A national experiment reveals where a growth mindset improves achievement

A global priority for the behavioural sciences is to develop cost-effective, scalable interventions that could improve the academic outcomes of adolescents at a population level, but no such interventions have so far been evaluated in a population-generalizable sample. Here we show that a short (les...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature (London) 2019-09, Vol.573 (7774), p.364-369
Main Authors: Yeager, David S, Hanselman, Paul, Walton, Gregory M, Murray, Jared S, Crosnoe, Robert, Muller, Chandra, Tipton, Elizabeth, Schneider, Barbara, Hulleman, Chris S, Hinojosa, Cintia P, Paunesku, David, Romero, Carissa, Flint, Kate, Roberts, Alice, Trott, Jill, Iachan, Ronaldo, Buontempo, Jenny, Yang, Sophia Man, Carvalho, Carlos M, Hahn, P Richard, Gopalan, Maithreyi, Mhatre, Pratik, Ferguson, Ronald, Duckworth, Angela L, Dweck, Carol S
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Academic achievement
Academic Success
Adolescent
Adolescents
Analysis
Bayesian analysis
Core curriculum
Data collection
Education
Education, Secondary
Educational research
Experiments
Humans
Intervention
Learning
Motivation
Norms
Psychological aspects
Psychological research
Psychosocial Support Systems
Research methodology
Response to intervention (Education)
Secondary education
Secondary schools
Social aspects
Students
Students - psychology
Studies
Teenagers
United Kingdom
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Summary:A global priority for the behavioural sciences is to develop cost-effective, scalable interventions that could improve the academic outcomes of adolescents at a population level, but no such interventions have so far been evaluated in a population-generalizable sample. Here we show that a short (less than one hour), online growth mindset intervention-which teaches that intellectual abilities can be developed-improved grades among lower-achieving students and increased overall enrolment to advanced mathematics courses in a nationally representative sample of students in secondary education in the United States. Notably, the study identified school contexts that sustained the effects of the growth mindset intervention: the intervention changed grades when peer norms aligned with the messages of the intervention. Confidence in the conclusions of this study comes from independent data collection and processing, pre-registration of analyses, and corroboration of results by a blinded Bayesian analysis.
ISSN:0028-0836
1476-4687
1476-4687
DOI:10.1038/s41586-019-1466-y