Growth Mind-Set Classroom Climates and Student Outcomes: Evidence From Three Samples of American High Schools

• In Event: Beyond Student Mind-Sets: How Exposure to Growth Mind-Set Teachers and Classrooms Impacts Students

Abstract

Objective
Each year, large portions of 9th-graders fail their first high school math class (Crosnoe & Muller, 2014), barring them from participation in future Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) courses and careers (Sadler & Tai, 2007). Given the increasing necessity of STEM training in our modern workforce (Autor, 2014), we examined whether a STEM classroom’s learning mindset climate can influence student outcomes in these impactful courses.


Theoretical Framework
One psychological factor that matters for students’ STEM achievement is their mindsets or personal “theories” about the nature of ability. Indeed, students who believe they have the potential to improve their abilities (growth mindsets) perform better than those who do not (see Yeager & Dweck, 2012).

Most of the existing research in this area has focused on the effects of students’ own mindsets on their academic outcomes. Yet these self-theories are situated in particular classroom cultural contexts. Thus, we explored whether a shared belief within a classroom that it is a place where all students can grow their abilities—a growth mindset classroom climate—can predict better student outcomes—specifically more trust in their teachers, and through this, increased learning and performance.


Data/Methods
We tested three samples of 9th-grade math students: a diverse national sample from 11 schools (Study 1 N=3,814), a sample from 5 urban public high schools (Study 2 N=1,346), and a nationally representative sample from 65 schools (Study 3 N=14,741). In all studies, students reported their perceptions of their teacher’s mindsets (e.g., “My math teacher believes that everybody in my class can be very good at math”), which were aggregated at the classroom level to provide an index of the general climate of each classroom. Students and teachers also reported their personal mindsets (e.g., “You have a certain amount of intelligence and you really can’t do much to change it”), and we collected 8th- and 9th-grade GPAs and demographics from school records. Finally, in Studies 2-3, students also reported how much they trusted their teacher (e.g., “I trust my math teacher”).


Results
The three studies collectively supported our hypotheses: 9th-grade students in stronger growth mindset climate classrooms earned higher GPAs, Study 1: B=.69, SE=.15, t=4.58, p<.001; Study 2: B=.30, SE=.10, t=2.91, p=.004; Study 3: B=.07, SE=.01, z=6.16, p<.001. Students also experienced greater teacher trust in stronger growth mindset classrooms, Study 2: B=.48, SE=.01, p<.001; Study 3: B=.40, SE=.01, z=36.14, p<.001, which significantly mediated the relationship between classroom climate and student GPA (using 5000 bootstrap samples; Study 2: B=.11, 95% CI [.01, .22], p=.030; Study 3: B=.04, 95% CI [.03, .05], p<.001; see Figure 1). All results held when controlling for 8th-grade GPA, students’ and teachers’ personal mindsets, and demographics.


Significance
These findings highlight that in addition to students’ self-theories of ability, theories of the self-in-context also have unique implications for their academic outcomes. Using an unprecedented nationally representative sample, we highlight a potential mechanism for encouraging participation of diverse students in STEM courses and careers: by creating environments where all students trust that they can grow.

Authors

• Kyla Haimovitz, University of Pennsylvania

• Laura Brady, University of Washington

• Nedim Yel, Indiana University - Bloomington

• Jenny Buontempo

• David Yeager, The University of Texas at Austin

• Andrei Cimpian

• Mary C. Murphy, Indiana University

• Stephanie Fryberg, University of Washington