Maintain A Growth Mindset

McGuire (2015)  (see Resources)  encourages students to maintain a growth mindset.  By this she means that students should believe that they can grow intellectually through their own efforts.  This requires that students abandon the widely held belief that intelligence is fixed.  If you believe that intelligence is fixed,  youmay attribute your failure on a particular task ( e.g., a test) to a lack of ability, rather than a lack of effort or practice.  McGuire provides numerous examples of research findings showing that mindset matters.

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According to McGuire, students can begin by monitoring their self talk regarding their reasons for success or failure on particular tasks.  (Monitoring is a metacognitive strategy.)  From there, they can practice changing their self talk to focus on their own behaviors as reasons for success or failure.   

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Possible Selves is a program for students working with a tutor.   It is designed to increase student motivation by having students examine their futures and think about goals that are important to them.   If academic motivation is an issue for you, it is strongly suggested that you find a tutor and work though the Possible Selves program with them. The program is available from Edge Enterprises.