Are we all born with a stable, unchanging level of intelligence? Or can we grow smarter through study and hard work?
New research from South America suggests a student’s answer to that question can hugely impact how well they do in school — particularly if they come from poverty.
“Students’ mindsets may temper, or exacerbate, the effects of economic disadvantage,” a group of researchers led bySusana Claro of Stanford University writes in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. “This study is the first, to our knowledge, to show that a growth mindset — the belief that intelligence is not fixed, and can be developed — reliably predicts achievement among a national sample of students.”
The study featured 75 percent of all 10th graders enrolled in Chile’s public schools in 2012 — about 168,000 kids. Students filled out a survey in which they reported their level of agreement with such statements as “You can learn new things, but you can’t change a person’s intelligence.”
The researchers compared these views on the malleability of braininess to their scores on standardized reading and math tests, while also noting such variables as family income, their parents’ level of education, and whether they had books and a computer at home.
[For more of this story, written by Tom Jacobs, go to https://psmag.com/how-a-false-...4ca1b1c33#.vgfwmdejz]
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