Study of more than 5,000 Year 6 pupils found growth mindset lessons made no difference to maths or reading results
A major study of the use of growth mindset in schools in England has found that it made no difference to pupils’ English or maths results.
Growth mindset, a concept developed by Stanford professor Carol Dweck, is the idea that an individual’s learning can be improved if they believe that their intelligence can grow through hard work.
The theory has become popular in schools in England but is also controversial, with geneticist Robert Plomin claiming it is a “gimmick”.
Now, a study of 5,018 10- and 11-year-old pupils funded by the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) has found that pupils who were taught after their teachers had been on the Changing Mindsets project, delivered by the University of Portsmouth, made no additional progress to those in a control group.
"The independent evaluators found that pupils who received the intervention didn’t make any more progress than those who did not," said Sir Kevan Collins, chief executive of the EEF.
…
The new evaluation, which was carried out by the National Institute of Economic and Social Research, found that pupils who had been part of the project did no better in the Sats tests in reading, spelling, punctuation and grammar (Spag) and maths at the end of Year 6 than those who were not part of the project.
The research comes after Professor Dweck admitted to Tes last week that she had not initially recognised the "complexity of the implementation" of growth mindset in classrooms.
