Growth Mindsets Impact on Student Academic Achievement: A Meta-Analysis

• In Event: Excellence in Education Research: Early Career Scholars and Their Work

Abstract

Growth mindset interventions, which incorporate the view that intelligence is malleable, have been used in secondary and post-secondary institutions to support academic achievement. These interventions have been studied by various researchers but have produced differing results. Using a quantitative meta-analysis approach, I investigate the relationship between growth mindsets and academic achievement and whether effects differ at the post-secondary and secondary levels. I explore whether growth mindset interventions are more effective for post-secondary students than secondary students. Specifically, I focus on students’ age as a moderator variable to examine whether the age composition of the sample is related to the effects of growth mindset interventions on student academic achievement. Preliminary results indicate that, in general, growth mindset interventions produce positive academic achievement outcomes at both the secondary and post-secondary levels. There’s also some evidence that these interventions are not more effective for post-secondary students than for secondary students.

Author

• Janet Solis Rodriguez, University of Texas at Austin