Brief online growth-mindset interventions produce modest academic gains concentrated among students at risk of underperformance¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · review r2 · q3
Currency · newest study 2019 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q3 i? Online growth-mindset interventions raised lower-achieving students' GPA by around .10 grade points and improved on-track rates by 4 to 8 percentage points, with effects typically appearing for higher-risk students. → Dweck 2019

Evidence¶

Dweck 2019¶

Dweck, C. S., & Yeager, D. S. (2019). Mindsets: A View From Two Eras. Perspectives on Psychological Science. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691618804166

q3 · i? · review · r2

Synthesis of randomized trials with tens of thousands of students, including two preregistered replications (Paunesku et al., 2015; Yeager, Romero et al., 2016; Yeager, Hanselman et al., 2018); effects "of around .10 grade points" on GPA and 4 to 8 percentage points on on-track rates, typically for students with lower prior grades in medium-to-low-achieving schools. No standardized effect size is printed, so no magnitude is coded.

"A typical online growth-mindset program has effects on lower achieving students' GPA of around .10 grade points (with double that in certain school contexts), and/or improvements of 4 to 8 percentage points in lower achieving students' rates of being on track for high school or college graduation"

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• 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 — possibly the same claim (merge candidate)
• The growth mindset intervention was estimated to prevent about 5.3% of US lower-achieving ninth-graders per year from being off track for graduation — related
• A short online growth mindset intervention improved ninth-grade core-course GPAs among lower-achieving students in a nationally representative US sample — possibly the same claim (merge candidate)
• Growth mindset interventions improve math outcomes, particularly for disadvantaged and high-risk students, but effects depend on a supportive teacher-mindset context — related
• The growth mindset intervention increased tenth-grade advanced mathematics course enrolment overall, with larger gains in the highest-achieving schools — related
• GPA treatment effects among lower-achieving students were larger in schools whose peer norms supported challenge-seeking — related
• GPA treatment effects among lower-achieving students were smaller in higher-achieving schools (moderation by school achievement level) — related
• Ninth-grade on-track status predicts graduation more strongly than prior achievement, with a 55 percentage point gap after controls — related
• Cross-school variability in the GPA treatment effect was significant while variability in the mindset treatment effect was not — related
• Growth-mindset intervention gains varied by school context, being greatest where peer norms favored seeking challenge and in lower-achieving schools — related
• The intervention's effect on math/science course interest and grades was tested as a main effect and as moderated by math/science identity — a narrower finding that bears on this claim