Process over ProductBut How?

: I always advise students to

come to the Success Center

Making Better Writers through Fostering a Growth Mindset

for help on all parts of the
writing process. I think it is
important in helping them
Keli Tucker, Southwestern Illinois College grow as a writer to
kelidevi@gmail.com receive feedback on the
whole process, not just
Sometimes a student the end product Very few people are

ABSTRACT
will come in and say, good at something
I just dont get this. Hannah C. the first time they do it,
Writing just doesnt work but many people sometimes
Using the case study of how the peer writing tutors of a two-year college revised their preparation and practices, this poster demonstrates how instructing for me. I tell them that feel that if theyre not good at
no one starts off writing something right from the
tutors in the concepts of a growth mindset can better equip them to help writers learn to focus on improving the process of writing, rather than its product. perfect papers, but everyone start then they are bad at it.
can improve over time. Everyone struggles

What do
Erin M. Erin M.
Developing skills in something implies growth, maturation. Thus to aid students in becoming better writers, it would help us in
writing center work to understand as best we can the process of intellectual growth and development, and at the same time to
understand the best ways to encourage that growth process (Nordloff 48).
our tutors
There are two main ideas I
say? [Using] the growth
mindset concepts, I am

BACKGROUND
hope the students walk away able to help the students
with. First off getting understand that learning is a
feedback is not a negative process and so is becoming
It has long been the writing tutors creed that one of the central aims of our work is to produce better writers, not better writing (North 438). However, students are often convinced that experience Also, tutors do a better writer. As they
the opposite is true, believing that they are simply bad writers and that the most they can hope for during their visit is to create a better final product for the specific assignment with which not know everything. We too continue to exercise
are learning and growing. I always try my their writing ability,
they are seeking help. This belief is the result of a fixed mindset, which is the idea that ones abilities are set and that little can be done to change or improve them. Thus, as we go about our they will grow.
Poppy F. best to convince
work of making students better writers, it is necessary to ensure that we also understand how to help students change their attitudes toward and expectations of writing tutoring. students that they can Poppy F.
However, while most tutors already approach tutoring sessions with a focus on improving process over product, they are not always trained on exactly how they are to help students achieve always grow and learn to
a growth mindset toward their writing as well. improve their writing, and
urge them to keep an open
mind to new techniques and

OBJECTIVES
writing styles moving
forward.
Hannah C.
As described by Carol Dweck, the originator of the term, a growth mindset is the belief that your basic qualities are things you can cultivate through your efforts, your strategies, and help
from others (7). In the fall and spring of 2016, the staff of the Success Center at Southwestern Illinois College, a two-year institution in Belleville, IL, incorporated the growth mindset
strategies and concepts as described in Brown et al.s Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning into our work toward achieving our mission to help students develop the skills and
strategies they need to become confident, independent, and active learners. To do this, the Success Center revised the concepts discussed during tutor training, as well as the practices
used during tutoring sessions, to spotlight the necessity of encouraging this growth mindset in the students we work with. As a result of these changes, the Success Center hoped to better
equip its peer writing tutors to help students leave tutoring sessions with not only the skills they need to succeed on their own, but also the mindset that becoming a better writer is both
possible and achievable.
RESULTS
Following the spring 2017 semester, the Success Centers six peer writing tutors were
surveyed to assess whether incorporating growth mindset concepts into tutor training had
METHODS Model a growth mindset

emphasized during
shaped their tutoring methods, and had better equipped them to help students focus on
improving their writing process rather than its product. Heres how they responded:

