I am now watching recorded sessions from the Lilly Online Conference 2022. I have watched until Tuesday, April 12 but haven’t posted anything. Tonight, I start with the session “Mindset Training for Nursing Students” by Lisa S. Lewis, a faculty in the Duke University School of Nursing. I am curious about the mindset model and strategies that Lewis uses with nursing students. Lewis reviewed the work for Carol Dweck and fixed and growth mindsets. The idea of how a mindset can pertain to students and affect academic progress was described. Lewis compared fixed and growth mindset students. Lewis emphasized that mindsets can change. Mindset training, according to Lewis, is brief: 30-60 minutes. I never really thought about this! Lewis also explained that the benefits of mindset interventions seem to benefit at-risk students the most. Preparing for the licensure exam for nursing is challenging and mindset training for students has potential, according to Lewis. They also described strategies including writing a letter to another student, asking students to consider growth mindset activities… Instructor behavior influences student mindsets based on studies. The wording always intrigues me: praise for effort with constructive critique. The Williams Inventory of Learning Styles is a tool that surveys the use of learning strategies and mindset. The Williams Inventory of Learning Styles (WILS) consists of 33 items on a scale from 0 to 100. The subscales are learning mindset, willingness to remediate, fear of failure, and learning strategies. Reliability and validity of WILS have been performed, explained Lewis. Using pre/post surveys, Lewis and collaborators have published studies on mindset training for nursing students. They continue to build resources and carry out studies. Working with a statistician, they have reviewed recruitment policies, for example. They are seeking funds to provide a modest incentive. This session had useful information about the WILS and how mindset is studied in the nursing student population. I now want to look up WILS to learn about the instrument and its structure.
