Mind-Set—A New Source of Advantage: Analysis of a Chilean National Data Set

• In Event: 35.081 - Roundtable Session 13
  In Roundtable Session: 35.081-23 - Teacher Attitudes and Instruction

Abstract

This is the first study to present a national dataset to study the relationship of Growth Mindset (Dweck, 1999) and Academic Achievement among students in a country. With census data of Chilean 10th graders we find that growth mindset is tightly linked to better performance: students adopting it enjoy between .2 to .4 standard deviations greater math and language scores than fixed mindset students, even after controlling for all available demographic variables (i.e. family income, school poverty, etc). We also find that low-income students are twice more likely to hold a fixed mindset than students from middle and high-income families. This finding warns us of a new source of disadvantage for low-income students that could be addressed at schools.

Authors

• Susana Claro, Stanford University

• David Paunesku, Stanford University