The Transformative Impact of a Mathematical Mindset Experience Taught at Scale

Abstract

A wide range of evidence points to the need for students to have a growth mindset as they approach their learning, but recent critiques of mindset have highlighted the need to change teaching approaches, to transfuse mindset ideas throughout teaching. This shifts the responsibility from students themselves to teachers and schools. This paper shares a mixed methods study conducted across the US, that measured the impact of a “mathematical mindset teaching approach” shown to be effective when taught by the authors, scaled to teachers in 10 US districts. The effectiveness of this novel mathematics approach was measured using pre and post assessments during a summer intervention followed by measures of GPA change when students returned to schools. Both measures showed that a mathematical mindset approach to teaching significantly improves students’ mathematical achievement, and changes students’ beliefs about themselves and their approach to learning. Accompanying analyses of teaching and of teacher interviews give insights into the ways students change, highlighting the need to bring about shifts in students’ mindsets through a changed approach to mathematics teaching and learning.