Effect sizes linking growth mind-set to achievement are highly heterogeneous and often nonsignificant¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · quant-synthesis r3 · q3
Currency · newest study 2018 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

Reading the evidence codes

q is the design tier, i the impact, n the sample, and the kind with its r the rigour judged within that kind: what each code means.

This claim: no standardized effect is recorded in observations/ for it yet, so no benchmark reading is possible.

q3 i? 58% of effect sizes were not significantly different from zero, 6% were significantly negative, and I² = 96.29 indicated very large heterogeneity across studies. → Victoria F. Sisk 2018

Evidence¶

Victoria F. Sisk 2018¶

Victoria F. Sisk, Alexander P. Burgoyne, Jingze Sun, Jennifer L. Butler, and Brooke N. Macnamara. (2018). To What Extent and Under Which Circumstances Are Growth Mind-Sets Important to Academic Achievement? Two Meta-Analyses. Psychological Science. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797617739704

q3 · i? · quant-synthesis · r3

Forest-plot and heterogeneity analysis of the 273 Meta-Analysis 1 effect sizes: "157 of the 273 effect sizes (58%) are not significantly different from zero", 16 (6%) were significantly negative, and 100 (37%) significantly positive. The I² statistic was I² = 96.29 (τ² = .025).

"Figure 2 shows that 157 of the 273 effect sizes (58%) are not significantly different from zero. Another 16 effect sizes (6%) are significantly different from zero but negative, indicating that growth mind-sets were associated with worse academic achievement."

Discussion¶

Learner Variables¶

Motivation — predictor: learners who differ on it differ in outcomes
Mindset — predictor: learners who differ on it differ in outcomes

Growth-mindset interventions have weak average effects on achievement, including a negligible GPA gain (d = 0.11) for lower-achieving US ninth-graders in one preregistered national trial — the general claim this finding bears on, with the studies behind it
The meta-analytic correlation between growth mind-set and academic achievement is weak (r = .10) — related
Math mindsets and academic grit correlate substantially with primary math achievement — related
Academic risk status does not significantly moderate the mind-set–achievement correlation — related

Page metadata

Field	Value
`type`	`claim`
`id`	`mindset-achievement-heterogeneity-high`
`title`	`Effect sizes linking growth mind-set to achievement are highly heterogeneous and often nonsignificant`
`description`	`Effect sizes linking growth mind-set to achievement are highly heterogeneous and often nonsignificant`
`status`	`review`
`evidence_strength`	`moderate`
`newest_evidence`	`2018`
`generated`	by `process:wiki-ingest` on `2026-10-13`
`trust`	unverified — no one has confirmed this page's content
`sources`	1 — `victoria-f-sisk-2018`

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