The Effects of Two Mindset Interventions on Low-Income Students’ Academic and Psychological Outcomes

Abstract

This study examined two widely available light-touch, writing-based mindset interventions: one that targeted students’ purpose for learning and one that aimed to increase students’ growth mindset. In order to examine the potential mechanisms underlying previously reported effects of mindset interventions, we analyzed these interventions’ effects on low-income, ethnic minority adolescents’ academic outcomes, task persistence, task-relevant anxiety, critical motivation, and sense of belonging. Results indicated that the purpose for learning intervention had a small negative impact on students’ self-reported grades the following year, and null results for the other outcomes. The growth mindset intervention was administered one year following the purpose for learning intervention and we found no evidence of treatment impacts on any outcomes. Analyses of treatment impact moderation suggested that certain student characteristics, such as student gender and race could play a role, but most of these tests also presented null results. The primarily null results of both interventions suggest that further study is needed to determine the effectiveness of one-time, self-administered mindset interventions across a variety of contexts and student populations.     

The single European market and its implications for educational and vocational guidance services

The formation of the Single European Market is the culmination of a series of changes designed to form an economic community in Western Europe. It is designed to encourage the free movement of goods, persons, services and capital. The result is likely to be much higher levels of personal mobility, both educational and occupational. The main obstacles towards freedom of movement are non-recognition of qualifications and inadequate mastery of foreign languages. Various steps are being taken by the European Commission to overcome these obstacles and to promote mobility. These developments have major implications for educational and vocational guidance services. In particular, there is a need for extended information on educational and occupational opportunities across the European Community. There is also a need for improved support services for those who move across national boundaries. This is further likely to raise expectations for guidance services in countries where they are currently ill-developed. Initiatives to date in response to these challenges include European-level reports on the state of guidance services, action programmes designed to encourage innovation in guidance practice, and the establishment of a new European association for those involved in student guidance.University of Cambridge Careers Service     

The Japanese ‘lifetime employment system’ and its implications for careers guidance

The lifetime employment system in Japan offers employees a high degree of job security. The characteristics, foundations, extent and effects of the system are examined, as are some present strains upon it. The system's implications for education and for careers guidance in Japan are then explored. The structure of guidance services in schools, in employment offices, in universities and colleges, and for adults, are described, and are related both to the lifetime employment system and to other features of Japanese society.     

Comparison of Three Human Sexuality Teaching Methods Used in University Health Classes

Three teaching methods (lecture, independent study combined with small-group discussion, and audiovisual) were compared for knowledge gain and attitude change. The investigation involved 62 undergraduate university students enrolled in three personal health classes. A pretest, treatment application, and posttest format was employed. An adapted version of the Sex Knowledge and Attitude Questionnaire was used as the evaluation instrument in all testing sessions. The one-way analysis of covariance was applied to compare both knowledge and attitude results. Application of the Tukey test demonstrated that the lecture method of instruction was significantly more effective in producing sexuality-knowledge gain than was the audiovisual teaching approach. No further comparisons of knowledge gain and no comparison of attitude change yielded significant results.     

Cooperating in constructing knowledge: case studies from chemistry and citizenship

This paper looks at three case studies within the teaching and learning of chemistry. Each case considers the effectiveness of group learning activities in terms of the ways in which they enhance cooperative learning. Group tasks are generally undertaken in order to encourage learners to develop their understanding of particular issues, lthough one key disadvantage is that much of the process of the group work is lost as soon as the group disbands. The cases explored here aim to: (i) investigate the development of cooperative attitudes among students, looking for significant learning of scientific concepts, (ii) encourage the development of ethical attitudes, to motivate, and then (iii) empower the participants so that they can build upon the communal knowledge that is generated. In this way learners enhance their levels of partnership and cooperation with other members leading to a fuller and broader understanding of the collaboration required within the values of citizenship education. Using science to educate for citizenship is a growing concern across many countries of the world, in this case illustrated by work in Brazil and the UK.     

The Implications of School‐Leaver Unemployment for Careers Education in Schools

’In particular I would urge that the Irish school system of the future should give freedom—freedom to the individual school, freedom to the individual teacher, freedom as far as may be to the individual pupiV. (Padraig H. Pearse [1916] Irish patriot, poet and educationist.)