Carol Dweck, an educational psychologist at Stanford University, has developed a way of understanding how our mindsets (our beliefs about intelligence) affect our outcomes in school and in life. This idea has taken roots in education at all levels. Here is a short and relatively accessible journal article that you can use to learn about the mindset concept: Dweck's "Brainology". This article can also be shared with students. It's helpful at the start of the semester to read and discuss this and use it as a touchstone throughout the semester (when you hand back graded work, you might preface passing back their work with discussion questions like "how would a students with a fixed respond if they received a grade they weren't satisfied with? How would students with a growth mindset respond?").

For more in-depth explanation of the mindset concept, check out Dweck's book Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. In it, she talks about mindset in many contexts from teaching to parenting to the business world.

This short video is a good place to start as well, and it can be easily shared with students. In it, Dweck sums up the key difference between fixed and growth mindsets.