“A national experiment reveals where a growth mindset improves achievement” (2019), by David Scott Yeager et al. Psychology research paper. Original abstract below, unchanged. A free PDF is available.

A national experiment reveals where a growth mindset improves achievement

David Scott Yeager, Paul Hanselman, Gregory M. Walton et al. · August 7, 2019 · Psychology

Abstract

A global priority for the behavioural sciences is to develop cost-effective, scalable interventions that could improve the academic outcomes of adolescents at a population level, but no such interventions have so far been evaluated in a population-generalizable sample. Here we show that a short (less than one hour), online growth mindset intervention—which teaches that intellectual abilities can be developed—improved grades among lower-achieving students and increased overall enrolment to advanced mathematics courses in a nationally representative sample of students in secondary education in the United States. Notably, the study identified school contexts that sustained the effects of the growth mindset intervention: the intervention changed grades when peer norms aligned with the messages of the intervention. Confidence in the conclusions of this study comes from independent data collection and processing, pre-registration of analyses, and corroboration of results by a blinded Bayesian analysis. A US national experiment showed that a short, online, self-administered growth mindset intervention can increase adolescents’ grades and advanced course-taking, and identified the types of school that were poised to benefit the most.

Free PDF DOI: 10.1038/s41586-019-1466-y