A Focus on Growth Mindset

When you start with the idea that children are capable of pretty much anything, you find that they rise to your expectations in amazing ways.    

This is the view at the heart of teaching and learning at Berkeley Hall, and it closely relates to the psychological principle called growth mindset, now widely embraced in educational circles.

The idea of having a growth mindset is to realize that your abilities are not fixed, but fluid. Through effort and practice, each of us can acquire new capabilities. We can turn weaknesses into strengths. We can discover and nurture unexpected talents.                                  

Guiding students in adopting this outlook is wonderfully empowering. It helps motivate them to take risks and try new things. And it helps them persist even if success doesn’t come quickly. If you have a growth mindset, you never say you’re not good at something—you say you’re not good at it yet.

Community Perspectives         
                 

“It’s about building skills with patience. It’s about letting yourself learn by forgetting the idea that you should be perfect at something right away.”      
          

“Berkeley Hall was started by two educators with the motto, ‘No Limits, No Labels, Lots of Love.’ We knew the power of a growth mindset a century before the term ‘growth mindset” was coined. It’s baked into our model of education.”     
                 

“In a world where technology makes so many things happen instantly, we need to help kids see that many of the most important things take work and time.”