During my years teaching science in middle school, high school and college, some of my students have resisted teaching that educators call higher-order thinking. This includes analysis, creative and critical thinking, and problem-solving.

For example, when I asked them to draw conclusions from data or generate a process for testing an idea, some students replied, “Why don’t you tell us what to do?” or “Isn’t it the teacher’s job to tell us the right answers?”

In other words, my students had developed a strong preconceived notion that knowledge comes from authority. After investigating, my colleagues and I concluded that these beliefs about learning were influencing how they approached our lessons – and thus what they were able to learn.

All students come to class with a range of beliefs about what it means to learn. In the field of education, perhaps the most sought-after belief is what we call having a growth mindset. Students with a growth mindset believe they can improve and continue to learn. In contrast, students with a fixed mindset struggle to believe they can become more knowledgeable about the topic they’re studying. When students say, “I’m bad at math,” they exhibit a fixed mindset.

As teachers, we not only try to help students understand the topic at hand but also aim to instill accurate beliefs about learning so nothing interferes with their ability to take in new information.

Other than the growth mindset, I argue that five other beliefs are particularly important to promote in classrooms to help........

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