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1. Prevalence of a growth mindset among introductory astronomy students

   https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.20.010140  

   Prescott, Moire K_M; Madson, Laura; Way, Sandra M; Sanderson, Kelly N (May 2024, Physical Review Physics Education Research)

   While many previous studies have indicated that encouraging a growth mindset can improve student learning outcomes, this conclusion’s applicability to college-level astronomy classrooms remains poorly understood owing to the variation in students’ overall and domain-specific learning attitudes. To address this, we surveyed undergraduate students in an introductory astronomy class about their attitudes towards learning astronomy over the course of five semesters. Overall, students felt an affinity for astronomy, felt moderately competent, perceived astronomy to be intermediate in terms of difficulty, and agreed strongly with standard statements reflecting a “growth mindset,” i.e., the belief that intelligence is malleable rather than fixed from birth. Their responses were stable over the course of the semester and did not appear to depend strongly on student demographics. The unexpected start of the COVID-19 pandemic and the associated shift to all-virtual learning correlated with a drop in their affinity for astronomy, a small decrease in their perceived competence, and an increase in the perceived difficulty of the topic. Their overall learning mindset showed negligible change during this time, emphasizing the stability of their belief in a growth mindset as compared to other measured learning attitudes. However, more nuanced questions about their behaviors and interpretations in the classroom, about how they felt “in the moment,” and about what factors were most important for their success in the class revealed significantly lower alignment with a growth mindset. This suggests that while introductory astronomy students may believe that they have a growth mindset, this mindset is not necessarily reflected in their self-reported classroom behaviors or measured responses to actual learning challenges. Published by the American Physical Society2024 

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2. A national experiment reveals where a growth mindset improves achievement

   https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-019-1466-y  

   Yeager, David S.; Hanselman, Paul; Walton, Gregory M.; Murray, Jared S.; Crosnoe, Robert; Muller, Chandra; Tipton, Elizabeth; Schneider, Barbara; Hulleman, Chris S.; Hinojosa, Cintia P.; et al (September 2019, Nature)
3. What can be learned from growth mindset controversies?

   https://doi.org/10.1037/amp0000794  

   Yeager, David S.; Dweck, Carol S. (December 2020, American Psychologist)

   null (Ed.)
4. Enhancing Engineering Students’ Growth Mindset Through Design Thinking

   Tang, Hengtao; Qian, Yingxiao (March 2025, Proceedings of Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference)

   Cohen, RJ (Ed.)
5. A Growth Mindset Message Leads Parents to Choose More Challenging Learning Activities

   https://doi.org/10.3390/jintelligence11100193  

   Tian, Jing; Bennett-Pierre, Grace; Tavassolie, Nadia; Newcombe, Nora S.; Weinraub, Marsha; Hindman, Annemarie H.; Newton, Kristie J.; Gunderson, Elizabeth A. (October 2023, Journal of Intelligence)

   Prior research has shown that the home learning environment (HLE) is critical in the development of spatial skills and that various parental beliefs influence the HLE. However, a comprehensive analysis of the impact of different parental beliefs on the spatial HLE remains lacking, leaving unanswered questions about which specific parental beliefs are most influential and whether inducing a growth mindset can enhance the spatial HLE. To address these gaps, we conducted an online study with parents of 3- to 5-year-olds. We found that parents’ growth mindset about their children’s ability strongly predicted the spatial HLE after controlling for parents’ motivational beliefs about their children, beliefs about their own ability, children’s age, children’s gender, and family SES. Further, reading an article about growth mindset led parents to choose more challenging spatial learning activities for their children. These findings highlight the critical role of parents’ growth mindset in the spatial HLE. Crucially, these findings demonstrate that general growth mindset messages without specific suggestions for parental practices can influence parental behavior intentions. Further, these effects were also observed in the control domain of literacy, underscoring the broad relevance of the growth mindset in the HLE. 

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