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Brain Points: A growth mindset incentive structure boosts persistence in an educational game
Abstract
There is great interest in leveraging video games to improve student engagement and motivation. However, educational games are not uniformly effective, and little is known about how in-game rewards affect children's learning-related behavior. In this work, we argue that educational games can be improved by fundamentally changing their incentive structures to promote the growth mindset, or the belief that intelligence is malleable. We present "brain points," a system that encourages the development of growth mindset behaviors by directly incentivizing effort, use of strategy, and incremental progress. Through a study of 15,000 children, we show that the "brain points" system encourages more low-performing students to persist in the educational game Refraction when compared to a control, and increases overall time played, strategy use, and perseverance after challenge. We believe that this growth mindset incentive structure has great potential in many educational environments.
... In the literature, several constructs positively predict Tis, including reliability and credibility of digital sources, legal thoughts, digital information, technology-based environments, organizational incentives, innovation, high-skill equilibriums, data-driven decision-making, technology communication, social media, remote work, TCs, financial incentives, digital technology circulation, SKS, search efficiency, professionals' online resources, TU, financial transactions, job information, technology readiness, adoption of health technologies, etc. [1,2,7,[12][13][14][15]. Similarly, technology user engagement, relaxation, stress, technology learning, anxiety, mindset incentives, cognitive engagement, technology-driven incentives, neurological well-being, neuromodulation technologies, mental abilities etc., are the positive enablers of BD [11,[16][17][18][19][20]. ...
... These incentives frequently include refining infrastructure, reducing costs, and increasing access to devices and internet services [1,35]. For instance, TIs offer more affordable and faster internet subscriptions, provide subsidies for technology devices to improve digital inclusion, upgrade public networks to expand connectivity, and enable the sharing of resources like computers and video conferencing services to fulfil public needs, i.e., education and online services [19,36]. [37]'s study highlights that technology-based incentives, such as mobile applications and telemedicine tools, can promote healthier behaviors by making involvements more engaging and accessible. ...
... There is a positive link between incentives and technology, principally those designed for educational contexts, which can significantly improve motivation and cognitive control, ultimately leading to BD [61]. For instance, interactive learning tools and educational games employ growth mindset incentives to advance persistence and boost resilience, reinforcing cognitive engagement [19,20]. Similarly, financial and other rewards stimulate brain motivation circuits. ...
Brain development (BD) is an important factor. To effectively enhance BD, institutions employ digital tools, technology, and innovative digital competencies to improve students’ entrepreneurial ambitions. The present paper examines the role of digital technology in developing BD among entrepreneurial ambitions in Egypt. The study modes are quantitative and cross-sectional to collect data from the entrepreneurial aspirations of Egyptian universities where business, management, economics, and commerce students were focused. The study utilizes 312 cases to infer the results. Using the structural equation model (SEM), the results show a positive effect of technological capabilities (TCs) on technology incentives (TIs) (β = 0.126; p < 0.01); searching skills (SKS) on TIs (β = 0.078; p < 0.01); and technology usage (TU) on TIs (β = 0.256; p < 0.01). Moreover, TIs positively affect BD (β = 0.366; p < 0.01) among potential Egyptian entrepreneurs. This study will assist policymakers in enhancing technological resources and skilled talent to enhance entrepreneurs’ motivation to innovate and adopt new technologies. It will also help entrepreneurs’ BD, as they contribute to society by creating more entrepreneurial activities. Finally, the study's findings contribute to the field literature on psychology, management, business and commerce.
... Students' engagement, motivation, and growth mindset behaviours: Five studies (Lee et al., 2021;Balan & Sjöwall, 2022;Boaler et al., 2018;O'Rourke et al., 2014;O'Rourke et al., 2016) reported changes in students' growth mindset behaviours, perceived competence in mathematics, perceived persistence in mathematics and "deliberate behaviour" (persistence behaviour). Balan and Sjöwall (2022) reported that the intervention group showing an increase in deliberate practice behaviour, or persistence behaviour, as reflected by an elevated frequency of taking the mathematics test (pre-intervention Mean = 1.12, post-intervention Mean = 1.21). ...
