Stanford PERTS Lab and ClassDojo Partner to Bring Growth Mindset to Every Classroom

SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 19, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Today ClassDojo and Stanford University's Project for Education Research That Scales (PERTS) announced a partnership to help millions of students learn about 'growth mindset' in their classrooms. As part of this partnership, ClassDojo developed a five-part series of animated videos that will be available free to all teachers. It is the first in ClassDojo's "Big Ideas" series, where ClassDojo will bring cutting-edge research into the classroom -- with characters that students know and love.

The idea of growth mindset, researched and popularized by Professor Carol Dweck and colleagues at Stanford University, is the notion that intelligence and abilities can be developed over time. The opposite is a 'fixed' mindset, which is the belief that these abilities are innate and can't change. Research has shown that when students possess a growth mindset, and see challenge as an opportunity to learn, they are more likely to persevere when faced with setbacks.

"When children believe their abilities are tied to things they can't change, the windows of opportunity surrounding them shut one by one," said Dave Paunesku, executive director of Stanford PERTS. "ClassDojo's reach and mission to help teachers, parents, and students transform education from the ground up made it the natural partner for us to share this concept with teachers at a massive scale."

ClassDojo is a communication platform for teachers, parents, and students that helps build community inside and around every classroom. Because it is already used in half of U.S. schools, ClassDojo provides an unprecedented opportunity to seamlessly bring breakthrough, evidence-based educational practices to millions of teachers and classrooms.

"Growth mindset is a phenomenally important idea that's been proven to benefit children well into the future," said Liam Don, co-founder and Chief Product Officer at ClassDojo. "In developing our 'Big Ideas' series we wanted to make these transformative ideas easy for teachers to incorporate into their classroom, and delightful for students. Our partnership with Stanford PERTS is a good example of how technology can help make big ideas accessible and exciting for students in every classroom. We're thrilled to share this 'Big Idea' with our community of teachers -- the first of more to come!"

The "Big Ideas: Growth Mindset" series follows Mojo, ClassDojo's much-loved monster mascot, as he and his friend Katie explore the importance of a growth mindset and how to develop one. Each of the five growth mindset videos will be paired with a lesson guide so teachers can reinforce growth mindset thinking with their students through activity-based learning.

"Seeing my students take on a growth mindset -- tackling challenges head on, with a fearlessness for learning -- is exactly why I got into teaching," said Stephanie Smith, a teacher in Tennessee.  "It's exciting to have such a simple way to bring this important idea to life. For kids it's as delightful as watching a Pixar movie, and yet the message they'll learn is so powerful. It's a breath of fresh air!"

To date, ClassDojo has focused on making it easy for teachers, parents, and students to share in the classroom experience as a community. This marks the first time ClassDojo has used its platform to deliver powerful ideas to teachers and students around the world.

"The best platforms make difficult-to-imagine ideas simple, and widely distributed for all. Stripe did that in the financial industry, Uber in transportation, and Airbnb in hospitality," said Hemant Taneja, Managing Director of General Catalyst. "The platform ClassDojo has created for classroom communication is doing the same thing for education. With the 'Big Ideas: Growth Mindset' series, we're seeing for the first time how their platform can deliver high-impact ideas simply and at large scale, which makes it a big moment for the company."

For more information on "Big Ideas: Growth Mindset" and ClassDojo, please visit https://www.classdojo.com/bigideas/ and https://www.classdojo.com/press/.

About ClassDojo
ClassDojo's mission is to help communities of teachers, parents and students work together to transform education from the ground up, in every classroom in the world. Founded in 2011 and based in San Francisco, California, ClassDojo is a communication platform that creates a community inside and around every classroom. The company does this by helping teachers, parents, and students share moments from class more openly, frequently, and positively with each other. This includes sharing classroom activities, as well as skills students are building, using using photos, videos, and messages. Today, ClassDojo is used in over 1 in 2 US schools, as well as a further 180 countries. To learn more, visit: https://www.classdojo.com/ or Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

About Stanford PERTS
PERTS (the 'Project for Education Research That Scales,' www.perts.net) is an applied research center at Stanford University. It partners with schools, colleges, and other organizations to identify educational practices that improve learning outcomes and to drive the effective adoption of those practices on a large-scale.

Video - http://youtu.be/2zrtHt3bBmQ

SOURCE ClassDojo

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