People tend to hold one of two different beliefs about intelligence:

• Children with a growth mindset believe that intelligence can be developed. These students see school as a place to develop their abilities and think of challenges as opportunities to grow.
• Children with a fixed mindset believe that intelligence is fixed at birth and doesn’t change or changes very little with practice. These students see school as a place where their abilities are evaluated, they focus on looking smart over learning, and they interpret mistakes are a sign that they lack talent.

The beliefs children have about intelligence, effort, and struggle impact the choices they make about learning.

From mindsetkit.org