Using Educational Technology to Foster Growth Mindset in Students

It is the role of teachers to bring up some wise strategies when it comes to handling a group of students with different thinking and aptitude.

Out of the many tested and proven educational practices, cultivating a growth mindset among students can really play the trick to help them have a better study life.

Fixed Mindset vs growth mindset

The students with a fixed mindset will have a limited space for exploring the various subjects with true spirit.

A growth mindset opens them a world of opportunities in the learning phase and they can lay the foundation for a better future.

However, fostering a growth mindset among students is not an easy process and it takes a lot of patience and determination and continuous effort from the side of both teachers and parents.

The modern educational technology is now playing a key role in helping them to accomplish the task in a pretty much easier way.

Here let us have a look at the use of educational technology in fostering growth mindset in students.

1. Tools to support learning risks and change learning path

There is a tendency for students to focus on their success always and turns away from taking risks.

However, the modern technology tools give them options to choose their own set of activities and monitor the progress with their preferred pace.

This would help them to focus more on challenging tasks and they get better over time and explore new areas.

Such tools also help:

• Teachers to evaluate and identify the students that need additional support on handling new challenges
• Students to track their completed works toward goals and oversee the pending or upcoming tasks

2. Technology programs to provide continuous feedback:

Teachers and parents are not supposed to reward them only for their final grades or achievement.

But it is really necessary to give continuous feedback for their ongoing effort which helps them to excel better and get strengthened with a growth mindset.

The use of educational technology helps to do that in a more systematic way with progress monitoring indices as well as animations.

• Options such as screens are used to show up task completion acknowledgement
• Counters can point out the number of activities that need to be completed

With such options, the students get a real time feedback on their effort and can see the time they contribute for specific activities.

As they get some immediate reinforcement following some really challenging tasks, it can really trigger a growth mindset.

3. Tools to visualize denotation of progress

In the earlier days, teachers used to provide grades and ranks to rate their learning and results.

However, the advanced educational technology is now offering options to visualize their progress as they could easily track the accumulated knowledge.

• A visual representation of one’s progress can make a good impact to the growth mindset and they can build up on their competence level.
• Such kind of tracking also lets them to identify the significance of deep learning and continuous efforts towards achieving the target.
• Teachers can also use these data to trigger a discussion with students to assist in progress monitoring and goal setting.

4. Technology induced personalized materials that challenge them:

The learning materials can be personalized with the help of technology to challenge students at every level of learning.

In the early days, teachers follow a responsibility model to introduce a new subject and they work out together at first and then give chance for students to explore it.

With the influence of educational technology, students can experience variations of this model.

The students who have already mastered one level can challenge them with more complicated tasks and those who are weak with the concept can seek additional support and practice.

This kind of working on self pace at their optimal challenge level in fact triggers a growth mindset and enhances their love for learning.

Moreover, students would start thinking about learning as a fun activity and not something that stresses them.

5. Individualized practice that enables teacher support:

Similar to other body parts, brain can be considered as a muscle that can grow only if proper exercise is performed and an idle brain remains fixed.

So it is important to challenge your brain very much frequently to keep up the pace.

The educational technologies are offering them a world of opportunities to challenge the brain with out of the box strategies and approaches.

They can also consider personalized and timely feedback from tracking tools to work out on their weak areas. Moreover, teachers can also get alerted of a continuously struggling student and work out more with them on a direct mode with targeted fashion.

6. Tools to provide supportive classrooms and trigger home-school connections:

A supportive classroom with collaborative learning options can also do the trick to stimulate a growth mindset among students.

They can challenge each other to perform better every time and take the role of peer mentors for one another. Also the modern technology is helping to establish an after school connection with parents that enables them to know their child’s progress.

The progress charts also gives them an idea about what support they should provide with a growth perspective.

7. Educational apps exclusive to foster growth mindset:

The ultimate foundation of developing a growth mindset is helping students to embrace their mistakes.

The right mix of blended learning and gamification along with advanced educational apps help to achieve the goal with a pretty decent pace.

There are a number of apps designed to cultivate growth mindset by triggering or challenging their learning from different perspectives.

Let us have a look at some of the most commonly used apps:

• Mind Games: It is a fun app that encourages mistakes without a down feeling. They can play in different difficulty levels by challenging their limitations.
• Whooo’s Reading: In this app, personalized feedback is provided to help students to improve their writing. The open-ended questions make the whole stuff interesting and the feedback is sent to help them improve their scores
• GoSoapBox: It is a set of multiple assessment tools which can be easily accessed via their devices. This helps teachers to increase engagement and address the areas that need further understanding.
• Kaizena: This app helps students to get an immediate and real-time feedback on the works they do. Interesting part of the app is that they are given a chance to correct their mistakes to get a better grade.
• Instructables: This app is a repository of tutorials that help students to create something on their own. They can challenge themselves with different tasks.
• Daily Goals: The app helps them to set and track goals. The built-in analytics helps them to learn their progress and track the areas that needed improvement.
• Be The Change: Students are challenged with achievable goals every day. They can even discuss each goal a week with their peers to learn the different ways through which others achieved it.

It is not just the weak performing students that need attention but also those who excel in the studies. Let them taste the bitterness of failures at times which help them to face any odd situation of downfalls in future.

Every student should be handled in such a way that they can understand the equal importance of the final success as well as the continuous effort throughout the learning process.

Educational technology has been the ubiquitous element of the classroom as a part of transformation and advancement towards a smart environment. It could play a major part in planting the seed of growth mindset in the minds of students.

Let them learn in a classroom setting where they don’t fear about mistakes and easily share their views which help them to grow up with confidence.