Like millions of other teachers, I read it. (In fact, I wrote my own book about Mindset:\u00a0Learning Grows<\/em>.)<\/p>\n Across the country, Growth Mindset posters went up on classroom walls. Grading standards changed to include the words “not yet.”<\/p>\n Like any big target, Dweck’s work attracted detractors. Doubts reached their pinnacle in 2018, when Sisk and Burgoyne published two meta-analyses<\/a>. Their findings:<\/p>\n Growth mindset doesn’t really make much of difference for student learning.<\/p>\n Programs designed to enhance growth mindset have little meaningful effect.<\/p>\n Other large-scale studies, including this one from Argentina<\/a>, reported similarly doubts.<\/p>\n Mindset’s potential, contrary to Dweck’s subtitle, remained unfulfilled.<\/p>\n Since the Sisk & Burgoyne meta-analyses, it has become fashionable to say “Successful mindset interventions have one variable in common: Carol Dweck did them<\/em>.”<\/p>\n This critique is both untrue — lots of other researchers have found positive results — and unprofessional: it implies (without directly accusing) that Dweck either has been sloppy or has cooked her data.<\/p>\n And yet, anyone who reads Dweck’s research over the years would hesitate to throw such shade.<\/p>\n A freshly released heap o’ data, in fact, might restore some interest in Mindset.<\/p>\n Every three years, the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) tests 15-year-olds in science, math, and reading. They gather all sorts of data and publish those results.<\/p>\n In fact, recently released data from the 2018 sitting connects a Growth Mindset with higher academic achievement. (You can read a summary article here<\/a>, and see the full chapter here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n As Sarah Sparks summarizes the data:<\/p>\n After controlling for students\u2019 and schools\u2019 socioeconomic differences, students with a strong growth mindset scored significantly higher on all subjects\u201431.5 points in reading, 27 points in science, and 23 points in math\u2014compared with students who believed their intelligence was fixed.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Unsurprisingly, Sparks reports, teachers matter:<\/p>\n Students with supportive teachers\u2014for example, those who show interest in every student learning and a willingness to provide extra help and explanation until a student understands\u2014were 4 percentage points more likely to have a growth mindset than those without a supportive instructor.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n In other words: when we look past the shade and the snark, we find that growth mindsets might help learning, and that teachers can help foster them.<\/p>\n Our profession, alas, tends to extremes. We might embrace Mindset Theory as our school’s shining mission; we might reject it as fashionable pseudo-science.<\/p>\n I hope this time we can aim for a modest middle ground. A few points to keep in mind:<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/braindevs.net\/blog\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/AdobeStock_115592741_Credit.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nFresh Plot Twist?<\/h2>\n
Stop the Pendulum<\/h2>\n