Growth Mindset and Metacognition: How They Work Together

Growth mindset and metacognition can be linked in one classroom routine: growth mindset is the belief that ability can improve, and metacognition is the plan, monitor, adjust and review cycle that turns the belief into a next step. Without the cycle, mindset talk becomes empty encouragement. Teachers may ask whether a learner who knows a strategy will choose to use it when work feels difficult. Use the two together: name the strategy, check whether it worked, then praise the choice of strategy rather than effort alone.

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For teachers, the useful question is not whether learners can repeat positive phrases. It is whether they can notice confusion, choose a better strategy and explain why that strategy fits the task.

This guide shows how to link mindset language with practical metacognitive routines. The aim is for feedback to lead to action, rather than posters, slogans, or vague talk about resilience.

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From belief to a classroom check

For the distinction between cognition and metacognition, see our comparison guide. For a fuller plan-monitor-review teaching sequence, use our metacognition teaching hub.

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Growth Mindset Defined

Growth mindset is the belief that intelligence and abilities can be developed. This is in contrast to a "fixed mindset," which assumes that intelligence is static. Learners with a growth mindset embrace challenges, persist through setbacks, and see effort as a path to mastery. They are also more likely to take risks and view failure as an opportunity to learn (Dweck, 2006).

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A growth mindset isn't just about positive thinking. It is about understanding that ability can improve with effort, feedback and better strategies. When learners are encouraged to focus on the process of learning, rather than just the outcome, they are more likely to develop a growth mindset.

Teachers can build a growth mindset by praising effort and strategies, not just innate ability. They should also make reflection routine, so learners can explain which strategy helped and what to try next. Treat mistakes as information: in a Year 7 maths lesson, an incorrect first method can become the prompt for checking the question, choosing a representation and revising the plan.

For example, instead of saying "You're so smart!" when a learner answers a question correctly, a teacher could say, "You checked the question, drew a bar model and used it to test your answer. Which step helped you?" This names a strategy the learner can reuse and asks them to evaluate it. A formative assessment prompt can then identify the next step.

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Metacognition Defined

Metacognition means "thinking about thinking". See Flavell (1979) for details. It means learners know how they think and how to manage that thinking.

Metacognition has two parts: knowledge and regulation. Learners use knowledge to understand what they can do. Regulation means planning, monitoring, and evaluating learning.

Research from Flavell (1979) and Schraw (1998) shows learners understand their own strengths and weaknesses. Learners know various strategies, choosing the right ones. Metacognitive regulation means learners actively manage their learning. They set goals, monitor progress, and adjust tactics (Brown, 1987).

Metacognition helps learners become more self-directed. When learners understand how they learn best, they take more ownership of their education. Teachers should explicitly teach metacognitive strategies such as planning, monitoring and evaluating learning, and apply them to curriculum content (EEF Teaching and Learning Toolkit).

Teachers can promote metacognition by modelling thinking aloud and asking learners to explain their work (EEF Teaching and Learning Toolkit). For example, ask: "What strategy did you use?" and "What would you change next time?" Graphic organisers help learners see their thinking (Novak, 1998). Learners can then spot areas needing improvement (Zimmerman, 2002).

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How Growth Mindset and Metacognition Connect

Growth mindset and metacognition address different questions. Mindset research examines beliefs about ability; self-regulation research examines how learners plan, monitor and change strategy. Linking the two is a classroom rationale, not a demonstrated combined attainment effect (Burnette et al., 2023; Zimmerman, 2002).

A suggested classroom routine is to acknowledge that improvement is possible, select a known strategy, check whether it works, then adjust after feedback. Without the middle steps, a growth mindset slogan can leave learners repeating "I can improve" while using the same ineffective method.

Learners see links between effort, strategies, and results if you make them clear. After tough tasks, discuss the strategies learners tried (Dweck, 2006). Explore how those strategies affected success or failure (Yeager & Dweck, 2012). This shows learners how their work impacts outcomes (Blackwell et al., 2007).

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In a maths lesson, learners may struggle with a new concept. A teacher can say, "This is tough, but remember, our brains grow when we face challenges. Let's think about different strategies we can use to solve this problem."

The teacher can then ask, "Which methods have worked for you in the past? How can we adapt them to this new situation?" This clearly links growth mindset with metacognitive strategies.

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Dweck's Research: What Teachers Need to Know

Carol Dweck's (2006) research on mindset has influenced education by focusing attention on effort, strategy and response to challenge. Dweck found that learners praised for intelligence are more likely to avoid challenge and give up when work becomes difficult. In contrast, learners praised for effort and strategy are more likely to take on challenge and persist through setbacks.

