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Growth mindset development pattern

Conference Paper · July 2015

DOI: 10.1145/2855321.2855329

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Milena Stoycheva Petko Ruskov

Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski" Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski"
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 Growth mindset development pattern

Milena Stoycheva1&Petko Ruskov2

1
JA Bulgaria, Sofia, "Zagore" 9 Str, [email protected]
2
Sofia University, FMI, 125 Tzarigradsko shosse, Sofia, Bulgaria, [email protected]

“I don’t divide the world into weak and strong or successes and failures.
I divide the world into learners and non-learners.”
~ Benjamin Barber
Abstract
In this paper we present a pattern for growth mindset development. We believe that students can be taught to
positively change their mindset, where experience, training, and personal effort can add to a unique student’s
genetic endowment. We use our long years’ experience and synthesized facilitation methods and techniques to
assess insight mentoring and to improve it through growth mindset development. These can help students
make creative changes in their life and see the world with new eyes in a new way. The pattern allows
developing a growth mindset and improving our lives and the lives of those around us.
The problem is: How to motivate and allow students and especially young entrepreneurs to change their worldview
from a fixed mindset to a growth mindset?
Keywords: mentoring insight, growth mindset development

1. Introduction
The author’s experiences show that there is no strong relation between students' abilities or intelligence and
the development of mastery-oriented qualities. Being smart and talented doesn’t always add up to success -
some of the very brightest students tend to avoid challenges, dislike effort, and wilt in the face of difficulty.
And some of the less bright students are real go-getters, thriving on challenge, persisting intensely when
things get difficult, and accomplishing more than you expected. This shows that being mastery-oriented is
about having the right mindset [Daniel Goleman 1996, Rita Gunther McGrath 2000, Carol Dweck 2006].
Mindset is "an established set of attitudes held by someone" - the Oxford American Dictionary. Mindsets are
beliefs—beliefs about yourself and your most basic qualities. Think about your intelligence, your talents, and
your personality. Are these qualities simply fixed traits, carved in stone and that’s that? Or are they things
you can cultivate throughout your life? The mindset is not a minor personality chance: it creates our whole
mental world. It explains how we become optimistic or pessimistic [James Waldroo 2000, Carol Dweck 2006,
Mary Cay Ricci 2013]. A particular mindset can affect all areas of our life, from business to sports and love. It
shapes our goals, our attitude toward work and relationships, and how we educate and mentor our
students, ultimately predicting whether or not we will fulfill our potential.
The concept of ‘mindsets’ has been developed by professor of psychology at Stanford University Carol
Dweck and her associates and describes a ‘world from two perspectives’ [Carol Dweck 2006]. She has found
that everyone has one of two basic mindsets and proposes that every person has either a fixed mindset or a
growth mindset [Carol Dweck 2000, 2014]:
 A fixed mindset is one in which you view your talents and abilities as fixed. In other words, you are
who you are, your intelligence and talents are fixed, and your fate is to go through life avoiding
challenge and failure;
 A growth mindset is one in which you see yourself as fluid, a work in progress. Your fate is one of
growth and opportunity.
Figure 1 visualizes, the concept about people’s two mindset patterns and Table 1 present the main mindset
types characteristics.

Mindset patterns

Fixed mindset Growth mindset

Intelligence is static Intelligence can be developed

LOOK SMART OR TALENTED AT ALL COSTS LEARN, LEARN, LEARN

Figure 1. Mindset patterns

Table 1. Fixed and growth mindset main characteristics
Fixed mindset Growth mindset
Leads to a desire to look smart and therefore a Leads to a desire to learn and therefore a tendency
tendency to: to:
 avoid challenges;  embrace challenges;
 give up easily;  persist in the face of setbacks;
 see effort as fruitless or worse;  see effort as the path to mastery;
 ignore useful negative feedback;  learn from criticism;
 feel threatened by the success of other  find lessons and inspiration in the success of
other;
As a result, they may plateau early and achieve less As a result, they reach ever higher levels of
than their full potential. achievement.
All this confirms a deterministic view of the world. All this gives them a greater sense of free will.

