Growth mindset: what the research actually says, and what to do in class
The belief that abilities like intelligence can grow with effort, good strategies and help, and the classroom lessons and habits meant to build that belief.
What the research says
- Strong
- Promising
- Mixed
- Thin
- Contradicted
Mixed. A large, carefully run national experiment found a short online growth mindset lesson raised grades for lower-achieving US secondary school students and increased enrollment in advanced math, mainly in schools whose peer culture supported it. But meta-analyses find weak effects overall: one found effects of mindset interventions on achievement weak on average, another found small benefits only for targeted students with faithful delivery, and the strictest found no significant effect in the highest-quality studies. Expect small effects, for some students, at best.
Rated Mixed. One school trial supports it. One rigorous study found no effect or the opposite. Two rigorous studies found it works only in some forms or for some students. One study couldn't tell either way. How we rate the evidence
Checked against each source in October 2026.
The studies behind this rating
A short online growth mindset lesson (under an hour) improved grades among lower-achieving students and increased enrollment in advanced math courses. Grades changed mainly in schools where peer norms supported the lesson's message. Analyses were pre-registered and the data collected independently.
Sample A nationally representative sample of US secondary school studentsWho School-age childrenRead it at the source (opens in a new tab)The link between students' mindsets and their achievement, and the effect of mindset interventions on achievement, were both weak overall. Some results suggested that students from low-income families or who are academically at risk might benefit from the interventions.
Sample 273 effects (365,915 students) on mindset and achievement; 43 effects (57,155 students) on mindset interventionsRead it at the source (opens in a new tab)For the students expected to benefit most, and when the intervention was delivered faithfully, growth mindset interventions had a small positive effect on achievement and a larger one on mental health. The authors stress how much effects vary: future interventions could plausibly have effects from slightly negative to moderate.
Sample 53 independent samples from randomized studies, 2002–2020Effect d = 0.14 on academic achievement for targeted groups with high-fidelity deliveryRead it at the source (opens in a new tab)Across all studies the effect of growth mindset interventions on achievement was small and disappeared after correcting for likely publication bias; in the highest-quality studies it was not significant. The authors found major flaws in study design and reporting, and larger effects from authors with a financial incentive.
Sample 63 studies, 97,672 studentsEffect d = 0.05 overall (not significant after correcting for publication bias); d = 0.02 in the six highest-quality studies (not significant)Read it at the source (opens in a new tab)Pupils who attended growth mindset workshops made about two months' more progress in English and math, but the difference wasn't statistically significant. Pupils whose teachers took a growth mindset course made no extra progress in math. Both control and intervention schools already used parts of the approach.
Sample Year 5 pupils in Portsmouth, Southampton and Hampshire, England, January to May 2013Who School-age childrenRead it at the source (opens in a new tab)
What it is
"Growth mindset" comes from research by the psychologist Carol Dweck and colleagues on how people think about ability. Students with more of a growth mindset believe intelligence and skills can be developed; students with more of a fixed mindset believe they're mostly set. The theory is that a growth mindset leads students to take on challenges, persist after mistakes and use better strategies, and so to achieve more.
In schools, "growth mindset" has come to mean several different things:
- Short interventions: a lesson or two, often online, teaching students that the brain can change with learning. These are what most of the research tests.
- Teacher language: praising effort and strategy rather than intelligence ("You tried a new way" rather than "You're so smart"), and phrases like "not yet".
- Posters and slogans: "Mistakes help me learn", "I can't do it yet".
- A whole-school culture: policies and routines that treat mistakes as part of learning, allow revision and avoid fixed labels.
The research mainly tests the first of these. That matters, because the most common things schools do (posters, slogans, a one-off assembly) are the least tested.
Why it works
The idea is appealing because it's cheap and seems to target something real: students who believe they're "not a math person" may stop trying, and stopping trying guarantees they don't improve. If a short lesson could change that belief, it could change behavior and results.
The strongest support comes from David Yeager and colleagues' national experiment, published in 2019. A short online lesson (under an hour) for a nationally representative sample of US secondary school students improved grades among lower-achieving students and increased enrollment in advanced math courses. Grades changed mainly in schools whose peer norms lined up with the message. The study's analyses were pre-registered and its data collected independently, which makes it unusually trustworthy.
The meta-analyses are much less encouraging. Victoria Sisk and colleagues' two meta-analyses (2018) found that both the link between mindset and achievement and the effect of mindset interventions on achievement were weak overall, with some sign that students from low-income families or who were academically at risk might benefit. In 2023, two teams reviewed the interventions again. Brooke Macnamara and Alexander Burgoyne found a small overall effect that disappeared after correcting for likely publication bias, and no significant effect in the six highest-quality studies; they also found larger effects reported by authors with a financial incentive. Jeni Burnette and colleagues found a small positive effect on achievement for the students expected to benefit most when the intervention was delivered faithfully, and stressed how much effects vary.
A trial in English primary schools for the Education Endowment Foundation, reported by Cinzia Rienzo and colleagues, found pupils who attended growth mindset workshops made about two months' more progress in English and math, but the difference wasn't statistically significant; a teacher training version made no difference in math.
How to start, by grade
Grades K–2
- Praise specific strategies and effort that worked ("You sounded it out and fixed it"), not ability ("You're so smart").
- Show your own mistakes and how you fix them, out loud.
- Use "yet" for things a child can't do now, and pair it with a next step: "You can't read that word yet. Let's look at the first sound."
- Make practice visible: a chart of words a child can now read that they couldn't in September.
Grades 3–5
- Teach, briefly, that the brain changes when we learn and practice, and connect it to a skill students have improved at.
