It’s been an interesting week on Twitter for all those interested in growth mindset. two crucial studies were published. The first found that girls by the age of 6 report feeling ‘less talented’ than boys. The other, that mindset wasn’t linked to grades, which contradicted several earlier studies in this field.
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This led to lots Camiseta ACF Fiorentina of interesting discussion (both for and against) about growth mindset on Twitter. Therefore, we thought it was a good time to consider: growth Mindset – The Good, The bad and The Ugly.
The Good
The good part about growth mindset Camiseta Newcastle United is that it is based on a wealth of peer-reviewed research in psychology over the past twenty years. To highlight just a few, growth mindset has been associated with:
Seeking out better feedback and persisting for longer – You can read the study here.
Coping better with transitions – You can read the study here.
Improved self-regulation – This study was a very large meta-analysis which analyses over one hundred studies on the topic.
Choose a lot more challenging task – You can read the study here.
Most beneficial for disengaged students – You can read the studies here and here.
Reduces anxiety and aggression – You can read the study here.
Increases health and wellbeing – You can read the studies here and here.
Improved self-esteem, learning orientation and minimize helplessness – You can see the study here.
As well as that, there is evidence from schools emerging that growth mindset is associated with grit and prosocial behaviours (you can read about this here and here). I think all teachers would agree that these are exactly the sort of behaviours and skills we would want to help our students develop.
The Bad
But does having a growth mindset improve student grades? It depends who you ask and what study you read. A recent study that looked at 433 students in China found that there was no association between growth mindset and grades (you can read this study here).
Although not strictly focused on grades, two other studies are worth mentioning. This study published in 2017 found no relationship between how 5653 university students did in a university scholastic aptitute test (or how they did in a re-test of it later). Likewise, this study of 200 university students found no link between someones mindset and their level of education. Aptitude tests and level of education are clearly not the same as grades, though there is probably enough of overlap to merit these two studies being included in this section.
The findings from these three research papers contrast to a large scale study conducted by Carol Dweck (of over 160,000 students) which found that growth mindset predicts grades across every socio-economic level. Another study of 121,835 students found that students with lower grades reported a lot more of a fixed mindset. These studies are fascinating and very crucial as they use a very large sample size (adding weight to their findings). A different study on 1,500 students found that combining a growth mindset and a sense of purpose intervention improved the probability of students completing Maths, English and science courses.
This study on 312 female students in England found a positive association between Mindset and academic Achievement, through a relationship of increase conscientiousness and academic effort, as did this study of 1005 students which found that growth mindset improved a sense of belonging which improved grades. Finally, this study of 115 students found that students with a growth mindset went on to achieve higher grades, as did this one of 373 students which tracked pupils for over 2 years, as did this study of 385 students (although the researchers did only follow their progress for 5 weeks).
Confused yet? You soon will be. The Sutton depend on commissioned a study that found that students who received a growth mindset intervention made, on average, two months additional progress in English and Maths, though these results weren’t statistically significant.
They have a new one currently in the pipeline, though having seen some of the materials being used in it, I would strongly doubt that it would cause great improvements in grades. To give an example of this, the students will enjoy a series of videos about historical figures who were said to have a growth mindset. translating this into grades will be difficult, especially as it doesn’t sound particularly subtle and stealthy as recommended here.
So Camiseta Selección de fútbol de Camerún to conclude, does having a growth mindset help students improve their grades? Yes. Maybe. Probably. Possibly. No. The truth is, we don’t know for sure. This certainly is an age of ‘alternative facts’. given the amount of different studies and the large number of sample sizes that do show a link between mindset and grades, we would predict that having a growth mindset probably will cause better grades. but it is no guarantee. einull