Consequently, growth mindset individuals’ self-control improves and this will create a positive feedback
loops that encourages them to keep learning and improving. Most people do not have a 100% fixed mindset
or a 100% growth mindset; most of us have some variation of both. The good fact is that it is possible to
change the worldview from a fixed mindset to a growth mindset. And Carol Dweck’s research indicates that
both children and adults can be taught to change their mindset.
The goal of the paper is to present a pattern for growth mindset development only and the main target
audience are young entrepreneurs but this applies also to mentors, teachers and parents, as well as every
open minded person. We believe that students can be taught or self-educated to positively change their
mindset, where experience, training, and personal effort can add to a unique student’s genetic endowment.
The pattern allows developing a growth mindset and improving our lives and the lives of those around us
and can help students make creative changes in their life and see the world with new eyes in a new way.

2. Growth mindset pattern description

As a process has no “bottom and top” the pattern also has no “bottom and top”. We would like to mention
at the beginning that this pattern can be divided in many sub patterns or pack in more complex one.

Name: Growth mindset pattern

Audience
The pattern can be useful for implementation of education, facilitation, mentoring and coaching from many
stakeholders:
 students in business, science, education and sports
 parents
 education providers in all fields
 community
 researchers and scientist
 open minded and self-educated individuals

2.1. Context
A mindset is a mental model, a deeply ingrained set of beliefs and assumptions that influence people
decisions and behavior. An entrepreneurial mindset is about observing at the world in terms of creating
value for others, an empowering and necessary approach in today’s dynamic global economy.

Growth mindset can be Giftedness can be cultivated

taught
Students need to be exposed to
Students need to know that the circumstances where talents can
brain can stretch and grow like a flourish.
muscle. They can get smarter!

Lessons must require effort

and challenge

Those who excel make deliberate

efforts and systematically
address weaknesses; push
themselves beyond the “comfort
zone”

comfort zone.
Figure. 2. Growth mindset pattern context
2.2. Problem ”
The mindsets are not set - at any time, you can learn to” use a growth mindset to achieve success and
happiness. It is always possible to change the mindset, but the main problems are:
 frequently brains and talent don’t bring success
 wrong belief that talent alone creates success—without effort
 when students experience a setback, they focus on their personal abilities and not on efforts and
strategies;
  frequently teachers praise students intelligence, not their efforts or their strategies
 usually students do not value their effort
 misunderstanding that learning is more important than grades
 students are too concerned with their grade point
 students equate their grades with their intelligence or their worth
People were asked about intelligence and how much they thought it was due to effort and how much they
thought it was about ability much ability
Intelligence=______% effort _______% ability
 Fixed = 35% effort vs. 65% ability Fixed ability
 Growth = 65% effort vs. 35% ability Growth ability
The problem is that we mostly focus our resources on supporting entrepreneurs starting new companies but
repeatedly ignore the need to support the transition through the growth mindset and stage.

Definition of the problem: How to motivate and allow students and especially entrepreneurs to change
their worldview from a fixed mindset to a growth mindset?

2.3. Business value

The growth mindset pattern allows all education stakeholders to revise and improve the process of mindset
development. These can show and help students to make creative changes in their life and to see the world
with new eyes in a new way.

2.4. Forces
These are human problems typical for mindset and behavior changes. The most important driving forces
include:
 Self-learning attitudes and successful behavior. The growth mindset doesn’t mean everything that
can be changed should be changed. We all need to accept some of our imperfections, especially the
ones that don’t really harm our lives or the lives of others. Students with the growth mindset usually
would study harder for the next exam. Learners can still be in the process of learning from their
mistakes until they deny them. The opposite, instead of trying to learn from and repair their failures,
people with fixed mindset simply try to repair their self-esteem. People with the fixed mindset try to
repair their self-esteem after a failure is by assigning blame or making excuses.
 Value of the potential capacity and a passion for learning. If you’re somebody when you’re
successful, what are you when you’re unsuccessful? There is another way to judge potential - when
we solicit applications for position, we can reject people with pure histories of success and instead
select people who had had significant failures and learn back from them. In the fixed mindset,
everything is about the outcome. The growth mindset allows people to value what they’re doing
regardless of the outcome.
 LLL ecosystem and culture. Ecosystem can be supportive if it puts students in a growth mindset,
when they are faced with something challenging. If it forces learners brain to form new connections
as they meet the challenge and therefore as a result they are driven to learn and are motivated for
on going activities.
 Opportunities recognition and innovative, rick-taking culture. People in a growth mindset don’t’ just
seek opportunities and challenge, they thrive on it
 Community foster innovation. There are at least three conditions needed for organizations and
community to realize effective returns from innovation: they need processes to stimulate, support
 and translate the investment in innovation into tangible value; they need the socio-economic
conditions that promote and support innovation; and they need people with the right skills.
 Positive feedback and reward system/supervision and maximizing employ potential/capacity for
growth
 Globalization, consolidation and technology changing industry

