Technology Brings “Growth Mindset” to Schools

With funding from the U.S. Department of Education's Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program, New York City-based Mindset Works developed SchoolKit, an app designed to strengthen academic and socialemotional success. Through animations, assessments, and classroom activities, students learn a growth mindset—the understanding that ability develops with effort. Pilot research in nine middle schools found significant increases in students’ growth mindset, which related to increases in learning goals, positive beliefs about effort, and positive academic habits and behaviors (such as resilient responses to failure and better learning strategies). These changes also related to increases in students’ GPA. Since launching in 2012, SchoolKit has been used by tens of thousands of students around the country, including all middle schools in Washington, D.C. The app is based on Carol Dweck’sresearch on growth mindsets.

Office of Educational Technology, Ed Tech Developer’s Guide (April 2015)

• education
• technology