Skip to main content

Promoting Growth Mindset to Foster Cognitive Engagement

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Student Engagement
  • 2920 Accesses

Abstract

During development, children form beliefs or mindsets about their intelligence and ability. Those who believe that ability or intelligence is something a person is born with and that it cannot be changed have an entity theory of intelligence or fixed mindset. Those who believe intelligence and ability are malleable and can change over time are said to have an incremental theory of intelligence or growth mindset. These mindsets impact how children perceive learning, how they face challenges, and how they deal with success and failure. Children with a growth mindset believe that they can change their intelligence or ability through hard work, practice, effort, and using the right strategies. In this chapter, we will focus on students’ beliefs about their intelligence, ability, and effort and how to intervene to promote a growth mindset in order to increase student engagement, particularly cognitive engagement.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 139.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 179.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 179.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Ames, C. (1992). Classrooms: Goals, structures, and student motivation. Journal of Educational Psychology, 84(3), 261–271.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Aronson, J., Cohen, G., McColskey, W., & Montrosse, B. (2009). Reducing stereotype threat in classrooms: A review of social-psychological intervention studies on improving the achievement of Black students. Washington, D.C.: National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance, Institute of Education Sciences, US Department of Education.

    Google Scholar 

  • Aronson, J., Fried, C., & Good, C. (2002). Reducing the effects of stereotype threat on African American college students by shaping theories of intelligence. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 38, 113–125.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Assor, A., Kaplan, H., & Roth, G. (2002). Choice is good, but relevance is excellent: Autonomy enhancing and suppressing teaching behaviors predicting students’ engagement in schoolwork. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 27, 261–278.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Blackwell, L. S., Trzesniewski, K., & Dweck. (2007). Implicit theories of intelligence predict achievement across an adolescent transition: A longitudinal study and an intervention. Child Development, 78, 246–263.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brooks, R., Brooks, S., Goldstein, S. (2012). The power of mindsets: Nurturing engagement, motivation, and resilience in students. In Christenson, S. L., Reschly Army L., & C. Wylie (Eds.), Handbook of research on student engagement (pp. 541–562). New York, NY: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Claro, S., Paunesku, D., & Dweck, C. S. (2016). Growth mindset tempers the effects of poverty on academic achievement. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 113, 8664–8668.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dweck, C. S. (1986). Motivational processes affecting learning. American Psychologist, 41(10), 1040–1048.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dweck, C. S. (2006). Mindset: The new psychology of success. New York, NY: Random House.

    Google Scholar 

  • Elliot, E. S., & Dweck, C. S. (1988). Goals: An approach to motivation and achievement. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54, 5–12.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Good, C., Aronson, J., & Inzlicht, M. (2003). Improving adolescents’ standardized test performance: An intervention to reduce the effects of stereotype threat. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 24(6), 645–662.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Greene, B. A., & Miller, R. B. (1996). Influences on achievement: Goals, perceived ability, and cognitive engagement. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 21, 181–192.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mueller, C. M., & Dweck, C. S. (1998). Praise for intelligence can undermine children’s motivation and performance. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 75(1), 33 52.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nicol, D. J., & Macfarlane-Dick, D. (2006). Formative assessment and self-regulated learning: A model and seven principles of good feedback practice. Studies in Higher Education, 31, 199–218.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Paunesku, D., Walton, G. M., Romero, C., Smith, E. N., Yeager, D. S., & Dweck, C. S. (2015). Mindset interventions are a scalable treatment for academic underachievement. Psychological Science, 26(6), 784–793.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schmidt, J. A., Shumow, L., & Kackar-Cam, H. Z. (2015). Teacher effects in outcomes of a growth mindset intervention in seventh grade science classes. Middle Grades Research Journal, 10(2), 17–32.

    Google Scholar 

  • Siegle, D., Rubenstein, L. D., Pollard, E., & Romey, E. (2010). Exploring the relationship of college freshmen honors students’ effort and ability attribution, interest, and implicit theory of intelligence with perceived ability. The Gifted Child Quarterly, 54(2), 92–101.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zeng, G., Hou, H., & Peng, K. (2016). Effect of growth mindset on school engagement and psychological well-being of Chinese primary and middle school students: The mediating role of resilience. Frontiers in Psychology, 7, 1873.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zimmerman, B. J. (2000). Attaining self-regulation: A social cognitive perspective. In M. Boekaerts, P. R. Pintrich, & M. Zeidner (Eds.), Handbook of self-regulation (pp. 13–39). Orlando, FL: Academic Press.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2020 Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Pohl, A.J., Nelson, J.A.G. (2020). Promoting Growth Mindset to Foster Cognitive Engagement. In: Reschly, A.L., Pohl, A.J., Christenson, S.L. (eds) Student Engagement. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-37285-9_16

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics