This week, I wanted to share with you a study published by Ganimian in the American Education Research Association journal in July 2020.
Objectives of study: To establish what impact a particular ‘growth mindset’ intervention has on their perceptions of intelligence malleability. This was conducted in 202 schools with students aged 17 or 18 in Argentina, whereby students were randomly selected to be part of a control or ‘treatment’ group. The ‘treatment’ group received a single growth mindset intervention session (whereby they read a passage and completed activities related to this idea), and surveys conducted 2 months later were used to indicate any changes in the students’ beliefs.
Summary of findings:
No significant changes were found in student perceptions of the difficulty of challenging tasks, self-efficacy, effort, or post-18 plans.
There was some suggestion that there might even be a negative impact on the beliefs of female students, or students from disadvantaged backgrounds.
How does this impact me and my practice?: Some reflections questions arising from this that might be helpful to consider are:
How can I consistently refer to building a growth mindset in my lessons?
What strategies have I used to build a growth mindset in female students, or students from disadvantaged backgrounds? Which ones have been effective? Which ones do I need to refine?
If anyone would like to discuss this further with me - please comment below! I’d be delighted to open up these discussions and conversations.
Do you think that the selection of 17 to 18-year-olds is too old to conduct the study on? I think growth mindset needs to be something that is embedded from a young age and not taught as an "intervention" but integrated into lessons.
ReplyDeleteHi there. You may well be right re: age - but sometimes studies can highlight things that aren't effective as well as those that are (if that makes sense?) You are absolutely right that this study shows that 'intervention' based approaches don't appear to be helpful. Do let me know if you'd like to discuss this further!
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