Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

This article presents an exercise designed to instill growth mindsets in business students and to demonstrate their effects on achievement motivation. The main points of the exercise are to introduce implicit theories of intelligence (i.e., fixed and growth mindsets), demonstrate that mindsets are malleable, apply growth mindset strategies, and develop a growth orientation to continuous learning. I adapted an experiential juggling exercise to demonstrate mindset concepts. Students are given a juggling lesson and are divided into two groups. One group gets instructions designed to induce a fixed mindset while the other group gets growth mindset instruction. Results across graduate and undergraduate business students reveal a material difference in students’ expectations about the likelihood of learning to juggle. This exercise serves as the basis for training on growth mindset strategies for learning difficult business school curricula and extending this learning mindset into organizational life.

Keywords

growth mindset fixed mindset resilience experiential exercise academic achievement

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Aronson

Fried

C. B.

Good

(2002). Reducing the effects of stereotype threat on African American college students by shaping theories of intelligence. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 38(2), 113–125. https://doi.org/10.1006/jesp.2001.1491

Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business. (2018). AACSB industry brief: Lifelong learning and talent management. https://www.aacsb.edu/insights/publications/reports/lifelong-learning-and-talent-management

Blackwell

L. S.

Trzesniewski

K. H.

Dweck

C. S.

(2007). Implicit theories of intelligence predict achievement across an adolescent transition: A longitudinal study and an intervention. Child Development, 78(1), 246–263. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2007.00995.x

Burnette

J. L.

Pollack

J. M.

Forsyth

R. B.

Hoyt

C. L.

Babij

A. D.

Thomas

F. N.

Coy

A. E.

(2020). A growth mindset intervention: Enhancing students’ entrepreneurial self-efficacy and career development. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 44(5), 878–908. https://doi.org/10.1177/1042258719864293

Chiu

C. Y.

Hong

Y. Y.

Dweck

C. S.

(1997). Lay dispositionism and implicit theories of personality. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 73(1), 19–30. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.73.1.19

Chopra-McGowan

(2019, September 24). How companies and governments can advance employee education. Harvard Business Review, 2–7.

Covarrubias

Laiduc

Valle

(2019). Growth messages increase help-seeking and performance for women in STEM. Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, 22(3), 434–451. https://doi.org/10.1177/1368430218802958

Cutumisu

Lou

N. M.

(2020). The moderating effect of mindset on the relationship between university students’ critical feedback-seeking and learning. Computers in Human Behavior, 112, 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2020.106445

Dweck

C. S.

(1999). Self-theories: Their role in motivation, personality, and development. Psychology Press.

10.

Dweck

C. S.

(2006). Mindset: The new psychology of success. Ballantine Books.

11.

Dweck

C. S.

(2012). Mindsets and human nature: Promoting change in the Middle East, the schoolyard, the racial divide, and willpower. American Psychologist, 67(8), 614–622. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0029783

12.

Dweck

C. S.

Leggett

E. L.

(1988). A social-cognitive approach to motivation and personality. Psychological Review, 95(2), 256–273. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.95.2.256

13.

Foster

M. K.

(2020). Embracing a growth mindset: An experiential exercise to explore beliefs about learning. Management Teaching Review, 7(2), 132–154. https://doi.org/10.1177/2379298120930352

14.

Hong

Chiu

Dweck

C. S.

Lin

D. M.

Wan

(1999). Implicit theories, attributions, and coping: A meaning system approach. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 77(3), 588–599. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.77.3.588

15.

Lam

K. K. L.

Zhou

(2020). A serial mediation model testing growth mindset, life satisfaction, and perceived distress as predictors of perseverance of effort. Personality and Individual Differences, 167, 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2020.110262

16.

Lewis

L. S.

Williams

C. A.

Dawson

S. D.

(2020). Growth mindset training and effective learning strategies in community college registered nursing students. Teaching and Learning in Nursing, 15(2), 123–127. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.teln.2020.01.006

17.

Paunesku

Walton

Romero

Smith

E. N.

Yeager

D. S.

Dweck

C. S.

(2015). Mindset interventions are a scalable treatment for academic underachievement. Psychological Science, 26(6), 784–793. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797615571017

18.

Robins

R. W.

Pals

J. L.

(2002). Implicit self-theories in the academic domain: Implications for goal orientation, attributions, affect, and self-esteem change. Self and Identity, 1(4), 313–336. https://doi.org/10.1080/15298860290106805

19.

Sarrasin

J. B.

Nenciovici

Brault Foisy

L. M.

Allaire-Duquette

Masson

(2018). Effects of teaching the concept of neuroplasticity to induce growth mindset on motivation, achievement and brain activity: A meta-analysis. Trends in Neuroscience and Education, 12, 22–31. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tine.2018.07.003

20.

VandeWalle

(2001). Goal orientation: Why wanting to look successful doesn’t always lead to success. Organizational Dynamics, 30(2), 162–171. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/256924069

Supplementary Material

Please find the following supplemental material available below.

For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.

For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.

0.00 MB

6.31 MB

An Experiential Exercise for Teaching Growth Mindset to Business Students

Abstract

Keywords

Get full access to this article

References

Supplementary Material