Dweck's research also emphasises the importance of creating a classroom culture that values learning and growth. This includes providing opportunities for learners to reflect on their learning process and learn from their mistakes. It also involves creating a safe and supportive environment where learners feel comfortable taking risks and challenging themselves. Teachers should model a growth mindset themselves, demonstrating a willingness to learn and grow.

The point for teachers is that growth mindset is not about telling learners they can do anything if they just try hard enough. It is about helping them understand that their abilities can be developed through dedication, hard work, and effective strategies. It is also about teaching them how to learn effectively, including how to set goals, monitor their progress, and adjust their approach when needed.

For instance, a teacher could share a personal story about a time when they struggled to learn something new. They could then explain how they overcame those challenges by using effective strategies and persisting through setbacks. This helps learners see that even teachers face challenges and that growth is a process that takes time and effort.

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The EEF Evidence on Metacognition

The Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) studied how metacognition affects learner results. Its findings show that teaching metacognitive strategies can improve academic achievement. The current EEF Teaching and Learning Toolkit estimates metacognition and self-regulation approaches at about eight additional months' progress (Education Endowment Foundation, review last updated May 2025). The EEF rates metacognition and self-regulation approaches as high impact for very low cost. This rating does not cover growth mindset messaging or their pairing.

The EEF highlights teaching metacognitive strategies explicitly. Do not just expect learners to develop them (EEF). Instead, teach learners to plan, monitor, and review their learning.

Give them chances to practise in different situations. The EEF suggests teachers use a structured approach like "plan, do, review".

The EEF also highlights feedback on learners' use of metacognitive strategies. Feedback should be specific, timely and focused on the learning process. Use questions such as "Which strategy did you choose?" and "What evidence tells you it worked?" Keep growth mindset language separate from the core metacognitive teaching: learners still need explicit modelling of planning, monitoring and review within each subject.

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For example, in a science lesson, a teacher could ask learners to plan their approach to an experiment before they begin. During the experiment, they could encourage learners to monitor their progress and make adjustments as needed. After the experiment, they could ask learners to evaluate their findings and reflect on what they have learned. This helps learners develop metacognitive skills in the context of a specific subject area.

Growth mindset helps learners embrace challenges (Dweck, 2006). Metacognition gives learners skills to understand and manage their learning. This guide offers ways to use these ideas in your classroom.

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Practical Strategies for the Classroom

Dweck's (2006) growth mindset language becomes more actionable when teachers pair it with routines learners can use often. Departments should agree the metacognitive moves they expect to see in lessons: teacher modelling, guided practice, learner self-checking and review. This is stronger than a one-off assembly because it places mindset language inside subject teaching (Flavell, 1979; Zimmerman, 2002).

"Think-alouds," where teachers show their thought processes, work well. Learners then see how experts tackle problems and use metacognition. Teachers should also have learners use graphic organisers to plan ideas.

Another powerful technique is to incorporate reflection activities into lessons. Ask learners to reflect on what they have learned, how they learned it, and what challenges they faced. Encourage them to identify strategies that worked well and areas where they need to improve.

For example, after a science experiment, ask learners to write a short reflection on the steps they took, the results they observed, and any challenges they encountered. Encourage them to think about how they could improve their approach next time. This promotes metacognitive awareness and helps learners develop more effective learning strategies. Retrieval practice can also be used to reinforce learning and promote metacognitive reflection.

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Growth mindset in a Year 4 classroom

Growth mindset in a primary classroom is usually a display and a word. The display says "I can't do it yet" and the word is yet. Teachers on this page describe what turns that into something a Year 4 learner can act on, and it is the same move each time. The belief is said once, and the next step is named in the same breath.

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Writing, Tuesday morning. A learner has written three sentences with no full stops and says, "I can't do punctuation." The mindset answer alone is "not yet". The metacognitive answer follows straight on: "Not yet.

Read the first sentence aloud and stop where your voice drops. Put the full stop there. Now do the second." The learner has a strategy, a check they can run themselves, and a reason to believe it will work because it just did.

Maths, the same week. A learner meets a two-step word problem and stops. Instead of "try harder", the teacher asks, "Which method did you use last time a problem had two parts?" The learner says bar model and draws one. The teacher's praise names the choice, not the effort: "You picked the method that fits two-part problems. That is the thing to remember." Effort praise on its own tells a learner nothing about what to repeat.

The display. Replace the slogan poster with a list of ways out that the class has actually used: reread the question, draw it, try the other method, ask a partner, look at the worked example. One Scottish class on this page drew the learning pit with the exits labelled in their own words. A display the class can name is a strategy bank. A display they cannot name is wallpaper, and one teacher on this page found that most learners could not name the values on their own school's wall.

