We employed a mixed methods research design using survey data to examine gifted students' perceptions of implicit theories of intelligence, giftedness, need for cognition, and goal orientations. Eighty-one gifted middle-school students completed the Mindset Assessment Profile (MAP) plus open-ended questions concerning giftedness, expectations,…

The present study examined the relationships of Taiwanese eighth graders' perceived autonomy support from teachers, parental psychological control, implicit theories of intelligence, and achievement goal orientations to their agentic, behavioral, emotional, and cognitive engagement in schoolwork. Also, the current research explored the determining…

This study evaluated how gender is related to children's intelligence beliefs, goal orientations and academic achievement and whether there are gender differences in how intelligence beliefs and goal orientations are related to academic achievement. The participants, 362 seventh grade students (55.8% girls; M[subscript age] = 13.20,…

This study investigated changes in students' achievement goals as a result of their participation in academic summer programs for advanced learners. Researchers examined whether the type of classes, assigning grades, student gender, classroom autonomy support, and instructor's implicit theories of intelligence (mindset) moderated student change…

We present a youth development intervention program and its evaluation. Deriving from the theories of agentic self and positive youth development, we adopted a holistic perspective that focused on social agency with growth mindset and self-efficacy conceptualized as its motivators. The intervention consisted of 14 weekly sessions with 508 sixth…

Students' beliefs that success in science depends on exceptional talent negatively impact their motivation to learn. For example, such beliefs have been shown to be a major factor steering students away from taking science and math courses in high school and college. In the present study, we tested a novel story-based instruction that models how…

The belief that a trait can be cultivated with effort, known as an "incremental theory or growth mindset," promotes behavior that leads to higher levels of achievement, such as the enthusiastic embrace of challenges and resilience to obstacles. Roughly 40% of the general student population in the United States, however, conceptualizes…