The Mindset Kit was created by The Project for Education Research that Scales (PERTS), a research center in the psychology department at Stanford University. Our goal is to create a place where educators and parents can learn about and find the most effective learning mindset materials available. All of our resources are based on research that has been carefully translated into lessons and practices intended to improve students’ mindsets and make them better learners. We currently offer targeted materials for teachers and parents to ensure our messaging is as effective as possible.
What exactly is a “learning mindset?”
Learning mindsets are a set of beliefs that are linked to increased academic performance in students. There are three main learning mindsets we commonly reference: growth mindset, belonging, and purpose & relevance. Each has its own unique characteristics and is based on years of research.
Growth Mindset
Students are more likely to persist through challenges when they understand that intelligence is malleable, rather than a fixed trait.
Belonging Mindset
Students who have a strong sense of belonging in their environment are more likely to succeed and persist through challenges.
Purpose & Relevance
When students believe that schoolwork has a purpose and relates to their life outside of school, they are more eager to learn.
Growth and fixed mindset
Currently, most topics in the Mindset Kit are built for teaching and understanding a growth mindset (and its counterpart — a fixed mindset). We have several videos to help you learn more about these mindsets and example practices that can help you get started.
You can select a topic from our home page that best fits your interests. Or, if you are interested in researching the science behind some of the other learning mindsets, we suggest reading more on the Mindset Scholars Network website.
Open collaboration
The Mindset Kit is a place to find all the best resources and practices related to learning mindsets. PERTS creates much of its own content, but we also partner with individuals and organizations to make our content better. Some of our most popular resources are the growth mindset lesson plan we made in collaboration with Khan Academy and the practice videos we made with the Teaching Channel. We are hard at work improving all our materials and building new topics to explain other learning mindsets and to reach a wider audience. We encourage potential partners to reach out to us.
In addition, the Mindset Kit has a resource library where we encourage our visitors to post their own materials. PERTS strongly values a growth mindset and we understand that we can learn even more by working with specialists and practitioners—from school principals to enthusiastic parents.
What have we learned so far?
We care deeply about our collaborations with teachers and with school districts so that we can learn what is working, what is challenging, and what resources or knowledge are missing.
In February 2016, we released a report titled, Promoting Learning Mindsets in Schools: Lessons from Educators' Engagement with the PERTS Mindset Kit. This report highlights what we have learned about how educators are using the Mindset Kit resources, what challenges they encounter, and what areas for future development have emerged. These findings may be of value to educators, policymakers, and foundations interested in supporting broad adoption of mindset supporting practices and policies.
Key Partners
Khan Academy
Khan Academy is a nonprofit with a mission to provide a free, world-class education for anyone, anywhere. They believe learners of all ages should have unlimited access to free educational content they can master at their own pace. Over 100 million people use their platform worldwide every year. PERTS helps Khan Academy incorporate the latest insights from mindset research into their programs.
The Consortium on Chicago School Research
The Consortium on Chicago School Research (CCSR) brought together dozens of Chicago Public School teachers and Camille Farrington's University of Chicago research lab to co-develop mindset practices using an improvement science approach. They also funded the creation of our Resource Library so these practices could be widely shared.
The New Teacher Center
The New Teacher Center organized and co-led focus groups with dozens of mentors in their network to garner feedback on the Mindset Kit. We also collaborated with them to create new materials and content for the Mindset Kit, which will include a practice video.
Los Angeles Unified School District, GearUp4LA
Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) GearUp4LA schools are working with PERTS to evaluate and refine the Growth Mindset for Educator Teams so they can better support school-wide adoption of growth mindset practices. Our collaboration is funded by a U.S. Department of Education Skills for Success grant.
Baltimore City Schools
Baltimore City Schools have been working with PERTS to pilot the Growth Mindset for Educator Teams materials. Together, we're learning what teachers get out of the course and how we can improve it to better support school-wide adoption of growth mindset practices.
Raise The Bar
Raise The Bar and PERTS worked together to develop the Growth Mindset for Parents, which is featured on both the Mindset Kit and on RaiseTheBarParents.org, a site that helps parents learn about the Common Core and how to prepare their kids for it.
MENTOR
MENTOR and PERTS partnered to develop the Growth Mindset for Mentors course. MENTOR improves the quality and quantity of mentoring relationships in the United States.
City Year
City Year, in partnership with MENTOR and PERTS, piloted the Growth Mindset for Mentors course. City Year is an education nonprofit organization fueled by national service that is dedicated to improving student outcomes and keeping more students on track to graduate in our nation’s highest-need schools.