The stuck sentence. Teach a two-line routine for the moment a learner says "I can't do this." Line one is the learner's: "I'm stuck at ..." with the exact place. Line two is theirs too: "So I will try ..." with a strategy from the bank. The teacher's job is to accept nothing vaguer than that. A Year 4 learner who can say "I'm stuck at the second step, so I will draw a bar model" has a growth mindset that does something.

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None of this needs an assembly. It needs the same three questions in every subject: where are you stuck, what will you try, did it work. Say them the same way for a term and the belief looks after itself.

Use this small builder to turn one learner’s stuck sentence into a taught method and a check question. Edit the result to fit your lesson before using it.

Try the generated prompt on one problem this week. Keep the method if it helps the learner check the work, or change the method and ask what the second attempt shows.

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Common Mistakes with Growth Mindset

Dweck's (2006) growth mindset is powerful, but avoid focusing only on effort. Learners need effective strategies, not just hard work, for success. Blackwell et al. (2007) found strategy use matters.

Another mistake is to use praise that is insincere or generic. Learners can often see through empty praise, which can undermine their motivation. Praise should be specific, genuine, and focused on the process rather than the outcome. Avoid phrases like "You're so clever!" and instead say "I noticed you used a really effective strategy to solve that problem!".

Avoid confusing growth mindset with telling learners to "try harder." Growth mindset is a belief about improvement, but learners also need tools, feedback and time to change how they learn. Teach them how to set goals, monitor progress and choose a better strategy when the first one fails.

For example, if a learner is struggling with a writing assignment, don't just tell them to "try harder." Instead, provide them with specific feedback on their writing, model effective writing strategies, and offer opportunities for revision and improvement. This provides the necessary support for growth.

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Assessing Metacognitive Growth

Black and Wiliam (1998) argue assess learner understanding, not just facts. Focus on how learners control their learning, as Flavell (1979) suggested. Use self-reflection and peer assessment as Hattie (2012) recommends. Vygotsky (1978) argued that what a learner can do with help today they can do alone later, so watch closely for what they still need help with.

Self-reflection helps learners understand their thinking (Flavell, 1979). Teachers can ask learners to consider their strategies, strengths, and areas for improvement. Learners can use writing, journals, or group talks to reflect (Schön, 1983; Boud et al., 1985).

Peer assessment can also be a useful tool for assessing metacognitive growth. Encourage learners to provide feedback to each other on their learning strategies and their ability to solve problems. This can help learners become more aware of their own thinking processes and learn from others.

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Assessment Method	Description	Example
Self-Reflection	Learners reflect on their learning process.	Journal entries on learning strategies.
Peer Assessment	Learners provide feedback to each other.	Feedback on problem-solving approaches.
Teacher Observation	Teachers observe learners' strategies.	Observing group project planning.

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Teachers can also assess metacognitive growth through observation. Pay attention to how learners approach challenges, how they use learning strategies, and how they respond to feedback. Use this information to provide targeted support and guidance.

Learners can plan, track progress, and assess their contributions in group work. Give feedback on their goal-setting, strategies, and learning reflections. (Flavell, 1979; Nelson & Narens, 1990). This gives useful insight into learner metacognitive development. (Veenman et al., 2006).

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Growth Mindset Beyond the Poster

Growth mindset should be more than a poster or an assembly theme. Meta-analyses suggest standalone mindset interventions have small and inconsistent effects on attainment, especially when they are not tied to subject-specific strategy instruction (Sisk et al., 2018; Macnamara and Burgoyne, 2023). Use the language only where learners can practise a concrete learning move such as planning a method, checking a worked example, revising a paragraph or reviewing feedback.

Teachers can model a growth mindset by sharing their own struggles and learning experiences. Talk about times when you faced challenges, made mistakes, and learned from them. This shows learners that it's okay to struggle and that learning is a continuous process.

It's also important to challenge fixed mindset beliefs when they arise. When learners say things like "I'm not good at this," challenge them to reframe their thinking. Encourage them to focus on what they can learn and how they can improve.

For example, if a learner says "I'm just not a maths person," respond by saying "Maybe you have not found the right strategy yet. Let's test one together, then check whether it worked." In AI-supported tasks, add a metacognitive check before learners use a tool: "Do I need help generating ideas, checking an answer or doing the hard thinking myself?" This protects productive struggle and evaluative judgement (Lodge et al., 2023).

