Shaping Minds, Empowering Educators: Unveiling the Power of Teacher Mindsets from University to Service

Drawing on diverse educational landscapes, this symposium aims to contribute to research on teacher mindsets. As we dive into these research narratives, we'll navigate the territories where teacher beliefs, subject specificity, and mindset evolution converge across different countries.

Theoretical Background

Developed by Dweck (1999; 2006), mindset theory centers upon the motivational mechanisms associated with our beliefs about intelligence. When faced with challenges, this theory suggests that our mindset influences our drive to learn and persevere. Rooted in early attribution theory, it revolves around the notion that our implicit theories shape how we interpret events, like attributing the causes of failure (Yeager & Dweck, 2012). Dweck's theory distinguishes between growth and fixed mindsets, where growth mindsets foster incremental beliefs, such as intelligence being a journey, not a destination. Fixed mindsets, in contrast, are static beliefs about abilities. Research findings of mindset research have been transferred into many different areas, however an early focus of mindset research were educators’ mindsets and their possible advantages for students’ motivation and achievement, as well as their own mindset (Mueller & Dweck, 1998; Dweck, 2014; Yeager et al., 2022).

Methodology and Research Aim

While some progress has been made in attempting to understand the development of mindsets (Blackwell et al., 2007), the mindsets of educators at different stages of their careers remain critically underexplored. Additionally, while most mindset research focuses primarily on mindset alteration through interventions, little is also known about how mindsets can change in the absence of these interventions. Understanding how mindsets develop outside of specific interventions as well as exploring their connections with other important educational constructs, such as intercultural competences is also crucial. As classrooms have become more heterogeneous, this creates new challenges for teachers, and currently the links between the development of mindsets and intercultural competences in teacher education remain underexplored.

This symposium will bridge the gaps in current mindset research by bringing together studies on both in-service and pre-service teachers. In the first contribution, development of mindsets in several subjects throughout university teacher education will be the main focus. In the second contribution, early childhood-in-service teachers’ perceptions of mindset theory is examined, laying a special focus in identifying support mechanisms that can help them fostering growth mindsets in their students. Lastly, preservice teachers’ mindsets and their connection with intercultural competences is emphasized; and enriched by qualitative exploration. By combining research on both pre-service and in-service teachers, we aim to close the current research gap in mindset research on development of mindsets during teacher education as well as their association with an important asset to face the challenges in modern classrooms, namely intercultural competence. Additionally, we include relevant research work on early childhood educators’ mindsets to address practical implications regarding the possibility to foster mindsets in the classroom.

Conclusions

This collection of research works provides valuable and unique insights into the dynamic nature of mindset development throughout various stages in teachers’ careers across different countries. The integration of three research works from different contexts, featuring both quantitative and qualitative strategies, enriches the understanding of teacher mindset evolution in Europe and beyond, highlighting its relevance from primary in-service teaching to tertiary teacher education. By doing so, we will be contributing to the dynamic research field of mindset research, placing a special focus on teacher mindsets.

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