1) Change your Own Mindset

Struggling students can either be viewed with a fixed mindset, as simply stuck forever with an understanding that is sub-par or, they can be viewed as a welcome challenge, and an opportunity for you to hone your teaching skills, and them to hone their learning skills.

2) Change the Emphasis

In entrepreneurship, instead of focusing on correct answers, focus on correct process. If students are learning and following the correct process, then they will eventually also produce the correct answers. At Pangaea United, we can help by honing in on the exact step a student struggles with when attempting a challenging problem.

3) Value Mistakes

No has ever learned something valuable without making mistakes. Mistakes are going to happen, and they are actually part of the process of learning. We encourage students to see their mistakes as one of many steps toward mastery.

4) Encourage Perseverance

Students often need practice in hard work. Our program models the many steps it might take to master a concept or skill by talking them through it, and emphasizing the work itself as valuable over the final outcome of mastery. After all, the skill does not come without all of the practice and instruction that gets you there.

Perseverance is also one of the Common Core Standards for entrepreneurs.

5) Praise The Process, Not The Person

Remember how we said that Einstein or Warren Buffett seemed so different from regular people, but they’re not?

The same applies with our students—instead of pointing out individual students who are doing well, and praising them as if they are innately “good at a concept,” point out the process those successful students used to find the answer. By highlighting the process over the person, other students can see a path toward accomplishing the same goals, and move away from believing that those students are doing well.