Bundle GMT with explicit training on desirable difficulties, metacognitive miscalibration, and effective study strategies such as retrieval practice¶

Strategy · All strategies
Evidence · 5 claims (5 for) · 3 studies (2 review, 1 associational), q2 · 1 of 3 report an effect size · 4 claims rest on one study

Description¶

The authors propose that rather than abandoning GMT, "research should investigate whether GMT might be more impactful if accompanied by training in effective learning strategies, such as retrieval practice and spacing, along with training in creating a resilience to the negative feelings caused by more desirably difficult strategies." GMT would act as a stepping-stone toward tolerating the discomfort inherent in effective strategies, potentially boosting usage and impact of both GMT and retrieval practice.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Explicit instruction about desirable difficulties, metacognitive miscalibration, and effective study strategies accompanies the GMT regimen
• Training that builds resilience to the negative feelings caused by desirably difficult strategies

Constraints¶

• The authors note it "may not be an easy or straightforward task to scale up to classrooms and schools to bundle them; it may be a heavy lift logistically"
• The proposal is for future research to test, not an already-validated intervention

Target Learners¶

• students across US educational institutions where GMT is already adopted
• at-risk or disadvantaged students whom the review suggests may selectively benefit

Target Learning Goals¶

• willingness to adopt and persist with retrieval practice
• tolerance of the discomfort inherent in effective learning strategies

Affordances¶

• Kbcp Knowledge Belief Commitment Planning Framework

Claims¶

• GMT as a standalone intervention shows small average effects that approach zero when publication bias is controlled, per the review's account of Macnamara and Burgoyne's meta-analysis [+W]
• A large randomized controlled trial in England found no advantages for students who received GMT, as reported by the review [+W]
• Learners tend to feel restudying confers more learning than being tested even though the opposite is true, per the review [+W]
• Retrieval practice produces better retention than restudying, with meta-analytic reviews reporting people 2.5 times as likely to remember tested information and medium-to-large classroom effects [+W]
• Learners misjudge which learning strategies are effective [+W]

Related Strategies¶

• Sequence simpler desirable difficulties (retrieval, spacing, interleaving) during initial L2 vocabulary encoding, reserving generation for post-encoding consolidation

Examples¶

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Key Sources¶

• Anne M. Cleary, Daniel H. Robinson. (2026). Why Growth Mindset Training Alone may not Improve Academic Outcomes: A Call for Research on Bundling Growth Mindset and Retrieval Practice Interventions. Educational Psychology Review. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-026-10188-7