tutor training
Key concepts
In the fall of 2016 and spring of 2017, growth mindset concepts were incorporated into peer tutor training by adding a specific segment Celebrate effort, not outcome
focusing on its theories and practices (see Figures 1, 2, 3, and 4, below). This tutor training included in-depth discussions of key ideas and As a result of learning about the growth As a result of learning about the growth
strategies tutors could use to help elicit this mindset in students during tutoring sessions (see Key Concepts, right). Tutors were encouraged mindset, I feel better prepared to fulfill the mindset, I have an improved ability to help
Embrace the learning process
to model a growth mindset by helping students focus on the effort they put forth, rather than the end result of their work. Tutors were also Success Centers mission to help students students understand the importance of
trained to help students understand failures and setbacks as part of the learning process, and to reframe fixed attitudes and negative self- become confident, independent, and using tutoring sessions to improve their
perceptions as merely starting points from which growth and improvement could follow. Help students reframe active learners and writers. writing process in addition to their papers.

Strongly Strongly
Agree Agree
Agree Agree
50% 50%
50% 50%

As a result of learning about the growth mindset, I feel better

prepared to help students turn a fixed belief about their abilities as a
writer into the belief that they are capable of improving as a writer
through dedication and effort.

Strongly Agree
33%
Fig. 1: Growth Mindset vs. Fixed Mindset Fig. 2: The Iceberg Illusion Fig. 3: The Learning Pit Fig. 4: 10 Growth Mindset Statements Agree
67%

CONCLUSIONS WORKS CITED

The Success Center found that its peer writing tutors universally agreed or strongly agreed that, as a result of the growth mindset concepts discussed during tutor
training, they felt better equipped to explain to students how to reframe their focus from outcome to effort during tutoring sessions, to help students shed limiting
beliefs about their abilities as a writer, and to help students become more confident and independent writers. The Success Center theorized that growth mindset
concepts would be significant within the context of writing tutoring because tutors are uniquely positioned to help students understand that the locus of control
over their potential to become a better writer lies within themselves, and concludes from the positive response from our tutors that incorporating the concepts of
growth mindset into tutor training can show tutors specific ways to convey these ideas to students and thereby help students become more receptive to not only the
importance of using tutoring sessions to improve the process rather than the final product, but also to their own potential to improve. The Success Center plans to
continue incorporating growth mindset strategies and concepts into future tutor training.
Brown, Peter C., et al. Make it Stick: The Science of Successful Learning. The Belknap Press of Harvard U.P., 2014.
Dweck, Carol. Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. Balantine Books, 2016.
@sylviaduckworth. Growth mindset vs fixed mindset @mtechman @langwitches @karlyb @rockourworld @Braddo @rebezuniga @jmattmiller. Twitter, 15 Jan. 2015, 9:14 p.m.,
https://twitter.com/sylviaduckworth/status/555956108700164096.
@sylviaduckworth. New #sketchnote: 10 Growth Mindset Statements via @DavidGeurin @PeterMDeWitt cc @dougpete @coolcatteacher @zecool. Twitter, 4 June 2015, 8:43 p.m.,
https://twitter.com/sylviaduckworth/status/606667600299454464?lang=en.
@sylviaduckworth. New #sketchnote: The Iceberg Illusion, inspired by @matthewsyeds book Bounce cc @ShellTerrell @dougpete #edchat. Twitter, 15 July 2015, 8:05 a.m.,
https://twitter.com/sylviaduckworth/status/621334733901983744?lang=en.
Nordloff, John. Vygotsky, Scaffolding, and the Role of Theory in Writing Center Work. The Writing Center Journal, vol. 34, no. 1, Fall/Winter 2014, pp. 45-64.
http://writingcenters.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Nordlof_WCJ34.1_2014.pdf. Accessed 12 April 2017.
North, Stephen M. The Idea of a Writing Center. College English, vol. 46, no. 5, Sept. 1984, pp. 433-446. http://www.jstor.org/stable/377047. Accessed 14 April 2017.
@WegenerKelly. Productive struggle is the best way to build brain power and help students through the Learning Pit. #TLC_2017 #BuildDendrites @Ready4rigor. Twitter, 28 Sept. 2017,
5:30 a.m., https://twitter.com/WegenerKelly/status/913380279653474304.