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Interesting contrarian article from Alfie Kohn, pointing out that too much focus on "growth mindset" might be a way to sidestep larger questions of curriculum, pedagogy, and the social structures of education.

Carol Dweck addresses some of the misconceptions and oversimplifications of her work on "growth mindset."

Perhaps the biggest outcome of a liberal arts education should be the understanding that every discipline is more based on learned and practiced skills than innate aptitude. The four tips in this article might be boiled down to one umbrella concept - talk to your students about growth mindset.

Distressing findings about the correlation between mindset and prejudice. "The more existing professors think some special talent, beyond intelligence and hard work, is required to do their subject well, the lower will be the percentage of PhD students in that subject who are women" or African American. (Hat tip to Alex Wirth-Cauchon, the CIO at Mt. Holyoke, for the link.)

When the avalanche of end-of-semester grading seems like just too much, it might be worthwhile to review these tips. Some are hints for your workflow, and others for your mindset.

The authors find that short interventions about social belonging and growth mindset, delivered before students arrive on campus, were effective at increasing achievement through the first year of college.

The concepts of "differential courage" and "courage is contagious" seem like valuable additions to discussions about mindset and "grit."

Do you allow rewrites or makeup exams? David Gooblar argues that these can be important opportunities for students to learn from their errors. (Also some good examples, alternatives, and disagreements in the comments.)

Those are the Kenyon gates, but the article does not specifically mention Kenyon at all. The lesson to take away from this, though, is very much a Kenyon message.

Not only in science, but in all disciplines, we need to question the narratives about talent and moments of revelation and instead talk about hard, sustained work. How do you talk to students who are waiting, instead of working, for a subject to "click"?

A fun podcast conversation with Todd Zakrajsek on the ways we can learn better by paying attention to what surprises or distracts us.

A fun video from Michael Wesch in which he shows his students that learning, and failure, is fun. (For the record, classes on how to do a handstand are outside the CIP's purview.)

Students will ultimately perform better if we focus on effort and process (things which anyone can change) instead of talent and output (which can seem immutable).