Project Activities
The research team will conduct three pairs of studies that capitalize on different research designs. Within each pair, one study will explore the effects of naturally held theories of intelligence while the other study will involve random assignment to experimental conditions that convince students of a particular view of intelligence (incremental, entity, or a control). The first pair of studies will focus on whether students with stronger incremental views of intelligence use self-regulated learning strategies more often than those with stronger entity views, and consequently, show superior learning. The second pair of studies will focus on whether students with incremental views of intelligence continue to use self-regulated learning strategies when facing difficulty. The third pair of studies will focus on whether students with incremental views of intelligence will use self-regulated strategies in more effective ways than students with an entity view of intelligence.
Structured Abstract
Setting
Participating schools will be located in urban and suburban settings in Florida and California. Studies will take place in multi-purpose rooms at the schools or in the researchers' laboratories at Florida State University and University of California, Davis.
Sample
Participants include freshmen and sophomore high school students recruited in California and Florida, approximately 13-16 years old, 50 percent male and 50 percent female, and diverse with respect to ethnicity and SES. For each of the six studies within this project, between 140-250 students will be recruited depending on the research design of the experiment.
The outcome of this project will be a better understanding of whether believing one can improve one's intelligence leads students to more often adopt and use self-regulated strategies for learning, and consequently leads to improved student learning outcomes. The findings from this study can be used to inform the development of interventions.
Research design and methods
The research team will conduct three pairs of studies to explore the ways in which students prepare for tests of their learning using a mathematics tutorial developed within Plato Learning Environment, a web-based educational program. Each pair of studies examines a research question by measuring (the first study in the pair) or manipulating (the second study in the pair) students' beliefs about intelligence. For all studies that will measure students' intelligence beliefs, all students will complete the same tasks. For all studies that will manipulate students' intelligence beliefs, students will be randomly assigned (using a between-subjects design) to one of the three intelligence conditions (entity, incremental, or control) and will complete tasks meant to induce an intelligence belief prior to interacting with the mathematics tutorial. The first two pairs of studies will explore the relationship between students' measured or manipulated intelligence beliefs and the use of self-regulated learning strategies for tasks of varying difficulty. For the final two studies, students will be randomly assigned to study through spacing or massing (using a between-subjects design), and the researchers will investigate how measured or manipulated theories of intelligence influence the manner in which these strategies are used.
Control condition
For the studies that will measure intelligence beliefs, there is no control condition due to the nature of the studies. For the studies that will manipulate intelligence beliefs, students in the control condition will engage in tasks that will not convince them to believe in one view of intelligence over another.
Key measures
The studies will focus primarily on students' intelligence beliefs, their use of self-regulated learning strategies, and the consequences of those learning strategies for metacognitive accuracy and learning. To measure students' intelligence beliefs, students will complete the Theories of Intelligence scale. Students will also be asked to complete the 2x2 Achievement Goal Orientation scale, the Motivated Strategies for Learning scale and its Metacognitive Self-Regulation subscale, and the Effort Beliefs scale. To measure students' use of self-regulated learning strategies, the researchers will log information about students' actions while using the Plato Learning Environment. To measure students' learning outcomes and metacognitive accuracy, the researchers will administer researcher-designed pre-tests and post-tests.
Data analytic strategy
Data will be analyzed using a combination of Hierarchical Linear Modeling (HLM) and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) techniques. For studies measuring students' intelligence beliefs, the researchers will use SEM with latent variables to test the process model. For studies manipulating students' intelligence beliefs, the researchers will use a set of one-way analyses of variance to examine the effect of the experimental condition on participants' theories of intelligence.
People and institutions involved
IES program contact(s)
Project contributors
Products and publications
The products of this project will be preliminary evidence about whether students' views of intelligence can be altered and lead them to more often adopt and use self-regulated strategies for learning, and as a result, improve learning outcomes. Peer-reviewed publications will also be produced.
Publications:
Book chapter
Ehrlinger, J., and Shain, A. (2014). How Accuracy in Students' Self Perceptions Relates to Success in Learning. In V.A. Benassi, C.E. Overson, and C.M. Hakala (Eds.), Applying Science of Learning in Education: Infusing Psychological Science Into the Curriculum (pp. 142-151). Washington, DC: Society for the Teaching of Psychology, American Psychological Association.
Journal article, monograph, or newsletter
Ehrlinger, J., Mitchum, A.L., and Dweck., C.S. (2016). Understanding Overconfidence: Theories of Intelligence, Preferential Attention, and Distorted Self-Assessment. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 63: 94-100.
Hartwig, M. K., & Malain, E. D. (2022). Do students space their course study? Those who do earn higher grades. Learning and Instruction, 77, 101538.
Additional project information
Previous award details:
Questions about this project?
To answer additional questions about this project or provide feedback, please contact the program officer.