- Give feedback that names the strategy and the next step, not just "good effort".
- Let students revise work after feedback, so improvement is part of how the class runs, not a slogan.
- Show progress over time with before-and-after work samples or graphs of practice scores.
- Avoid labels that sound fixed: group names, ability tables and "high" and "low" groups that never change.
Grades 6–8
- If your school uses a growth mindset lesson, use a tested one as designed rather than a homemade assembly.
- Talk about struggle as normal when learning something hard, and teach specific strategies to use when stuck.
- Allow retakes or revision on some assessments, with required practice in between.
- Watch the culture: if peers mock effort, the message won't stick; the national experiment found effects mainly where peer norms backed it.
Grades 9–12
- Encourage struggling students to take on harder courses, with support; the national experiment found more students enrolling in advanced math.
- Pair mindset messages with real changes: chances to revise, clear feedback and help available.
- Don't expect a single lesson to change grades for strong students; the grade effects in the national experiment were for lower achievers.
Examples
Strategy praise instead of ability praiseGrades K–12
Instead of "You're a natural at this," say "You checked each step against the example, and that's why it's right." Instead of "Great effort!" on a wrong answer, say "You stuck with it. Let's look at which step went wrong, and try that step another way." Effort praise without a next step can sound like a consolation prize.
My learning then and nowGrades 1–5
In September each student writes a short paragraph or solves three problems. In January they do the same task and staple the two side by side. They write one sentence about what they can do now that they couldn't before, and how they learned it. Improvement becomes something students can see.
Revise and resubmitGrades 4–12
After a quiz, students who score below a set mark complete targeted practice on what they missed and then take a second version. The second score replaces the first. The message that ability grows is built into the grading, not just said.
Normalizing struggle before a hard unitGrades 6–12
Before fractions or algebra, the teacher says: "Most people find this hard at first. Here's what it looked like when last year's students got stuck, and what they did." Then the teacher lists three concrete strategies to use when stuck.
Common mistakes
- Posters instead of practice.
- Slogans on a wall aren't what the research tested. If you want students to believe ability grows, show it: revision, progress charts and feedback with a next step.
- Praising effort that isn't working.
- "Great effort" on repeated failure teaches nothing. Praise effort that led somewhere, and help students change strategy when effort alone isn't enough.
- Expecting big results.
- Even the positive studies find small effects, mainly for lower-achieving students. Don't make growth mindset a school's main improvement plan.
- Blaming students' mindsets.
- Telling a struggling student to "have a growth mindset" puts the problem on them. Give the help and the second chances that make growth possible.
- Homemade one-off lessons.
- The positive national experiment used a carefully designed, tested lesson. A quickly made assembly may not have the same effect.
Time and cost
Time: short interventions take under an hour. Changing feedback and grading habits takes ongoing effort.
Money: low for a short lesson; commercial programs and training cost more.
The real cost: opportunity. Time and training spent on mindset is time not spent on practices with stronger effects on achievement, such as explicit instruction or retrieval practice.
Debates and open questions
Why do the meta-analyses disagree? Macnamara and Burgoyne weighed study quality heavily and corrected for publication bias; Burnette and colleagues focused on the students expected to benefit and on faithful delivery. Asked different questions, they gave different answers: little or no effect on average, a small effect for some students in good conditions. Both can be true.
Who funds and runs the studies? Macnamara and Burgoyne found that authors with a financial incentive reported larger effects. The 2019 national experiment answered this kind of concern with pre-registration and independent data collection, which is why we weight it as a strong trial.
Is the problem the theory or the interventions? Sisk and colleagues found the link between students' mindsets and their achievement was itself weak, which suggests mindset may matter less for achievement than once thought, not only that interventions are hard to get right.
Other outcomes. Burnette and colleagues found a larger effect on mental health than on achievement. If a school's goal is wellbeing rather than grades, that's a different question from the one most of this card is about.
Tools that do it
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- Growth mindset phrases poster: use it as a prompt for teacher and student language, paired with real chances to revise, not on its own.
- Rubric maker: clear criteria make "not yet" specific: students see exactly what to improve.
- Reward goal tracker: track practice and progress toward a goal, so improvement is visible.
- I can goal sheet: students set a goal and record evidence when they reach it.
- Math fact fluency: short practice with visible gains over weeks.
Questions teachers ask
- Is growth mindset debunked?
- Not exactly. The strictest meta-analysis found no significant effect in the highest-quality studies, but a large, well-designed national experiment found a small benefit for lower-achieving students in supportive schools. The fair summary is small effects for some students, not a broad boost for everyone.
- Who is most likely to benefit?
- Lower-achieving students in the 2019 national experiment, and possibly students from low-income families or who are academically at risk, according to Sisk and colleagues. The grade gains in the national experiment were for lower-achieving students.
- Should I stop praising effort?
- Praise effort that led to progress, and name the strategy. Praise for effort alone, especially on failure, isn't what the research supports. The goal is for students to connect what they did with what happened.
- Do growth mindset posters work?
- We know of no rigorous study showing posters change achievement, and the research tests structured lessons, not wall displays. Use the classroom habits that make growth visible instead.
- Is there a growth mindset lesson that's been tested?
- The 2019 national experiment used a short online lesson designed and tested by researchers. If your school wants a mindset lesson, choose one with that kind of evidence and use it as designed, rather than writing your own.
Related in the Library
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Written for teachers by Peabody Teach from the sources listed above, which we read on the publisher's or clearinghouse's own page. We summarize and link; we don't copy. No ads, no affiliate links. Something wrong or out of date? Tell us.