Creative Mindsets has a strong evidence base in improving attainment for all students by building growth mindsets in both students and staff.

Based on Dweck’s implicit theories of Intelligence, and learning from UAL’s Breaking Bias staff development module, Creative Mindsets workshops address stereotype threat (Osborne, 2007) and implicit bias (Staats, 2014). These can create barriers to learning via self-limiting identities, peer interactions, staff expectations and teaching and assessment approaches.

There is firm evidence that growth mindsets reduce stereotypes and implicit bias. Click on the images below to find out more about each of the theories underpinning the Creative Mindsets initiative.

Picture of students taking part in the Changing Mindsets workshop with Grayson Perry at CSM - Photo credit: Gareth Johnson — Students taking part in the Changing Mindsets workshop with Grayson Perry at CSM – Photo credit: Gareth Johnson

Picture of students at the What is Talent, What is Failure? exhibition inspired by a Changing Mindsets workshop at Camberwell College of Arts and curated by Graduate Fine Art Intern, Daisy Young - Photo credit: Gareth Johnson — Students at the What is Talent, What is Failure? exhibition inspired by a Changing Mindsets workshop at Camberwell College of Arts and curated by Graduate Fine Art Intern, Daisy Young – Photo credit: Gareth Johnson

The Changing Mindsets project (2017 – 2019)

Mid Project Report: This report explores the different institutional approaches to intervention delivery and mid-project initial findings from the two-year Office for Students (OfS) funded attainment gap project titled “Changing Mindsets: Reducing stereotype threat and implicit bias as barriers to student success”. Changing Mindsets was one of 17 OfS-funded projects focused on closing attainment gaps carried out across the United Kingdom. The project focused on addressing unequal student experiences and outcomes for two student groups: Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) students and socio-economically disadvantaged students. The project was a multi-university partnership led by the University of Portsmouth (UoP) and including University of the Arts London (UAL), the University of Brighton (UoB), Canterbury Christ Church University (CCCU), and the University of Winchester (UoW). Read the full Changing Mindsets Mid-Project report here.

If you have any questions or would like to know more about the Creative Mindsets project, please contact Vikki Hill, Educational Developer (Attainment): Identity and Cultural Experience.

This resource is produced in collaboration with the UAL Teaching and Learning Exchange