2.5. Solution
Students who believe that intelligence is a potential, they can develop better when faced with challenge. For
example, they often blossom across a challenging school transition when their fellow students with the fixed
view are busy doubting themselves and losing their edge. It is clear with students of all ages, from early
grade school through college, that the changeable view can be taught. Students can be taught that their
intellectual skills are things that can be developed -- through their hard work, reading, education,
confronting of challenges, etc. When they are taught this, they seem naturally to become more willing for
challenges, harder working, and more able to cope with obstacles. Researchers have even shown that
college students' grade point averages go up when they are taught that intelligence can be developed.
The reach solution of the problem and to allow people to develop the growth mindset
teachers/facilitators/mentors/coaches or individuals himself should:
1. Focus on efforts and not on the abilities:
a. when they succeed, educators should praise their efforts or their strategies, not their
intelligence. (Contrary to popular opinion, praising intelligence backfires by making students
overly concerned with how smart they are and overly vulnerable to failure.);
b. when students fail, teachers should also give feedback about effort or strategies -- what the
student did wrong and what he or she could do now;
2. Value effort. Too many students think effort is only for the inept. Yet sustained effort over time is
the key to outstanding achievement.
3. Relish a challenge. Rather than praising students for doing well on easy tasks, they should convey
that doing easy tasks is a waste of time. They should transmit the joy of confronting a challenge and
of struggling to find strategies that work.
4. Focus on and value learning. Too many students are hung up on grades and on proving their worth
through grades. Grades are important, but learning is more important.
5. Use a best mix as combination of:
a. valuing learning and challenge and
b. valuing grades but seeing them as merely an index of your current performance, not a sign
of your intelligence or worth
6. Make clear that the performance reflects the current skills and efforts, not their intelligence or
worth. In this case, if students are disappointed in their performance, there is a clear and
constructive implication: Work harder, avail yourself of more learning opportunities, learn how to
study better, ask the teacher for more help, and so on.
7. Value hard work, learning, and challenges; teaching them how to cope with disappointing
performance by planning for new strategies and more effort; and providing them with the study
skills that will put them more in charge of their own learning. In this way, educators can be highly
demanding of students but not run the risk that large numbers of students will be labeled as failures.
It is possible to consider these seven strategies as lower-level sub patterns themselves and they can be
described as such in the future.
Our experiences allow to see solutions and to conclude:
  People adopting a growth mindset tend to generate other, and new, ways to do things;
 If one route doesn’t work, they will try others;
 They will think “outside of the box” ”to solve problems because they believe that they can.

2.6. Consequences
Development of a growth mindset could be an important issue on students’ and people long term career
development. Each student can open and growth the mindset. The communities and enterprises will have
new creative and innovation for long-term members.

2.7. Variations
The presented growth mindset pattern can be applied in each type of education facilitation and training –
school, academic and company HR development syllabuses and curriculums or individuals himself. It will
lead to help for the development of creative and innovative students and business people.

2.8. Examples
 JA Bulgaria (http://www.jabulgaria.org/en/). The first example is a JA Bulgaria activity in all
areas. To reach its vision, mission, strategies and goals JAB staff and mentors implement the
pattern for education and motivation all stakeholders about innovation and
entrepreneurship education.

