Professor Erica Sylvia presented “Mindset Matters: Promoting Growth and Confidence in 1Ls” at the LWI, sharing strategies for helping first-year law students develop resilience, motivation, and confidence through growth mindset frameworks, motivational interviewing techniques, and building authentic connections in the classroom.
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UMass Law Professor Erica Sylvia delivered a presentation titled “Mindset Matters: Promoting Growth and Confidence in 1Ls” at the Legal Writing Institute’s One-Day Workshop held on December 5, 2025, at Northeastern University School of Law. The theme of the conference was, “How Can We Engage Students and Promote Dialogue Across Differences in the Pursuit of Social Justice?”
Drawing on her prior experience teaching bar preparation, Sylvia shared how insights gained from working with graduating students inform her approach to teaching first-year law students in their earliest encounters with legal writing and analysis. The presentation explored the difference between mindset and knowledge, emphasizing that many students arrive at law school academically capable but vulnerable to fixed beliefs about intelligence and performance. Sylvia explained how these beliefs can undermine confidence, discourage help-seeking, and distort how students interpret feedback — issues that often surface acutely during bar preparation but can originate in the first semester.
In her presentation, Sylvia outlined three key approaches that she uses to help 1Ls build confidence and resilience: promoting a growth mindset, using motivational interviewing in student conferences, and humanizing the instructor-student relationship. She then offered concrete strategies for each approach, including reframing feedback as a datapoint rather than judgment, using open-ended questions to guide students toward their own motivations, and modeling vulnerability and authenticity in the classroom. These techniques, she explained, help students reconnect with their sense of purpose, develop healthy academic narratives, and build confidence as emerging legal thinkers.
The session generated positive engagement from attendees, who noted the practicality of the examples and the relevance of mindset work in legal skills pedagogy. Sylvia’s contribution highlighted UMass Law’s commitment to student-centered teaching and evidence-based approaches to supporting first-year law students.