How Not to Do a Mindset Intervention: Learning from a Mindset Intervention among Students with Good Grades

Area of Science:

• Educational Psychology
• Social Psychology

Background:

• Growth Mindset theory posits that beliefs about the malleability of intelligence and personality influence academic outcomes.
• Previous interventions have shown promise in altering mindset, but long-term effects require further investigation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the effectiveness of a Growth Mindset intervention in the Hungarian educational context.
• To assess the impact of the intervention on students' mindset beliefs, motivation, and academic performance.

Main Methods:

• A cluster randomized controlled trial was conducted with 55 Hungarian 10th-grade students.
• A train-the-trainer approach was used to deliver the Growth Mindset intervention.
• Measurements included mindset beliefs, amotivation, intrinsic/extrinsic motivation, grit, and Grade Point Average (GPA).

Main Results:

• The intervention group showed more incremental mindset beliefs and decreased amotivation compared to the control group three weeks post-intervention.
• No significant changes in intrinsic or extrinsic motivation were observed.
• Students with low grit reported lower amotivation after the intervention.
• All positive changes in mindset and motivation were lost by the end of the semester, with no change in GPA.

Conclusions:

• Growth Mindset interventions can temporarily alter students' beliefs and reduce amotivation.
• The malleability of mindset beliefs is temporary, with a potential for reversion to pre-intervention states.
• Sustaining intervention effects likely requires additional contextual factors or different intervention designs.