Figure. 5. JA activities [JAB]

 ELI Mindset Programs (http://elimindset.com/programs/mindset-program/). The program is

a Global Learning Project Designed to Inspire and Engage Entrepreneurial Thinking in
Classrooms and Communities Around the World. ELI Mindset Programs are experiential
education programs to teach an entrepreneurial mindset, localized for different regions,
cultures and languages around the world:
o Workforce Development - Empowering the Workforce with a New Mindset. An
adaptive, resilient, entrepreneurial workforce is crucial to a thriving economy. By
approaching employment from an entrepreneurial perspective, we drive
 engagement and productivity by illustrating how anyone can rebuild their career
using current skills and experience.
o Education - Educational institutions of all levels are working to create a better future,
not only for their students but for society as a whole. The key to preparing students
for an increasingly dynamic global economy is empowering them with an
entrepreneurial mindset. ELI works with high schools, colleges, and universities
around the world to incorporate an entrepreneurial mindset across the curriculum.
o Small Business Development - Launching a new venture is much more than writing a
good business plan. It’s a way of thinking and acting that requires an entrepreneurial
mindset. ELI helps small business development organizations prepare their clients
for a strong start-up and sustainable growth. In today’s economy, it’s crucial that
your clients pursue productive, relevant, and profitable opportunities. By focusing
on opportunity discovery, we provide the tools and strategies your clients need to
connect action with growth.

Figure. 6. ELI opportunity Discovery Canvas [ELI], https://elimindset.com/resource/redefining-

entrepreneurship-recorded-webinar/

2.9. Related work & Sources

 Carol Dweck, How Companies Can Profit from a "Growth Mindset", Harvard Business Review,
Product: F1411A-PDF-ENG, Nov 1, 2014 [Carol Dweck 2014].
 How Can Teachers Develop Students' Motivation and Success.
http://www.educationworld.com/a_issues/chat/chat010.shtml
 8. Conclusion
The popular belief that certain persons are born with a special, remarkable talent in a particular field is not
uncommon in fields such as sport, the arts, and music. The presented pattern in this paper contributes to an
insight and deeper understanding of growth mindset development. It is a credible tool, since it shows in
example-laden manner how growth mindsets developed early can dictate our potential and our limitations -
and what we can do about it at any stage in our lives. Attention and awareness from all stakeholders will
provide ways of improving the development of growth mindset - in the worlds of business, science,
education and sports. It’s never too late to use a pattern and to change a mindset that is limiting one's
potential and accomplishment in any aspect of life, including love, and private and business relationships.
The authors experiences leads to message that growth is much more than a plan or a strategy and it
happens when the right kind of leadership, internal environment and processes come together to create a
start-up company with entrepreneurial soul in a large company.

References:
1. Carol Dweck, How Companies Can Profit from a "Growth Mindset", Harvard Business Review, Product:
F1411A-PDF-ENG, Nov 1, 2014
2. Carol Dweck, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, Random House; ISBN-10: 9781400062751, 2006
3. Carol Dweck, Self-Theories: Their Role in Motivation, Personality, and Development, Psychology Press, ISBN:
9781841690247, 2000.
4. Daniel Goleman, Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ, 1996
5. ELI, A Global Learning Project Designed to Inspire and Engage Entrepreneurial Thinking in Classrooms and
Communities Around the World, https://elimindset.com/what-is-mindset/
6. How Can Teachers Develop Students' Motivation and Success.
http://www.educationworld.com/a_issues/chat/chat010.shtml
7. James Waldroo,, Timothy Butlerр, Maximum Success: Changing the 12 Behavior Patterns That Keep You From
Getting Ahead, Doubleday Business, 2000.
8. JAB, Junior Achievement Bulgaria http://www.jabulgaria.org/
9. Mary Cay Ricci, Mindsets in the Classroom, Prufrock Press, 2013, http://www.prufrock.com
10. Rita Gunther McGrath; Ian MacMillan, Framing the Challenge: Develop an Entrepreneurial Mindset, Harvard
Business Press Chapters, Product 4124BC-PDF-ENG, Aug 2, 2000.

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