Mindset Works® SchoolKit
Mindset Works® SchoolKit is a suite of resources developed to cultivate a growth mindset school culture. It contains tools for administrators, teachers, and students to learn, teach and live the growth mindset.
Is there evidence that the Mindset Works® SchoolKit works?
The Mindset Works SchoolKit was developed and tested under a contract from the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences, Small Business Innovation Research program.
Recent results from a pilot test showed that teachers who used the professional development resources had an increased sense of self-efficacy as teachers and reported using more growth mindset classroom practices after the training. Students—especially those who began with a fixed mindset—developed a growth mindset, increased their effort, and showed improved achievement after using the Brainology program. Since then, more schools have also reported a positive impact of the Mindset Works SchoolKit on their own beliefs and practices, and on their students’ behavior and achievement.
To learn more about mindset research, visit The Science page.
What does the Mindset Works SchoolKit contain?
The Mindset Works SchoolKit contains two main components:
A. Mindset Works StudentKit - Brainology® Growth Mindset Induction Curriculum for Students
Brainology is based on the successful growth mindset intervention piloted in Blackwell et al., 2007, Study 2. The Brainology curriculum ensures a high quality, consistent induction to the growth mindset for students in grades 5-9. It has been used in hundreds of schools across the United States, as well as in other countries, including Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom.
Brainology includes:
- An online, interactive program:
In an introduction and 4 modules of about 35 minutes each, the online program uses interactive animation, resources, and exercises to teach students how the brain works and how it grows stronger with active effort. It also teaches them basic learning skills that they can use to develop their intellectual abilities, and explains why those strategies work based on the way the brain learns best.
- Classroom activities: The classroom activities include discussions, reflective writing, self-assessments and inventories, hands-on activities, and assessments of learning, to help reinforce and practice growth mindset concepts and strategies.
- Student Toolkit: Online tools for students include a study planner and tools to help students monitor and track their progress as they use growth mindset study practices.
B. MindsetMaker™
Mindset Works® MindsetMaker™ is an online professional development suite designed to provide teachers and administrators with the growth mindset knowledge and tools to help them support their students’ learning and success. It includes:
- Professional Development - “Mindsets & Motivation” online professional development course for educators:The professional development is an online multimedia course for educators to learn about the growth mindset and how to put it to practice. It includes 5 video modules (approx. 15 minutes each) that introduce teachers to relevant findings from psychology and neuroscience. Teachers explore applications of mindset theory to classroom practice, with specific growth-mindset instructional strategies.
- Educator Toolkit: To support continued growth, educators will find interactive tools and resources to support their own process of adopting and implementing a growth mindset in their classroom and school, including planning tools, assessments, student activities, self-monitoring, and tracking tools, and real-time data reporting.
- Growth Mindset Online Community: As members of the Online Community, educators can collaborate with colleagues near and far who are learning and pursuing growth mindset-based practices. It includes private and public topical discussion forums and groups to foster innovation in practice where teachers can pose questions and share experiences, ideas, tools and resources with their peers, and a blog with content contributed by experts and practitioners.
How long does a typical Mindset Works® SchoolKit implementation last?
Implementation is flexible, and can range from 8-20 weeks depending on school preference and schedule. The breakdown of individual components is as follows:
- The student Brainology curriculum: approximately 8-12 hours total (including classroom activities).
- Professional Development
- PD modules & resources: 1.5-3 hours total for initial training.
- Online Community discussion: 2-4+ hours for initial course implementation; available ongoing for school-based projects and engagement with the world wide community of educators.
- Toolkits: Can be used ongoing on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis to organize and monitor progress.
It is strongly recommend that administrators/site leaders spend some time planning the implementation and manage PD activities and progress (including the Online Community discussion), and for teachers to spend some time planning Brainology activities for the classroom (drawing from activities provided in the Implementation guide).
How many teachers/administrators should participate?
Mindset Works SchoolKit is intended to cultivate a growth mindset school culture; thus, it is ideal for whole school or whole grade participation. However, it is also possible to implement it with smaller groups. In this case, it is advisable that some or most of the teachers whose students are participating in the Brainology student curriculum also participate in the MW SchoolKit.