Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

This study evaluates a low cost, scalable intervention to develop a growth mindset—the belief that intellectual abilities are not fixed but can be developed—in a large sample of high school students in Chile. The intervention, delivered as an RCT, reports for the first time the effects of a growth mindset intervention on high stakes standardized tests and comparisons by gender. We adapted a computerized tool with demonstrated effects on mindsets, persistence, and GPA in US and Norway (Yeager et al, 2017; Bettinger et al, 2018). We randomly assigned 6th through 11th grade students from a private school in Chile (8% of FRPL students), to receive the growth mindset intervention or a control session. The intervention had short-term positive impacts on girls’ mindset and their willingness to take on learning challenges measured by self-reported and behavioral measures. Girls also improve their results on math external standardized tests in the short term. These effects fade by the end of the year, suggesting that the initial improvement in math scores comes rather from a boost in females’ attitude during the test than actual learning.

References:

Bettinger, E., Ludvigsen, S., Rege, M., Solli, I. F., & Yeager, D. (2018). Increasing perseverance in math: Evidence from a field experiment in Norway. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 146, 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2017.11.032

Yeager, D. S., Hanselman, P., Paunesku, D., Hulleman, C., Dweck, C., Muller, C., … Duckworth, A. (Under Review). Where and For Whom Can a Brief, Scalable Mindset Intervention Improve Adolescents’ Educational Trajectories?.