A Preliminary Study on the Impact of a Brief Online Growth Mindset Intervention on University Students

Abstract

This study utilized a brief online growth mindset intervention to promote students’ cognitive, academic and behavioural skill development. It explored the strategies developed by Dweck and colleagues to promote a growth mindset in university students. There were 120 university students who participated in this study and were randomly divided into two groups: one group primed with a growth mindset while the other primed with a fixed mindset. Participants who underwent the growth mindset intervention showed a significant increase in their growth mindset and a significant decrease in the fixed mindset, indicating that the positive impact of the growth mindset. Their mastery approach and academic resilience scores also improved significantly. Implications of this study were discussed and recommendations were suggested for applied education research and future studies.