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Limitations and Critiques

Growth mindset should not be seen as a sure route to higher attainment. Meta-analyses have found small and mixed links between mindset interventions and academic achievement. The strongest effects are mainly for learners who are already at academic risk or from low socioeconomic backgrounds (Sisk et al., 2018). Macnamara and Burgoyne (2023) go further, arguing that many positive findings may reflect weak design, reporting bias, and poor control conditions.

A second limitation is methodological. Many studies rely on brief interventions, short self-report scales and outcomes measured close to the intervention. This makes it hard to tell whether learners have changed their learning behaviour or have simply repeated the message they were taught. The English Changing Mindsets trial found no added progress in Key Stage 2 literacy or numeracy, which cautions against whole-school programmes built mainly around slogans (Foliano et al., 2019).

There are cultural and ethical concerns too. Kohn (2015) argued that growth mindset can place too much responsibility on individual learners. This can shift attention away from poverty, SEND provision, curriculum access, racism, and workload.

In classrooms using generative AI, a related risk appears when learners are told to try harder while tools remove productive struggle. Metacognitive checks about when to use AI and when to think independently are now part of the work (Lodge et al., 2023).

The theory still has value when teachers link it to clear strategy teaching, feedback, and self-regulated learning. It works best as part of teaching practice, not as a stand-alone fix.

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The shift shows up earlier than most teachers expect. Primary classrooms can run these routines from Year 2 onwards, with the wording held steady across year groups, and there is a worked account of that in our guide to metacognition in the primary classroom.

Take one lesson this week where you would normally say "keep trying". Replace it with a strategy question: "Which method have you used, and what could you try instead?" Write down the strategies learners name. Those words, not the slogan, are what goes on the wall.

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Frequently asked questions

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Is growth mindset metacognition?

No. Growth mindset is a belief about ability: that it can be developed. Metacognition is a set of actions: planning a task, monitoring whether the approach is working and evaluating the result. A learner can hold the belief and never use the actions, which is the poster problem this guide keeps returning to.

The two work together when the belief supplies the reason to try a different strategy and metacognition supplies the strategy. Teach the metacognitive routine explicitly inside the subject, and use mindset language only where a learner has a concrete next move to make.

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Who introduced growth mindset?

The psychologist Carol Dweck introduced the term. Her research on how learners respond to praise and setbacks led to the distinction between a fixed mindset, where ability is seen as static, and a growth mindset, where it can be developed. The 2006 book Mindset brought the idea to a wide audience (Dweck, 2006). Later work with colleagues tested whether teaching the belief changes attainment (Blackwell et al., 2007; Yeager and Dweck, 2012). Whether the belief on its own moves attainment is contested, and the limitations section above sets out the evidence on both sides.

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Who founded metacognition?

John Flavell, a developmental psychologist, gave the field its name and its first framework in 1979. He described metacognition as knowledge about one's own thinking, plus the monitoring and regulation of it (Flavell, 1979). Ann Brown developed the regulation side, planning, monitoring and checking, in the same period (Brown, 1987). The idea is older than the word, because teachers have always asked learners to check their work. What Flavell added was a way to study the checking itself, and that is the strand the EEF guidance and this page build on.

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Is growth mindset still relevant?

The belief is still worth teaching, but not on its own. Meta-analyses find small and inconsistent effects of standalone mindset interventions on attainment (Sisk et al., 2018; Macnamara and Burgoyne, 2023), and the English Changing Mindsets trial found no added progress at Key Stage 2 (Foliano et al., 2019). What has aged is the assembly, the poster and the word yet with nothing after it. What still holds is the classroom move underneath: when a learner is stuck, change the strategy, examine the mistake and name the next step. That move is metacognition wearing mindset language.

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Can metacognition be separated from subject knowledge?

Not in a way that helps learners. Monitoring needs something to monitor. A learner cannot judge whether a paragraph answers the question without knowing the content, and cannot check a calculation without a second method to check it with.

The EEF Toolkit summary of metacognition and self-regulation describes strategies taught within subject content, and every routine on this page sits inside a real task. Generic thinking-skills lessons and mindset assemblies are the versions that separate the two, and they are the versions the limitations section warns about. Teach the check on the content, in the lesson where the content lives.

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What are the two aspects of metacognition?

Knowledge and regulation. Metacognitive knowledge is what a learner knows about themselves as a learner, about the task and about strategies: "I lose track in long word problems", "this question wants a comparison", "a bar model works for percentages". Metacognitive regulation is what they do with that knowledge while working: plan an approach, monitor whether it is working and evaluate the result (Flavell, 1979; Brown, 1987). Growth mindset sits beside both. It is the belief that makes a learner willing to use the knowledge and run the regulation when the first attempt fails.

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