Everyone makes mistakes! But oftentimes, in the early stages of social emotional development, young children are afraid to try new things because they think they might do something incorrectly. Introducing a growth mindset approach can help teachers combat this challenging aversion to trial and error.
Growth mindset education gives children the confidence to enter new environments and situations without fear. It also encourages them to make – and learn from –mistakes, giving them the skills they need to recognize their own potential in handling future situations.
Ellen Booth Church’s Nurturing Next-Generation Innovators helps guide teachers into integrating growth mindsets into their classrooms. Church explains how a growth mindset provides children with a helpful perspective on how making mistakes enhances learning. And, rather than shunned, mistakes should be embraced!
See below for how you can promote growth mindset and positive social emotional development in your classroom:
The Necessity of Making Mistakes – Developing a Growth Mindset
- It is very important for children to freely offer an idea, a way to solve a problem, or a new through without fear of doing it wrong.
- One great thing to share with children is that sometimes you make mistakes, and then show how you learn from them. If you are relaxed about mistakes, they can learn to be, too.
- Children love to help you when you make a mistake. When you ask children to help you with a mistake, you send the message that you value their help and thinking.
- When free brainstorming, you can let them know that you really don’t know the answer but you would love to brainstorm along with them. This levels the playing field and allows for the fun of thinking together.
Author(s)Ellen Booth Church
Ashleigh Craven
Ashleigh Craven has a decade and a half of diverse category experience from agency communications to athletic apparel to automotive to education, developing and executing communication strategies in both traditional and social media. She has supported national product launches and corporate events for the likes of Soffe, Buick, Chevrolet, Wake Forest University , Kaplan, and others. She has an BA from the University of Michigan in English and Communication Studies and an MA from Wake Forest University, where she focused her studies on argumentation and presidential rhetoric and speechwriting. She served as director of marketing for Gryphon House from 2017- 2020.
