Can growth mindset interventions improve academic achievement?

Encouraging the idea of a growth mindset in which students believe that they can improve their ability, as opposed to a fixed mindset, has been suggested as an effective and relatively cheap approach to improving student attainment at school. This paper offers a comprehensive review of the evidence from growth mindset interventions. After a rigorous search, screening, and evaluation, the inclusion criteria led to 24 studies. All were randomised control trials (RCTs) focused on growth mindset of intelligence interventions for school-age children, and included output measures for academic performance assessment. Their findings reveal that the strongest studies, characterised by larger sample sizes, minimal missing data, and high data quality, exhibit null or very small effect sizes, ranging from Cohen's d = -0.008 to +0.054. Additionally, certain findings raise concerns about a potential conflict-of-interest bias, suggesting that some negative or null results may remain unpublished. The review identifies three evaluations with a high degree of trustworthiness and with no conflict of interest. Among these, two studies indicate no discernible impact, while one shows a small impact. Given these findings, it is not advisable for schools, school districts, or governments to allocate significant time or resources to the implementation of growth mindset interventions, as the anticipated outcomes are likely to be either null or very modest. However, if there is an opportunity to implement such interventions at a minimal or negligible cost, or as part of another objective, it might be reasonable to proceed with them, considering the potential for a small positive impact.

倡导一种成长型心态理念，即学生相信他们能够提升自己的能力，而非固定型心态，已被提议为一种有效且相对低成本的提高学校学生学业成绩的方法。本文对成长型心态干预的证据进行了全面综述。经过严格的搜索、筛选和评估，纳入标准导致了24项研究的入选。所有研究均为随机对照试验（RCTs），聚焦于针对学龄儿童的智力成长型心态干预，并包括学术表现评估的输出指标。研究发现，样本量较大、缺失数据最少、数据质量较高的研究表现出无显著或极小的效应量，范围从Cohen's d = -0.008至+0.054。此外，某些发现引发了关于潜在的利益冲突偏差的担忧，表明一些负面或无显著结果可能尚未公开发表。综述确定了三个可信度极高的评价，且不存在利益冲突。其中，两项研究显示无显著影响，而一项研究显示出轻微的影响。鉴于这些发现，学校、学区或政府不应将大量时间或资源分配给成长型心态干预的实施，因为预期的结果可能要么无显著效果，要么效果极为微弱。然而，如果有机会以最低或可忽略的成本实施此类干预，或作为其他目标的组成部分，考虑到潜在的微小积极影响，进行此类干预可能是合理的。