The Mind, Behavior, and Development Unit (eMBeD) at the World Bank recently worked on a Growth Mindset intervention with us. They found that the intervention, delivered with classroom technology, had big impacts on student attitudes towards learning, and student math grades.
What is Growth Mindset theory?
Among the education and psychology literature that looks at the role of beliefs and school outcomes, Growth Mindset theory (GM) posits that by helping students shift their theory of learning to one where intelligence isn’t a fixed state – but rather, that it’s malleable, and something you can improve and grow over time – students can become self-motivated to improve both academic effort and outcomes. Teaching youth how to foster a GM doesn’t just offer a potential solution at low cost to student performance; it can also change how youth approach other domains later in life with crucial consequences for reducing poverty and increasing equity, including improving labor market outcomes.
How was the project set up?
Our project looked at eight high schools and twelve primary schools, totaling 578 high school students from eighth and ninth grades, and 558 primary students from third and fourth grade. The students were randomized at the school level into either a treatment group (which received the Growth Mindset program) or a control group (which received a placebo program, specifically age-appropriate National Geographic videos).
To establish a baseline, the months before our intervention, students were assessed using a series of measurements. High school measurements included:
An online math test developed by the WCG’s academic partner, Olico;
“PERC” behavioral tasks developed by the University of California, Davis team, which measure Persistence, Effort investment, Challenge-seeking, and Resilience; and
Self-reported scales of self-esteem, attitudes towards learning, and Growth Mindset.
The online math tests, along with school grades, were used to measure academic outcomes.
What were the results?
We found that the GM intervention positively impacted math grades among high school students through an improvement in attitudes towards learning (self-report scale) as the mediator: if the learner attended the three intervention days, their attitudes towards learning improved 13% and math scores improved by 4.36 points (out of 100) in their 2017 final math grade, which was further sustained and improved to a 6.76 point increase in their next math grade. This is equivalent to an 11% and 17% increase in grades, respectively, showing a persistent and increasing effect. Both treatment and control groups were fully comparable across age, grade, school, math, and PERC tests. However, we found no effect on test scores nor grades in primary school students.
Ultimately, the average high school student in the treatment achieved a math grade of 45.76 (out of 100) compared to the average control student who achieved a math grade of 39 – a very large result in the realm of low-cost educational improvements.
How could this be adapted for policy?
While the results were promising, we did come across numerous barriers that policy makers are likely to face in a development context, including disruptions due to social unrest, inconsistent student and fieldworker attendance, student drop-out, and inconsistencies in implementation and programming between schools. Nevertheless, the results of the intervention in South Africa, particularly when combined with similar eMBeD GM projects in Peru and Indonesia, are promising.
Growth Mindset may ultimately be an important element in any policy maker’s toolkit – as a low-cost, high-impact intervention, it not only promises sustainable and impactful results at the school level, but has potential implications for when students enter the labor market. When adapted to the circumstances of the region, there are many ways policy makers can achieve impressive outcomes integrating Growth Mindset into their policy plan for education and beyond.
Read the full article here.
We recently held a training session with our education department: a Growth Mindset intervention. This was held by the Cape Winelands Education Department, but relates to the broader Western Cape Government Growth Mindset initiative.