Sustaining teaching innovation: Cultivating a growth mindset even when things go off the rails

Sustainable learning is a focus in efforts to transform our instructional design to support an inclusive, accessible, engaging, and inviting student experience. Ideally, the tracks for how the course will unfold are laid out clearly before the semester starts. However, as much as we try to prepare, a great deal of this work needs to happen as we progress through the term, while the train is already moving along the track. As authors coming from different perspectives—one is lead Teaching Assistant involved in course aid and development and the other is an experienced instructor and former Associate Dean—we present examples from our individual experience and collaborative reflection: a practice for communicating clear guidelines for assignments and resources to turn to for support when the students dispute that clarity. Inspired by Cate Denial’s (2024) reminder that a pedagogy of kindness begins with kindness to the instructor, we offer our insights on cultivating a growth mindset (Dweck, 2006) in both instructional design and course interactions as a successful approach to preventing, reducing, and addressing unanticipated conflicts. This approach to designing course curricula and activities is a manageable step toward sustainable learning for our students, our teaching assistants, and ourselves. Denial, C. J. (2024). A pedagogy of kindness. University of Oklahoma Press. Dweck, C. S. (2006). Mindset: The new psychology of success. Random house.