Elementary School Teachers’ Growth Mindsets Predict Their Differential Treatment of High Versus Low Ability Students

Abstract

We examined the relation between teachers’ beliefs about the nature of intelligence (their growth mindsets) and their treatment of high versus low ability students. Two studies were conducted: one with undergraduates (N = 174) who imagined working with fictional students, and one with in-service elementary school teachers (N = 245). Across studies, participants with weaker growth mindsets reported being more likely to use performance-oriented practices and less likely to use mastery-oriented practices with students they perceived to be low (rather than high) in ability. Participants with stronger growth mindsets reported this kind of differential treatment to a significantly lesser extent.

Teachers’ Growth Mindsets and the Differential Treatment of High- and Low-Ability Students

“…where both the high-and low-ability students were described as struggling on a specific assignment; Miele, Perez, Butler, Browman, O'Dwyer, & McNeish, 2019). Furthermore, we found that teachers wrote significantly more when responding to the low-ability student scenario (M = 63.32, SD = 37.34) than when responding to the high-ability student scenario (M = 44.33, SD = 23.52), t(290) = -.10.42, p < .001, suggesting that they may have felt compelled to provide more instructional assistance to the low-ability student than to the high-ability student.…”