When Do Growth Mindset Interventions Work?

Abstract

Can teaching students about brain plasticity improve their grades? A recent large, national experiment (Yeager et al.) found that a brief growth mindset intervention improved lower-achieving adolescents' grades by 0.10 points. Debate about interpreting the study's findings illustrates the need to consider effect heterogeneity and contextual factors when evaluating effect sizes.

Keywords: cognitive potential; educational research; effect size interpretation; randomized controlled trials.