Using design thinking to improve psychological interventions: The case of the growth mindset during the transition to high school.

Abstract

There are many promising psychological interventions on the horizon, but there is no clear methodology for preparing them to be scaled up. Drawing on design thinking, the present research formalizes a methodology for redesigning and tailoring initial interventions. We test the methodology using the case of fixed versus growth mindsets during the transition to high school. Qualitative inquiry and rapid, iterative, randomized “A/B” experiments were conducted with ~3,000 participants to inform intervention revisions for this population. Next, two experimental evaluations showed that the revised growth mindset intervention was an improvement over previous versions in terms of short-term proxy outcomes (Study 1, N=7,501), and it improved 9th grade core-course GPA and reduced D/F GPAs for lower achieving students when delivered via the Internet under routine conditions with ~95% of students at 10 schools (Study 2, N=3,676). Although the intervention could still be improved even further, the current research provides a model for how to improve and scale interventions that begin to address pressing educational problems. It also provides insight into how to teach a growth mindset more effectively.

Improving the perception of intelligence: a short intervention for Secondary School Students.

“…This research does not seek to demonstrate that this type of intervention improves academic performance, as this has already worked by other author (Blackwell et al, 2007;Paunesku et al, 2015;Yeager et al, 2016), but the objective of our research is to design an intervention that can be applied in the classroom to change the mindsets, thus producing an improvement of their motivation, or in other words, we want the students to think that we all have an intellectual potential and that It is up to us to work to develop it, instead of thinking that intelligence is innate and unchangeable. Our research hypothesis is that students' mindset after the intervention will be different between the group receiving the intervention (experimental) and the group that does not receive it (control), specifically we expect the experimental group to be characterized by a growth mindset.…”

“…In Secondary Education, it is frequent to meet students who think that they may not be smart enough to successfully overcome this educational stage (Paunesku et al, 2015;Yeager et al, 2016). Student motivation and engagement decreases when passing from primary to secondary (Davidson, Gest, & Welsh, 2010;Roeser & Eccles, 1998).…”

Mejorando la percepción sobre la inteligencia: una intervención breve para alumnos de Educación Secundaria

“…Con esta investigación no se busca demostrar que este tipo de intervenciones mejora el rendimiento académico, ya que esto ya lo han trabajado otros autores (Blackwell et al, 2007;Paunesku et al, 2015;Yeager et al, 2016), sino que el objetivo de nuestra investigación es diseñar una intervención que pueda ser aplicada en el aula y que cambie la percepción de la inteligencia de los alumnos produciéndose así una mejora de su motivación, o dicho de otra forma, buscamos que el alumnado piense que todos tenemos un potencial intelectual y que depende de nosotros mismos trabajar para desarrollarlo, en lugar de pensar que la inteligencia es algo innato e inmodificable. En concreto, nuestra hipótesis de investigación es que la percepción de inteligencia (mindset) tras la intervención será diferente entre el grupo que recibe la intervención (experimental) y el grupo que no la recibe (control), concretamente esperamos que el grupo experimental se caracterice por un mayor pensamiento de la inteligencia como una característica modificable.…”

“…En Educación Secundaria es frecuente encontrarse con alumnos que piensan que tal vez no sean lo suficientemente listos como para superar con éxito esta etapa educativa (Paunesku et al, 2015;Yeager et al, 2016). La motivación y la implicación de los alumnos disminuye al pasar de primaria a secundaria (Davidson, Gest y Welsh, 2010;Roeser y Eccles, 1998), y son varias las razones que pueden explicar este hecho: hay más alumnos en las clases, los estudiantes tienen muchos profesores distintos, por lo que la relación con ellos es más impersonal y, además, los contenidos de las clases son más difíciles (Goodenow, 1993).…”

Risky Play

“…Praise and encouragement for concrete effort and persistence can help children to learn and adopt effective strategies for learning. A range of studies document that growth mindset makes a positive difference in student and adult achievement, both short-term and long-term (Schroder et al, 2017a(Schroder et al, , 2017bYeager et al, 2016).…”