Using Design Thinking to Improve Psychological Interventions: The Case of the Growth Mindset During the Transition to High School

By D. Yeager, Carissa Romero, Dave Paunesku, Chris S. Hulleman, Barbara Schneider, Cintia P. Hinojosa, Hae Yeon Lee, Joseph M O'Brien, K. Flint, Alice Roberts and 4 more. Journal of Educational Psychology, 2016

656 citations recorded by the source corpus.

There are many promising psychological interventions on the horizon, but there is no clear methodology for preparing them to be scaled up. Drawing on design thinking, the present research formalizes a methodology for redesigning and tailoring initial interventions. We test the methodology using the case of fixed versus growth mindsets during the transition to high school. Qualitative inquiry and rapid, iterative, randomized “A/B” experiments were conducted with ~3,000 participants to inform intervention revisions for this population. Next, two experimental evaluations showed that the revised growth mindset intervention was an improvement over previous versions in terms of short-term proxy outcomes (Study 1, N=7,501), and it improved 9th grade core-course GPA and reduced D/F GPAs for lower achieving students when delivered via the Internet under routine conditions with ~95% of students at 10 schools (Study 2, N=3,676). Although the intervention could still be improved even further, the current research provides a model for how to improve and scale interventions that begin to address pressing educational problems. It also provides insight into how to teach a growth mindset more effectively.

Subfields: Applied Psychology, Experimental and Cognitive Psychology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/7aa4875024f0d78b5eabf3d2bab005cf75daea0c

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Citations in the corpus

Emotion Regulation in Achievement Situations: An Integrated Model (2019, background): “…Tibbetts, Canning & Hyde, 2014, for a review of interventions focused on increasing the value of learning) or discuss how the brain is changeable and gets stronger through exerting effort, facing challenging tasks, and trying new strategies (reappraisal: increase control; Yeager et al., 2016).”
What Can Be Learned from Growth Mindset Controversies? (2020, methodology): “A uthor M anuscript A uthor M anuscript A uthor M anuscript A uthor M anuscript target population, b) A/B tests to compare alternatives head to head, and c) pilot studies in pre-registered replication experiments (see Yeager et al., 2016).”
Mindsets: A View From Two Eras (2019, background): “…it was parents’ beliefs about failure and their reactions to children’s failures that consistently predicted their children’s mindsets (Haimovitz & Dweck, 2016; for a discussion of how overt cues such as adults’ praise or reactions to failure might be more visible to children than the adults’…”
How airline service quality determines the quantity of repurchase intention - Mediate and moderate effects of brand quality and perceived value (2019, background): “by individuals about their perceptions of Chinese airline service raises the possibility of same-source bias and imperfect measurement (Yeager et al., 2016), which suggests that the design of additional measures and pretest/posttest designs are needed (Muis et al.”
Intellectual humility predicts mastery behaviors when learning (2020, background): “Mastery behaviors, such as persisting after setbacks, exerting effort, and embracing challenges, lead to effective problem solving, learning from difficult material, and higher grades in school (Blackwell, Trzesniewski, & Dweck, 2007; Diener & Dweck, 1978, 1980; Mueller & Dweck, 1998; Yeager et al.,”
Interest Matters: The Importance of Promoting Interest in Education (2016, background): “Getting down into the weeds of creating instructional opportunities that promote and sustain students’ interest or facilitate utility-value connections is time-consuming and requires careful attention to intervention implementation details (Yeager et al., 2016).”
Feedback‐Seeking Behavior in Language Learning: Basic Components and Motivational Antecedents (2019, methodology): “…Aronson, & Inzlicht, 2003; Thompson & Musket, 2005), classroom motivation (e.g., Blackwell, Trzesniewski, & Dweck, 2007), and achievement (e.g., Thompson & Mus-ket, 2005; Yeager et al., 2016), a fixed mindset results in social comparison goals and poor performance (e.g., Thompson & Musket, 2005).”
Mindsets as sources of L2 speaking anxiety and self-confidence: the case of international teaching assistants in the U.S. (2021, background): “…has been found to be associated with higher achievement in math and classroom motivation (Blackwell, Trzesniewski, and Dweck 2007), achievement (Yeager et al. 2016), higher GPA in core academic courses (Paunesku et al. 2015), and higher math and reading scores (Good, Aronson, and Inzlicht…”
Expanding minds: Growth mindsets of self-regulation and the influences on effort and perseverance (2018, methodology): “For example, previous research has manipulated mindsets in a wide variety of domains across physical, intellectual, managerial, and personality dimensions (Aronson, Fried, & Good, 2002; Martocchio, 1994; Yeager et al., 2016; Jourden, Bandura, & Banfield, 1991; Mukhopadhyay & Johar, 2005; Burnette, P”
The role of growth mindset, self-efficacy and intrinsic value in self-regulated learning and English language learning achievements (2020, background): “Experimental studies suggest that motivational beliefs are dynamic and can be changed through students’ engagement in different contexts, and are also influenced by interactions with teachers, peers, and parents (Dweck, 2006; Yeager et al., 2016).”