Teacher Mindsets Help Explain Where a Growth-Mindset Intervention Does and Doesn’t Work

TLDR

A growth‑mindset intervention teaches that intellectual abilities can be developed, and prior research using the National Study of Learning Mindsets examined school‑level moderators of such interventions during high school. The study asks where the intervention works best, specifically whether students can adopt growth mindsets independently or need teacher support. Using NSLM data from 9,167 students and 223 math teachers, the authors examined teacher mindset as a moderator to test the mindset‑plus‑supportive‑context hypothesis. The analysis confirmed that teacher growth mindsets are necessary for sustaining student growth‑mindset effects, a result robust to confounding factors and Bayesian analysis, indicating contextual support is essential.

Abstract

A growth-mindset intervention teaches the belief that intellectual abilities can be developed. Where does the intervention work best? Prior research examined school-level moderators using data from the National Study of Learning Mindsets (NSLM), which delivered a short growth-mindset intervention during the first year of high school. In the present research, we used data from the NSLM to examine moderation by teachers’ mindsets and answer a new question: Can students independently implement their growth mindsets in virtually any classroom culture, or must students’ growth mindsets be supported by their teacher’s own growth mindsets (i.e., the mindset-plus-supportive-context hypothesis)? The present analysis (9,167 student records matched with 223 math teachers) supported the latter hypothesis. This result stood up to potentially confounding teacher factors and to a conservative Bayesian analysis. Thus, sustaining growth-mindset effects may require contextual supports that allow the proffered beliefs to take root and flourish.