My thanks to Dr. Farrell for the support of this project and the faculty members listed below who had their students (n=99) participate. This is a Stanford University project fostering growth mindset (GM) in students and comes out of the work by Carol Dweck at Stanford. It is offered by researchers at Stanford who are extending Dweck’s research.
What Students Completed
Students completed a 30-minute online tutorial which took pre- and post- measures on GM and provided instruction and activities to improve it.
Faculty Participants
- Ann Fetterman (PaSSS Su ’18)
- LeighAnn Fry (PSU 008 Su ’18)
- Jorge Santiago-Blay (BiSc 002, 003 Fall ’18, BiSc 001, 004 SP ’19)
- Janet McNally (Mgmt 301 FA ’18)
- Suzanne Shaffer (LL ED 005 FA’18)
Outcomes from Summer/Fall 2018
Our Penn State York students showed statistically significant gains in GM pre-to post-tutorial. Research on GM confirms that simply building awareness of GM can make a significant difference in a student’s understanding about learning as a growth process… I am not good at math, yet… versus I’m just not good at math, period. These attitudes about learning can in turn impact motivation and overall academic performance.
If you’d like to read more about GM and access resources for your students, check out The Mindset Toolbox and Social Belonging (another key issue for students at commuter campuses – see additional 2015 campus data on our students’ social adjustment here ).
Please get in touch if you’d like more information on this project, or would like to participate in Spring ’19 or next academic year.
