Growth mindset studies reveal conflicting evidence on the benefits of the idea that student intelligence can improve through challenges and hard work.
Lower-achieving students’ grades and enrollment in math courses improved after taking short online exercises that promoted growth mindset in a recent .
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Conversely, growth mindset interventions had little and even negative effects on Chinese students in . Textbooks and studying constantly are more effective, researchers concluded.
Some experts who believe growth mindset works don’t think schools are teaching the concept correctly.
“They are turning it into something it was never meant to be,” Queensland University of Technology Professor Linda Graham told . “It’s been McDonald-ised, which happens everywhere in education.”
Growth mindset interventions in education
At an elementary school in Long Beach USD in California, ELA and math test scores increased across all student subgroups after teachers introduced an SEL program with an emphasis on growth mindset, District 91心頭istration reported.
In Maryland, a YouTube star named C.J. Luckey who promotes growth mindset in his songs has embarked on an eight-school tour of Carroll County Public Schools ( 26,500 students) as part of C.A.P.S., a program that promotes perseverance in schools, reported .油
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At the first stop of the tour, students at Elmer Wolfe Elementary knew all of the words to C.J. Luckey’s songs, a teacher told Capital Gazette.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Education recently recognized Lincoln Elementary, a school that teaches growth mindset, for scoring among Minnesota’s highest performing schools, reported.
Overcoming all barriers
When adopting growth mindset interventions, educators should adjust the language used with students to change how they think of themselves, Adam Young, superintendent of the White Pine County School District in Nevada, told 91心頭.油
For example, make a chart of legal and illegal language. Student comments such as this is too hard fall in the latter category while statements such as I’m not sure how to do this yet, but I’m working on it, should be permitted, Young says.
If you believe in a growth mindset, you can’t say, Look at those parents, that kid’s going to struggle forever because of their home life,’ Young added.
You can’t talk about poverty or country of origin being a barrier. If you really believe in growth mindset, those are all obstacles that can be overcome.
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