What Kind Of Schools Are Associated With Growth Mindset?

There are two interesting findings from the 2018 PISA “growth mindset” assessment:

1. Students in socio-economically advantaged schools are on average more likely to report a growth mindset

The OECD report offers two possible explanations to the result: 1) Such students may have already developed a growth mindset outside of schools, thanks to greater resources such as private tutoring or a personal environment less likely to curb their aspirations, and 2) more advantaged schools may have more educational resources and a teaching workforce to sustain the development of growth mindset among students.

2. Students in rural schools are, on average, less likely to report a growth mindset.

According to the report, this could stem from many different reasons such as a lack of funding, more difficult access to professional development for the teaching staff, and an aging staff that is less aware of more recent pedagogical developments.

Hence the questions are: do schools have sufficient teaching capacity? Are teachers given constant training and opportunities for professional development? Do schools have the proper resources to ensure that every student, regardless of their socio-economic background, enjoys the same opportunities of developing a growth mindset?

School environment plays a key role in shaping a student’s mindset. I hope further studies and experiments will provide models most conducive to a student’s social-emotional and academic development.