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Proving of improving yourself? This was the topic of the first LEARN! Seminar of 2024. Nienke van Atteveldt, the new director of LEARN!, spoke about the neurocognitive interplay between motivation, learning behaviour and achievement. 

Most of you will have heard of “fixed and growth mindset”. A growth mindset is how much you believe your basic qualities, like intelligence and skills, can be changed or developed. In other words: failure is seen as an opportunity to learn. A fixed mindset is how much you believe your basic qualities are more or less fixed, and negative feedback may lead to giving up.

During the presentation, Nienke showed a couple of interesting studies from her European Research Council (ERC) starting grant where they studied the impact of mindset on learning.The presentation was followed by a  group discussion, where among others, the question was asked: What can teachers do with this information? Nienke’s answer was that a first step is to be aware of the more nuanced mindset profiles and secondly, schools should perhaps focus less on performance.

Interested in the topic? You can read more highlights from the seminar on our LinkedIn page.