This small-scale project considered the language of growth mindset and to what extent it was used between adults and children in an Early Years setting. We wanted to incorporate growth mindset learning into our nursery improvement plan and vision ‘to inspire a love of learning’. As an attainment nursery, we recognised the importance of developing a rich culture of growing together, sharing ideas and creative approaches to building resilience. Fundamental to this are strong and empowered staff, children, and parents.
We had already been working on developing the quality of adult-child relationships and interactions in our setting and we recognised growth mindset as a powerful platform for professional change and growth. Therefore, the aim of this project was to focus on the language of growth mindset and how it was used between adults and children to enhance children’s capacity for learning and reflection. Longer-term, we hoped that this project would help to embed a growth mindset culture with all stakeholders in our setting.
A number of colleagues worked collaboratively on this project as we realised we were working on similar ideas within the setting. The intention was to focus primarily on upskilling staff through growth mindset training to ensure increased understanding of the language of growth mindset. Dweck (2014) discusses the power of language and praise in everyday interactions to support children and adults to believe that they can improve. From our own evaluations, we felt that we needed to focus more on the language adults used in their daily interactions with the children and to encourage a growth mindset culture.
The project was implemented between May and June 2022, and within that short space of time we noticed an increase in staff praising effort and process with children. Staff were also using the language of growth mindset in interactions and observations of children’s learning and noticed a difference in themselves. We were also beginning to see an increase in children using this language with each other, for example “keep trying, you will do it.”
Although the training was well structured, there was limited time to deliver it. In future, we would allocate more time to this aspect of the project. However, all staff engaged very well with all aspects of the training, including learning about fixed and growth mindset and that mistakes are welcome.
We worked with a baseline assessment at the start and end of the project to demonstrate the impact. A sample group of ten children were chosen to participate, reflecting a 15% cross section of the 3–5-year-old population. The children all had different keyworkers, which gave a broad view of what language the adults were now using during interactions and written observations in children’s journals. As staff skills and techniques developed, so did their confidence in using growth mindset language, not only with children but also with their colleagues. This was vital as we wanted growth mindset to become embedded within our organisational culture, not as an add on or something we were ‘doing’ at the moment. As staff began to recognise their own mindsets, they were better placed to adapt to these and then help others to move towards a growth mindset.
The project proposal was to implement training and look for evidence of impact over eight weeks, between May and June 2022. This coincided with a period when the whole staff team were already reflecting deeply on the language used in interactions with children. We had worked closely with speech and language services using the Chattertots language programme and this project fitted well with our current capacity for improvement. Timelines were adhered to and effective.
There were minor ethical considerations in terms of asking for children's consent to gather data about them from their journals. As timelines were tight, a simple sheet with a smiley face to represent yes, or sad face to represent no, beside each child’s name was used to gather their consent and journals were also anonymised. Originally, we had planned to involve parents in gathering data at home. However, we changed this due to time constraints and did manage to share our findings with families.
The only changes made to the project were to involve colleagues as co-researchers, which made sense as we were gathering the same data.
There was evidence of an increase in the language of growth mindset being observed in adult-child interactions and in written journal observations. This improved learning and development and increased staff confidence in their own self-efficacy. Small changes in approaches, motivation, self-esteem, and perseverance of both staff and children were evident. In addition, we noticed more open and positive attitudes towards making mistakes and hearing language which suggested mistakes were welcome.
Although there was a small target group of ten children, we saw a wider impact across all staff and children outwith the target group. Children’s approaches to tackling tricky situations changed and they tried a variety of approaches before giving up, they persevered more and seemed more resilient. They also were more likely to share their thinking and therefore deepen their own learning. We did not see as much evidence of increased language staff to staff, and this will remain an area for development.
Stamina, perseverance, and resilience were high on this project’s agenda for improvement as was seeing mistakes as opportunities rather than failure. By looking at how we give and receive praise, feedback and our personal beliefs and values, both staff and children began moving towards growing our brain and capacity to experience success. Having these growth mindset tools in our pedagogical toolkit supported effective teamworking and helped to cultivate skills for life. We hope that as understanding deepens, we will see an increase in children supporting each other to nurture a growth mindset within their play and learning.
A range of pre and post measurements and data tools were used to gather evidence of impact across our setting. First, data was gathered using a pre-confidence measure for all individual staff and this was repeated at the end of the project to measure impact. This gave a baseline to help us pitch the training correctly for the team.
Next, we wanted to know the children’s responses to a variety of situations. We measured this for each child, prior to the staff training and again at the end of the project. Our analysis looked for any difference and the impact of the training input (see below).
