Mind-Set Interventions Are a Scalable Treatment for Academic Underachievement

The efficacy of academic-mind-set interventions has been demonstrated by small-scale, proof-of-concept interventions, generally delivered in person in one school at a time. Whether this approach could be a practical way to raise school achievement on a large scale remains unknown. We therefore deliv...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Psychological science 2015-06, Vol.26 (6), p.784-793
Main Authors: Paunesku, David, Walton, Gregory M., Romero, Carissa, Smith, Eric N., Yeager, David S., Dweck, Carol S.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Academic achievement
Academic success
Achievement
Adolescent
Adolescent Development
Adolescents
Attitude
Education reform
Educational Measurement
Educational psychology
Female
Human development
Humans
Intervention
Male
Motivation
School dropouts
Schools
Self Concept
Students
Underachievement
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Summary:The efficacy of academic-mind-set interventions has been demonstrated by small-scale, proof-of-concept interventions, generally delivered in person in one school at a time. Whether this approach could be a practical way to raise school achievement on a large scale remains unknown. We therefore delivered brief growth-mind-set and sense-of-purpose interventions through online modules to 1,594 students in 13 geographically diverse high schools. Both interventions were intended to help students persist when they experienced academic difficulty; thus, both were predicted to be most beneficial for poorly performing students. This was the case. Among students at risk of dropping out of high school (one third of the sample), each intervention raised students' semester grade point averages in core academic courses and increased the rate at which students performed satisfactorily in core courses by 6.4 percentage points. We discuss implications for the pipeline from theory to practice and for education reform.
ISSN:0956-7976
1467-9280
DOI:10.1177/0956797615571017