Mind-Set Interventions Are a Scalable Treatment for Academic Underachievement

• 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
• ISSN: 0956-7976; 1467-9280
• DOI: 10.1177/0956797615571017

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.