a set of standards dictating their studies, hobbies, and social relationships. This can sometimes leave them struggling emotionally by early adulthood.
In contrast, students who develop a growth mindset at an early age learn that neither natural talent or effort alone guarantees results, but a love for learning, persistence, and adaption is key to future success.
Though logic dictates that a student who shows natural ability in a topic should pursue a career in a related field, a growth mindset allows an exceptional student room to both explore a topic and decide to pursue it or not.
At Athlos, we focus on student-centered learning. If a student shows interest in a subject alongside their regular studies, they are encouraged to pursue it, but if they so choose a different subject to grow in, their decision is respected and supported.
Creating a foundation of learning for a student’s future success
An important factor in developing a child’s growth mindset and educational foundation is how adults teach, hold expectations, and praise. Each of these actions shape a student’s perspective on their self-worth.
When discussing how a growth mindset impacts student learning, some might wonder about the children who learn a concept faster than others. Research suggests that helping students become aware of their skills or lack thereof does not alone instill a fixed mindset, it’s the canned praise and unrealistic high expectations from adults that can lead a student to avoid challenges and risks, and instead stick to what’s been easy, expected of, or rewarded in the past.
Parents and teachers each play a major role in teaching students growth mindset habits, from the way they teach students in the classroom and on the turf, to the way they praise students at home.
As adults strive to incorporate a growth mindset into student learning, students will learn to take ownership of their education, take risks, and seek challenges and other life skills and lessons that add to a stable foundation they can rely on for future academic and career opportunities.
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