Staff then received training using a PowerPoint presentation with activities to stimulate learning and dialogue. Many of the activities in the training centred around fixed and growth mindset, language tools, approaches to mistakes and growing our brains.
Staff were also given a growth mindset language toolkit which was used effectively. This resulted in a change in language across the setting in staff interactions with children, supporting children to be more willing to try something and not give up.
We also used tally marks (see below) to record the frequency of growth mindset language used during interactions with the objective of identifying how staff were modelling this. We found children were picking up growth mindset attitudes, were more positive about learning and were modelling to peers. There was an increase in staff language of growth mindset in their verbal interactions with children. Therefore, it can be suggested that this project has had a positive impact on our setting.
A data checklist to measure the frequency of written observations in children's journals was also used. This incorporated growth mindset learning opportunities and language used. Findings showed an increase in most areas of the checklist, particularly in resilience, perseverance, trying hard, and use of the phrase ‘not yet’.
Roughly two thirds of children increased the use of a growth mindset within their play and learning. For some, this was a slight increase and for others there was a large increase in more positive and open approaches. There was also an increase in staff using growth mindset language statements in their interactions with children, suggesting staff were more confident doing this. Interestingly, the statements about embracing mistakes were observed less in the second frequency observation. This could relate to research which suggests that making and identifying mistakes can be a challenging aspect of growth mindset.
It is clear from the findings that staff embraced a collective growth mindset across our setting. Staff were praising effort and process more, promoting language and labelling around perseverance and resilience and that mistakes are welcome. The least used language was around not being there yet, moving new learning from short-term to long-term memory, and saying to children they are ready for something more difficult or challenging. This could be due to staff confidence in those areas. Overall, we were extremely happy with how well this project was embraced, considering all the other priorities we had running alongside it. We saw a positive impact and we envisage this will continue to grow and strengthen in the coming years.
The graphs below provide evidence of a large increase in staff understanding of growth mindset, increase in confidence using it in practice, being more comfortable about making and sharing mistakes and recognising the importance of using growth mindset language, because of the project. Blue was pre project and orange shows the post project data.
Following completion of the project, a Microsoft forms survey was given to all 13 staff members to complete online. We used this data to establish feedback from colleagues and plan our next staps. Three questions were asked and just over 50% of staff responded to the survey. Some of the feedback is set out below:
Question 1: What did you take from the in-service presentation?
“I didn’t have a very open mind about growth mindset, but I can see I can change the way I think to become more open minded”
“a deeper understanding of growth mindset and learning appropriate language”
“consolidated my understanding and gave me new tools and phrases”
“process not product and I learned how to change my wording, giving encouragement instead of doing it for them or giving up easily”
“I realised how easy it is to fall into bad habits and that attitudes to learning are influenced by the language we use”
Question 2: Has anything changed in your practice?
“I have started to encourage children more to try and not to do things for them”
“more open-minded and practising growth mindset vocabulary”
“adding growth mindset language into my written observations in journals”
“I more frequently use growth mindset language and more often provide children with opportunities to challenge themselves. Using growth mindset language in planning and recording of children’s experiences”
“I’ve changed the way I talk to the children and don’t do everything for them now. I let them keep trying in different ways”
“have been more mindful praising effort over outcome and naming specific skills rather than saying well done or good girl”
“using more growth mindset language in practice and growth attitude”
Question 3: What is next for you in your growth mindset journey?
“continue to become more open-minded and more positive about my work and role”
“continue to develop growth mindset practice ad more encouraging of others”
“to transfer growth mindset attitude to all facets of working life”
“keep learning as I sometimes struggle to grasp how big growth mindset is”
“I will think of myself more as a learner and how I challenge myself to try things outside my comfort zone”
From this feedback, we can see that the training has been pivotal in moving individually and collectively to a more growth mindset approach in our setting. Although staff are at different stages in their learning and understanding, there is a collective drive forward and there has been significant improvements in using the language of growth mindset more consistently with children. There is a sense of commitment to continue our work in this field going forward.
The project will continue to develop, and growth mindset has been added to our improvement plan with smart targets to ensure we make more progress. We found three areas of growth mindset language least used by staff as, “you are not there yet”, “now we need to move this to your long-term memory” and “you find this difficult or challenging”. These areas will be a specific focus going forward. New staff joining will have an individualised training session on growth mindset. We will also continue to gather data periodically to evidence impact on both children and adults. We hope to achieve an increase in understanding around growth mindset for staff, and an increase in positive language being used between colleagues and children. Senior leadership plan to give in the moment feedback to staff, when they hear the principles of growth mindset being used in the playrooms with children.