IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/nature/v573y2019i7774d10.1038_s41586-019-1466-y.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A national experiment reveals where a growth mindset improves achievement

Author

Listed:
  • David S. Yeager

    (University of Texas at Austin)

  • Paul Hanselman

    (University of California, Irvine)

  • Gregory M. Walton

    (Stanford University)

  • Jared S. Murray

    (University of Texas at Austin)

  • Robert Crosnoe

    (University of Texas at Austin)

  • Chandra Muller

    (University of Texas at Austin)

  • Elizabeth Tipton

    (Northwestern University)

  • Barbara Schneider

    (Michigan State University)

  • Chris S. Hulleman

    (University of Virginia)

  • Cintia P. Hinojosa

    (University of Chicago)

  • David Paunesku

    (Project for Education Research that Scales)

  • Carissa Romero

    (Paradigm Strategy Inc.)

  • Kate Flint

    (ICF)

  • Alice Roberts

    (ICF)

  • Jill Trott

    (ICF)

  • Ronaldo Iachan

    (ICF)

  • Jenny Buontempo

    (University of Texas at Austin)

  • Sophia Man Yang

    (University of Texas at Austin)

  • Carlos M. Carvalho

    (University of Texas at Austin)

  • P. Richard Hahn

    (Arizona State University)

  • Maithreyi Gopalan

    (The Pennsylvania State University)

  • Pratik Mhatre

    (University of Texas at Austin)

  • Ronald Ferguson

    (Harvard University)

  • Angela L. Duckworth

    (University of Pennsylvania)

  • Carol S. Dweck

    (Stanford University)

Abstract

A global priority for the behavioural sciences is to develop cost-effective, scalable interventions that could improve the academic outcomes of adolescents at a population level, but no such interventions have so far been evaluated in a population-generalizable sample. Here we show that a short (less than one hour), online growth mindset intervention—which teaches that intellectual abilities can be developed—improved grades among lower-achieving students and increased overall enrolment to advanced mathematics courses in a nationally representative sample of students in secondary education in the United States. Notably, the study identified school contexts that sustained the effects of the growth mindset intervention: the intervention changed grades when peer norms aligned with the messages of the intervention. Confidence in the conclusions of this study comes from independent data collection and processing, pre-registration of analyses, and corroboration of results by a blinded Bayesian analysis.

Suggested Citation

  • David S. Yeager & Paul Hanselman & Gregory M. Walton & Jared S. Murray & Robert Crosnoe & Chandra Muller & Elizabeth Tipton & Barbara Schneider & Chris S. Hulleman & Cintia P. Hinojosa & David Paunesk, 2019. "A national experiment reveals where a growth mindset improves achievement," Nature, Nature, vol. 573(7774), pages 364-369, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:573:y:2019:i:7774:d:10.1038_s41586-019-1466-y
    DOI: 10.1038/s41586-019-1466-y
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-019-1466-y
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41586-019-1466-y?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:573:y:2019:i:7774:d:10.1038_s41586-019-1466-y. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.