GUIDELINES FOR TRANSFORMATIVE LEARNING IN MEGHALAYA: A TEACHER-FOCUSED MINDSET MODEL TO ENHANCE ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE AND SOCIAL COMPETENCE IN HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS

Abstract

In high school education contexts marked by examination pressure, peer comparison, and increasing learner diversity, teachers’ beliefs about students function as a powerful yet often implicit influence that shapes classroom expectations, effort norms, students’ sense of belonging, and ultimately their long-term academic trajectories. Grounded in Dweck’s (2006) theory, the growth mindset perspective conceptualizes intelligence and competence as malleable capacities that can be cultivated through deliberate strategies, sustained engagement, and structured, supportive feedback rather than as fixed traits determined at the outset. Even as many mindset interventions focus on students, teacher-focused mindset work may be particularly significant because teachers influence classroom norms, feedback practices, assessment cultures, and students’ understanding of success and failure. This article tries to integrate researches on teacher mindset, growth-oriented pedagogy, motivational foundations of engagement, and contextual influences such as school climate and equity. Building on this synthesis and India’s National Education Policy 2020, the article proposes a teacher-focused mindset model for Meghalaya high schools connecting growth-oriented teaching to improved academic engagement, academic performance, and social competence of students including social connectedness and adaptive help-seeking.