The undergraduate college years are a critical time when students are beginning to think seriously about their career interests, and it is critical that students have a positive outlook for their mathematical learning if they are going to pursue math-related STEM majors. The current research with 748 undergraduate math students found that the more…

Growth mindset has received more focus in schools in the past fifteen years as a possible way to improve various educational outcomes. There are important possible benefits if students believe in the malleability of intelligence and the potential to improve in ability and various human qualities. Students with growth mindsets set self-improvement…

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,…

Mathematics problems are shared rapidly across all social media platforms, and the relative anonymity granted to users can lead to unfiltered discourse. This study examined 1,046 comments from a mathematics problem posted twice to YouTube in February 2016 to determine the underlying narratives that indicate the commenters' mathematical mindsets…

The community college student population has been found to be less academically prepared than their four-year counterparts. This relatively at-risk group is argued to struggle with academic motivation in the college setting. Researchers studying student implicit theories of intelligence have found that students who struggle in academia may do so…

The belief that intelligence is malleable has important consequences for achievement and motivation (Blackwell et al. "Child Development," v78, p246-263. 2007; Dweck, 1999; Robins & Pals, "Self and Identity," v1, p313-336, 2002). However, believing that it is possible to improve intelligence does not necessarily mean…

Building on the notion that motivation energizes and directs resources in achievement situations, we argue that goal orientations affect perceptions of own intelligence and that the effect of goals on performance is partly mediated by self-estimates of intelligence. Studies 1 (n = 89) and 2 (n = 165) investigated the association of goal…

Background: Education is a key variable for reaching individually and socially desired outcomes. Specifically, school grades are important admission criteria for higher education and job positions. Nowadays, in countries committed to equal opportunities, girls obtain better school grades than boys, but the reasons why girls outperform boys are not…

Research on implicit theories of intelligence and academic emotions have proceeded in parallel with little cross-over of ideas. This study aims to examine the potential synergies that may exist between these two strands of research by examining whether implicit theories of intelligence can function as a predictor of academic emotions when situated…

The study examined the relationship between implicit theories, goal orientations, subjective and test estimates of intelligence, academic self-concept, and achievement in a selective student population (N=300). There was no direct impact of implicit theories of intelligence and goal orientations on achievement. However, subjective evaluations of…

While there is great deal of research that tracks self-regulatory academic beliefs and behaviors of students, relatively few efforts examine the specific self-beliefs of high achieving African American students. This study compared the intelligence-related beliefs, efficacy beliefs and academic goal orientations of 257 African American (N = 196)…

Examines the relationship among two aspects of college students' (N=306) self-concept, two views of intelligence they might hold, and tendencies to report adopting attitudes and behaviors. Results shed light on the role that agency and communion orientations appear to play in determining students' adjustment to academic challenges. (RJM)

In the study of students' achievement behavior, it has been argued that learning goals that emphasize self-improvement rather than outperforming others are more desirable. This study examined how students' learning goal orientations were related to their theories of intelligence (e.g., whether intelligence is inborn). The subjects were 400 Chinese…