How Classrooms Can Promote Intellectual Humility—Or Discourage It (greatergood.berkeley.edu)

To read Emily Brower's article, please click here.

Two new studies reveal the ways that teachers and schools can encourage students to be humble and feel comfortable making mistakes.

The classroom is where habits are created, mentalities are formed, and lessons are taught. Classrooms are spaces to encourage students to learn as much as they can—but also to recognize what they do not yet know.

This skill is part of what researchers call intellectual humility, the ability to accept that our beliefs and what we think may not always be correct. Intellectual humility can help students with learning, critical thinking, and collaboration. Now, two new studies consider the ways that classroom environments can promote intellectual humility in students.

In the first study of over 500 middle school students across two academic years, researchers found that classrooms that emphasize effort and growth and normalize mistakes encourage the development of intellectual humility.

In a second study focusing on high school students, young adults, and undergraduates, Porter and her colleague Andrei Cimpian discovered a different type of classroom environment that may stifle intellectual humility: one oriented toward intellectual ability.