How misusing Growth Mindset keeps struggling learners stuck—and what actually helps.

I’ve been mind-munching on this topic for a while.

Like many of my thinks, it’s about the intersection of two ideas. In this case Growth Mindset and Learning Disabilities.

Growth Mindset is the belief that with effort and persistence, we can improve in any area. Learning Disabilities, on the other hand, are not theoretical. They are very real, creating significant hurdles that some learners must overcome before they can even reach a basic level of skill.

This is where things get interesting.

You probably agree that it would be cruel to tell a blind person that if they just believe and try harder, they’ll see. Or to tell someone with a spinal injury that with a growth mindset, they’ll walk. That’s not encouragement—it’s delusion, and frankly, emotional abuse.

But Learning Disabilities aren’t fixed in the same way. Most children with dyslexia can learn to read. Most dysgraphics can learn to write. Most dyscalculics can learn math. The real question isn’t whether they can—it’s how we support them in ways that are honest about their struggles while respecting their agency.

When Growth Mindset Becomes Toxic Positivity

Two things about what I’m seeing with Growth Mindset bother me.

First, I see well-meaning teachers misusing Growth Mindset as a one-size-fits-all motivational speech:

“Keep going! You can do anything if you try hard enough!”

Speaking as a dyslexic learner who spent years in the try, fail, repeat cycle—this is unhelpful. If my car engine is broken, send me a toolbox, not a cheerleader. Effort alone isn’t enough. Without explicit instruction, scaffolding, and the right strategies, struggling learners don’t just magically improve.

Second, I see interventionists keeping kids in support programs for years. Long past the point of student buy-in, these good-natured students acquiesce to extra support. It’s like being forced to maintain a diet long after you’ve hit a healthy weight—without choice; without agency.

At some point, we have to start training students to take the wheel of their learning.

What Growth Mindset Actually Means

I fully support Carol Dweck’s work on Growth Mindset. But only when it’s understood correctly.

A Fixed Mindset says: You either have it, or you don’t.

A Growth Mindset says: You are always somewhere on a continuum, and with the right strategies, you can move up the continuum.

Here’s where many educators go wrong: Growth Mindset isn’t about blind optimism. It’s about teaching students to view challenges as solvable with the right tools.

Take this moment in a math classroom:

A student sighs, “I’m bad at math.” There are three possible teacher responses:

1. “Don’t worry, you’re great at art! Focus on your strengths.” → Confirms the child’s hypothesis that they ‘don’t have the gift’ for math and endorses the idea that they can never be good at it so it’s not worth trying.
2. “Oh no, don’t say that! Just believe in yourself and try harder!” → Toxic Positivity. This response dismisses the student’s feelings, offers blind encouragement without addressing the actual struggle and implies that effort alone is the solution, ignoring the need for effective instruction and scaffolding.
3. “Math can be tricky! Tell me what’s hard, and let’s figure out a way to make it easier together.” → The genuine Growth Mindset response. It validates the student’s experience without reinforcing a fixed mindset. It shifts the perspective from a personal limitation to a solvable challenge. Then, it opens the door for strategy support and scaffolding rather than just more effort.

Growth Mindset is not about slapping motivational posters on classroom walls. It’s about teachers modelling it in their own learning and embedding it into their self-talk, their instruction and the way they approach problem-solving.

And the research on Growth Mindset?

📌 Students with a growth mindset tend to be more resilient, motivated, and successful.

📌 When taught in isolation (e.g., a one-off lesson on “believe in yourself”), Growth Mindset isn’t effective.

📌 When woven into daily instruction, it has a small positive impact on academic growth.

Those are underwhelming results for something with so much hype around it. My takeaway is that it’s worth the self work, but not worth buying growth mindset programming.

Supporting Learners with LD: A Different Approach

When working with students with LD, we need to remember that they’re also learning on a continuum. A diagnosis does not create a fixed ability level. That means:

1. Explicit instruction and scaffolding – Instead of “try harder,” ask:
   1. What’s making this task difficult?
   2. Do they need more direct teaching?
   3. Do they need better scaffolding or cognitive load support?
2. Agency – Students should have a say in their learning. Not every day has to be a deep push into the Zone of Proximal Development. Some days, we all just want to hang out in our comfort zones.

And let me be completely honest here. I’m writing for me – I’ve been guilty of pushing too hard. I’m a dyslexic who also has a Type A personality. I always want to go for gold. I’ve nudged kids forward when their whole bodies were saying “not this, not today.”

But trauma-informed teaching means listening to those signals. I’ve learned that it’s more productive to journey together rather than dragging the child along with me.

Letting Kids Opt Out (and Come Back In)

We want to help kids learn to be reflective on their learning goals, to acknowledge what was hard today, what felt easier and be part of deciding where they want to grow next. We also want them to make big-picture goals, and maybe at a certain age, the goals they strive for involve more use of assistive tech, more time on the soccer field and less time in intervention. This is where the growth mindset comes in for a final powerful encore.

Giving kids the agency to decide to stop intervention before they are ‘ready’ (whatever ‘ready’ actually is defined as) is really important for learners with LD. Even more important is giving them the message that their brains will be ready and waiting for them to continue to do the work in the future if they want to try again. If Tier 1 instruction is overwhelming, they can come back. If they want extra help, but in a different form, that’s ok. In my lifetime I have picked up and put down my goals for improvement of my dyslexia-based difficulties many, many times. When my kids tell me it’s time to move on, my biggest message is of continuous lifetime improvement. Just because you didn’t learn something before the end of Grade 12 does not mean you can’t ever learn that thing.

Final Thoughts: When Growth Mindset Backfires

A Growth Mindset is powerful when used correctly. But it should also come with a warning label:

🚨 “Do not open this can unless you’ve actually read one of Dweck’s books.” 🚨

Misused, it turns into toxic positivity that gaslights struggling learners. When embodied as a value by the educator it is powerful, not in the way that shows up on grades, but absolutely in the way that matters – supporting the whole learner so that we graduate confident kids who believe they can learn, can set goals, and have the skills to help themselves achieve them.

What do you think—has Growth Mindset been twisted into toxic positivity? And should learners with LD have more say in their own support? Drop your thoughts below!