Making Learning Real: Design Principles and Evidence for Applied Learning in Schools
Category: Student Learning
Instrument Overview
Expert Notes AvailableView expert commentary on strengths and cautions for this instrument
Strengths
Simple and quick to use: short and easy for students to understand and complete. Well-established concept: strong research base linking mindset to motivation and learning behaviors. Clear, strong psychometric structure and acceptable internal consistency. Sensitive to differences: relatively high item discrimination supports detecting variation in students.
Cautions
May oversimplify beliefs; students' views about learning can be more nuanced than a single fixed vs. growth scale captures. Sensitive to context: responses can shift depending on the course, subject, or recent experiences. Item dominance risk: one item shows extremely high discrimination, potentially over-weighting responses. Limited stability over time: lack of measurement invariance suggests responses shift, limiting pre-post comparisons. Cultural sensitivity: some items may function differently across racial/ethnic groups, affecting comparability.
The Growth Mindset Scale is a three-item questionnaire designed to measure how much individuals believe they can increase their intelligence through personal effort. Published by Carol Dweck in 2000, this self-report tool uses a 6-point Likert scale to distinguish between a "growth mindset" and a "fixed mindset." Research utilizing this scale often focuses on first-generation college students and students from low-income backgrounds. For these groups, the scale helps researchers understand how self-beliefs influence academic persistence when students face the rigorous transitions of higher education.
Organization
Topic
Collection Category(ies)
Content
Grades
9th Grade,
10th Grade,
11th Grade,
12th Grade,
Post secondary
Languages
English
Respondent
Student
Administration Information
Length
3 items
Access and Use
Price
Free
Open Access
Yes
Use in Research
Corradi, D., Nicolaï, J., & Levrau, F. (2019). Growth mindset and its predictive validity—do migration background and academic validation matter?. Higher Education, 77(3), 491-504.
Claro, S., Paunesku, D., & Dweck, C. S. (2016). Growth mindset tempers the effects of poverty on academic achievement. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 113(31), 8664–8668. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1608207113
Psychometrics (additional guidance)
Reliability
Cronbach's alpha 0.94–0.98
Psychometric References
Dweck, C. S. (2013). Self-theories: Their role in motivation, personality, and development. Psychology Press.
Dweck, C. S., Chiu, C., & Hong, Y. (1995). Implicit theories: Elaboration and extension of the entity and incremental theories. Psychological Inquiry, 6(4), 322–333. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327965pli0604_12
Item Type
Likert
