Project Activities
The researchers developed and disseminated a 20-minute online growth mindset module to community college students enrolled in math or success skills courses. They recruited students from 6 community college systems in 5 states (19 total campuses) and randomly assigned them within their study classrooms to receive either the growth mindset module or a control module that teaches students about the structures of the brain. Students were offered an opportunity to receive a module in one of four semesters (Fall or Spring of the 2015–2016 and 2016–2017 academic years), depending on their institution. The researchers used academic (course records) and demographic records from partner institutions to track students from their initial semester of study participation through ensuing academic years. Colleges provided 3 to 14 terms of data to use for assessing outcomes. The researchers used these institution-provided data, in combination with Qualtrics survey data they collected from participants directly, to evaluate whether assignment to the growth mindset intervention improves rates of full-time status and participation in a college-level (non-developmental) math course and gateway math course (math course that serves as a gateway to degrees).
Structured Abstract
Setting
This study took place across 19 community colleges (6 community college systems) in 5 states: Arizona, California, Indiana, Oregon, and Maryland.
Sample
The sample included 24,320 community college students enrolled in developmental or gateway courses at 2 colleges. The final sample contained 19,096 students from 6 colleges who were enrolled in math courses of varying levels (4 college systems) or success skills courses (2 college systems).
The intervention was a brief, 20-minute online module that sought to help students cultivate the belief that intelligence is something a person can develop through deliberate effort, good strategies, and help from others (i.e., a growth mindset). The exercise was framed as an opportunity to learn interesting and helpful information about the brain and as coming from students' professors. Using a combination of factual text about the brain, pictures, anecdotes, and summaries of scientific studies, the intervention emphasized how people's intelligence and level of skill can improve when they confront new challenges and practice different ways of thinking. The exercise also emphasized the importance of seeking out challenges to increase abilities, switching strategies when necessary, and seeking out advice from other students and instructors. At the end of each exercise, students were invited to share the knowledge they had gained with other (future) students in the form of a letter.
Research design and methods
The research team worked with liaisons at community college sites to identify instructors of math or success skills courses who were willing to participate in the study. Instructors who chose to participate invited their students to participate in the study for course credit either as part of an in-class assignment in a campus computer lab or as a homework assignment. Over a 2-year period (Fall 2015 to Spring 2016), students used a code provided by their instructors to access the study website. Students who provided adequate information for the researchers to identify the student's classroom and who consented were randomly assigned to receive the growth mindset intervention module or the control module. The online platform that delivered the intervention was also used to collect baseline measures (e.g., pre-assignment growth mindset) and to track fidelity of implementation. Over a 4-year period (Fall 2015 to summer 2019), the researchers obtained academic (records of students' courses taken and performance in each course) and demographic data from partner colleges. The researchers used official policy documents from colleges (course catalogs, academic requirements) available from college websites to construct consistent definitions of key outcomes pertaining to full-time status and math course-taking across colleges. In addition to these student data, the researchers also conducted a cost analysis of the intervention.
Control condition
The control exercise was of similar length and structure as the intervention exercise. It also involved pictures, anecdotes, and summaries of scientific studies about the brain, and checked students understanding with brief writing exercises and a letter to a future student. It provided interesting facts and stories about the brain without explicitly mentioning how it can grow or become stronger.
Key measures
The primary outcome measures were whether students earned full-time status for at least one term during a student's first academic year of study participation and whether they completed higher-level math courses that serve important roles in facilitating community college progress: a college-level math course (a course higher than developmental) and a gateway math course (a course with at least three pre-requisites that tends to serve as a gateway to an associate's degree across colleges). Because growth mindset is known to increase challenge-seeking (the challenges students are willing to attempt, even if they do not complete them), the researchers also measured attempt of each outcome separately from completion.
Data analytic strategy
As specified in Pre-Registration 1, the researchers used fixed effect of study classroom linear regression models to assess the main effect of assignment to the intervention on the designated academic outcomes. As specified in Pre-Registration 3, the research team used a random effects analysis to determine whether key characteristics of students' racial-ethnic groups on each campus in each academic year—their proportional representation and status quo attainment of each outcome absent intervention—moderated the effect of the intervention on the same outcomes.
Cost analysis strategy
As part of their cost study, the researchers were first able to reduce their own costs of implementing the program so that they are now able to offer the program free of charge to colleges, indefinitely into the future, (available at http://perts.net/orientation/cg).
People and institutions involved
IES program contact(s)
Project contributors
Products and publications
Project website:
Study registration:
Publications:
ERIC Citations: Find available citations in ERIC for this award here.
Available data:
As of December 2022, the researchers were working with the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) to make data available to the public by the end of 2023. Researchers may contact the PI for additional information in the interim.
Supplemental information
Co-Principal Investigators: Dweck, Carol; Dee, Thomas
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