Do we need a growth mindset to be successful in higher education?

Abstract

A person with a growth mindset holds the belief that abilities can change, as opposed to being fixed and unchangable. Promoting a growth mindset in students has become a popular goal among educators over the past years. This paper reviews what characterizes a growth mindset, the claimed benefits of holding a growth mindset, a number of interventions designed to promote a growth mindset among students, the relationship between growth mindset and self-efficacy, and two recent meta-analysis of the effects of growth mindset on academic achievement. We find that a large number of studies have been performed, but that the meta-analyses find poor support for growth mindset interventions being effective for students in higher education, including for students dealing with e.g., stereotype threat. We discuss the difficulties of performing these types of studies, and some of the criticism that research on brief cognitive interventions generally has been subject to. We also account for an alternative explanation to the popularity of growth mindset interventions.