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<\/a><\/p>\nMost dramatically, a recent meta-analysis<\/a> including more than 300 studies makes it clear that colorful growth-mindset posters won’t cure all our problems. (BTW: this meta-analysis included data from almost 370,000 participants. Wow.)<\/p>\n Combined with general concerns about the replication crisis in psychology<\/a>, and some actual non-replications<\/a>, this analysis has put Mindset Theory under a cloud.<\/p>\n Of course, we should\u00a0always<\/em> doubt research findings. Science, after all, is a way of practicing effective skepticism.<\/p>\n At the same time, doubts don’t require wholesale rejection.<\/p>\n While it’s certainly true that “colorful growth-mindset posters won’t cure all our problems,” I don’t think anyone has seriously claimed that they would. (Well: maybe people who sell colorful growth-mindset posters.)<\/p>\n Instead, the theory makes this claim: we can help students think one way (growth mindset) more often than another way (fixed mindset). When they do…<\/p>\n …they have more helpful goals in school.<\/p>\n …they have a healthier perspective on the difficulties that regularly accompany learning.<\/p>\n …and, they respond more effectively to academic struggle.<\/p>\n This process doesn’t require a revolution. It asks for a general change in emphasis. For some students, this new emphasis increases motivation and learning.<\/p>\n While that big meta-analysis got lots of headlines, other useful studies have recently come out. For example:<\/p>\n This<\/a> meta-analysis found that a well-known mindset technique largely works. When students study how brains change as they learn (“neuroplasticity”), they develop growth mindsets. And, they learn more stuff.<\/p>\nMindset Doubts in Context<\/h2>\n
Research Continues<\/h2>\n