Andrew Badham 2024-11-06 08:13:33
Does having a growth mindset actually help you learn more? That was the exact question a paper published in May 2024 sought to answer.
If you’re unfamiliar with the growth mindset, it’s an idea popularised by psychologist Carol Dweck which describes whether people believe they can improve, become smarter, and overcome challenges through effort.
This study looked at over 200,000 students in grades 4 through 7 and monitored their progress over a year. The students had all completed a survey which included questions like:
- Item 1: My intelligence is something that I can’t change very much.
- Item 2: Challenging myself won’t make me any smarter.
- Item 3: There are some things I’m not capable of learning.
- Item 4: If I’m not naturally smart in a subject, I’ll never do well in it.
Based on their responses, the children were categorized as having fixed, mixed, or growth mindsets.
The researchers found that those with a growth mindset learned roughly 18% more than those with a fixed mindset and this was the case for both English and Mathematics.
Interestingly, there was one question on the survey, which seemed to predict this change the most:
- Item 4: If I’m not naturally smart in a subject, I’ll never do well in it.
So, if we can learn to cha nge our beliefs about our abilities to change, we might just be able to put some effort in and actually do it.