Effects of a Teacher-Targeted Growth Mindset Intervention on Teachers’ Professional Beliefs, Emotions, and Behavior

• In Event: Exploring the Situated Nature of Teachers’ Ability-Related Beliefs, Classroom Practices, and Well-Being

Abstract

Aims/Background
Growth versus fixed mindsets refers to subjective beliefs about the extent to which individual characteristics such as cognitive abilities are stable (fixed) or malleable (growth mindsets; Dweck & Yeager, 2019). Prior research suggests that teachers' mindsets are related to their instructional practices (e.g., Rissanen et al., 2019) and that low-performing students benefit from teachers with growth mindsets (e.g., Heyder et al., 2020). However, experimental work supporting the direction of these findings is scarce. Also, whether teachers’ growth mindsets matter for other teacher behaviors, such as student counseling, is unclear.
This study examines whether a brief intervention promoting growth mindsets in preservice teachers (Heyder et al., 2023) affects their professional beliefs, emotions, and behaviors. We expected preservice teachers who participated in the growth mindset intervention to report a higher personal teaching self-efficacy, more positive and less negative emotions, a higher likelihood of using practices that support cognitive stimulation, autonomy, and mastery, and a lower likelihood of using performance-oriented practices than the control group. When asked to think about a low-achieving student, we further expected them to report higher expectations about this student’s development and to counsel the student in a more growth-mindset-oriented way.

Method
In a preregistered online experiment, we randomly assigned 306 preservice teachers (224 female; age M = 23.26 years) to the intervention group (n = 160) or control group (n = 146). Participants in the intervention group reflected on their personal mission as a teacher, and those in the control group reflected on the geographical region (Heyder et al., 2023). They then reported their mindset (Heyder et al., 2020). Next, they read a vignette describing a fictitious low-achieving student, reported their expectations regarding the student's future academic development, and wrote a school career counseling letter to this student. In addition, they reported their expected teaching efficacy (Midgley et al., 2000), anticipated use of mastery-oriented versus performance-oriented practices, endorsement of cognitive stimulation and autonomy (Retelsdorf et al., 2010), and emotions (adapted from Pekrun et al., 2011) related to various teaching tasks.

Results/Discussion
Supporting the effectiveness of the intervention, preservice teachers in the intervention group reported a stronger growth mindset than those in the control group. As hypothesized, they reported higher personal teaching efficacy expectations, a higher likelihood of using instructional practices that foster cognitive stimulation and autonomy, a lower likelihood of using performance practices and less boredom than the preservice teachers in the control group (all d ≥ 0.19, all p < .05). No significant effects were found on mastery-oriented practices and emotions. Regarding the low-achieving student, exploratory sentiment analyses revealed that the intervention group expected more positive student development (d = 0.12) and counseled with more positively connotated words (d = 0.26) than the control group. The results provide first experimentally supported insights into the practical relevance of teacher mindsets for key aspects of teachers' professional competence.

Authors

• Patricia Schwiering, Ruhr University Bochum

• Anke Heyder, Ruhr University Bochum