Conference Agenda

Have you ever thought about you the innate abilities of your students? Does your class structure and messaging tell them they can grow and learn and improve as they complete your course? These questions link to a factor that has been shown to impact student success across underrepresented groups - mindset. Mindset here refers to Dweck’s fixed (innate) and growth (malleable) nature of intelligence and other characteristics. This workshop will present how organizational and classroom culture with respect to messages around mindset can impact the experience of underrepresented students. Specifically, the mindset beliefs of the course instructor with respect to the nature of their students’ ability (fixed or growth) can have substantial and significant impact on closing the achievement gaps for underrepresented students. This workshop will focus on reflecting on faculty instructional practices, messaging, and perspectives to move towards promoting a growth mindset and an inclusive classroom.