Existing research shows that students endowed with “growth mindset”; a belief that one’s intelligence and cognitive abilities are malleable so can be increased through effort, rather than fixed traits; are more likely to be academically successful. Interventions attempting to inculcate beliefs, particularly in groups with low academic performance, have therefore been posited as a way to improve, or close ethnic or social gaps in, students’ performance. However, the mechanisms through which the claimed benefits are found are poorly understood. In this paper we evaluate the effects of a randomized light touch intervention given to first year university students in the UK on a validated growth mindset scale, their subjective beliefs about the production function for educational performance, and various measures of study habits measured two months later, compared with baseline pre-treatment measures and a control intervention. We document a positive treatment effect on student grades, and show this to be consistent with students acting on a change in their subjective production technology to make an hour of study effort more efficient through increasing their willingness to work on what they perceive they are doing worst in, and spacing out study of the same material.
Presented by:
Angus Holford, ISER (with Adeline Delavande, Emilia Del Bono, and Sonkurt Sen)
Date & time:
May 22, 2019 11:30 am - May 22, 2019 12:30 pm
Venue:
2N2.4.16 - ISER Large Seminar Room
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