What is it about?
The purpose of this study was to investigate whether a growth mindset intervention would improve adolescent special education students’ self-efficacy and motivation.
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Why is it important?
In educational contexts, success is often attributed to high capability and hard work, and failure is credited to low capability and lack of trying (Weiner, 1985). However, students with special needs frequently attributed their failure to internal causes (Bryan, 1986). Consequently, students with special needs may perceive that lack of success in school indicates an inability to succeed academically, or that it is proof that they did not exert enough effort to achieve. Though there is some research that examined the relationship between self-efficacy, motivation, and achievement following students receiving a growth-mindset intervention (Saunders, 2013), there is limited research on how growth-mindset interventions support adolescent special education students.
Perspectives
There has been a demand to close the achievement gap between special education students and their typical performing peers on standardized assessments. Self-efficacy and motivation are two predictors with a significant impact on academic achievement (Hanushek, 2010). Therefore, it is pertinent for researchers and educators to explore additional practices to help students with special education needs to thrive academically by learning about growth mindset concepts.
Dr Jody S Piro
Western Connecticut State University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: The effects of a growth mindset on self-efficacy and motivation, Cogent Education, July 2018, Taylor & Francis,
DOI: 10.1080/2331186x.2018.1492337.
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