... Math-specific mindset interventions are specifically designed to target the teaching and learning of mathematics. Based on the examined studies, these interventions can be categorized further into two groups: In the first group, the interventions integrate the incremental view of ability directly into learning a specific mathematical content (O'Rourke et al., 2014;O'Rourke et al., 2016;Wang et al., 2019;Fuchs et al., 2021). These studies only focus on students as the intervention target. ...
... Teachers and students often consider mathematics achievement to represent an inborn ability rather than an achievement compared to achievements in other domains (Beach & Dovemark, 2007;Jonsson et al., 2012). By addressing these idiosyncratic beliefs through specific strategies and intervention content, it is possible to promote a more positive mindset and improve mathematical performance (O'Rourke et al., 2014;O'Rourke et al., 2016;Bagès et al., 2016;Boaler et al., 2018;Wang et al., 2019;Gaspard et al., 2021;Lee et al., 2021). However, additional research is required to offer a comprehensive understanding of the effectiveness and optimal implementation of mindset interventions in mathematics classrooms for students. ...
A growing body of research has suggested that mindset is one powerful predictor of students' academic achievement and that students are likely to hold self-beliefs about the malleability or stability of their academic abilities. In the domain of mathematics education, a belief in ‘math brain’ – as something you do or do not possess – is widely prevalent. Studies have shown that teachers and students are more likely to consider achievement in mathematics than achievement in other academic domains to be due to inborn ability. Most growth mindset-related research in schools is domain-general; however, given the prevalence of strong beliefs about the innateness of mathematical ability, possible idiosyncratic effects of mindset interventions in the mathematics domain may have been overlooked by research reviews and meta-analyses that do not examine domain-specific effects. The purpose of this paper is to compile and synthesise quantitative and qualitative research on interventions in mathematics classrooms that aim to change or foster teachers' and/or students' beliefs/mindset in primary and secondary schools and the reported impacts of these interventions (16 studies). The interventions in these studies were identified and sorted based on their targets (teacher-focused or student-focused), content (implicit theories of intelligence (ITI) intervention for general domains or in mathematics domain), and delivery mode (technology-based or in-contact). The results suggested most of the considered studies were quantitative and used student-focused interventions. Moreover, when ITI interventions were conducted specifically in the mathematics domain, positive results were reported, regardless of the intervention target or content or mode of delivery, whereas general ITI interventions yielded mixed results. Future studies should therefore consider the impacts of domain-specific effects and intervention targets when designing mindset interventions.
... The Version of Record of this contribution is published in LNCS, and is available online at: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-78269-5_8 mindset [1,[5][6][7] by cultivating an incremental belief of intelligence and ability in players. The concept of a growth mindset thus simply reflects the belief that individuals can develop and enhance their personal abilities and talents through effort and learning [8]. ...
... Overall, these results, which were qualitatively supported by the BERTopic model, seem to be in line with theoretical assumptions made in the field regarding the relationship between video gaming and a growth mindset [1,[5][6][7], demonstrating the usefulness of the current approach. However, it's important to note that by analyzing a large number of reviews, already very small effects result in significant differences between genres. ...
We present a novel method for approximating potential psychological effects of video games on players utilizing computational text analysis and artificial intelligence. Focusing specifically on growth mindset-a psychological construct associated with learning and resilience-we analyze player-generated reviews on the Steam gaming platform. In particular, reviews were examined using a specifically developed growth mindset dictionary derived from key psychological texts and validated questionnaires. Utilizing over 1 million user-generated reviews across eight distinct game genres, we identified that puzzle, roguelike, and platformer games showed a higher prevalence of growth mindset-related terms when compared to genres that we considered unrelated to growth mindset (e.g., zen, cozy, walking simulator). This aligns well with a growth mindset meaning system, as these genres inherently involve setting objectives, exerting effort, learning from setbacks, and refining strategies through gameplay. In addition , exploratory BERTopic modeling identified four topics with a clear relation to the concept of a growth mindset. These topics emerged differentially across genres with a pattern like the one found with the dictionary, further corroborating our findings. These results confirm theoretical assumptions in the field with a new methodological approach, opening avenues for precisely targeted research on video game effects and informed selection of video game-based interventions.
... One particularly important set of beliefs concerns whether intelligence can change. Prior work has shown that students who believe that intelligence is malleable (i.e., students with more of a "growth mindset") do better in school than students who believe intelligence cannot be changed (i.e., students with more of a "fixed mindset"; [1,2]): They are more likely to seek out academic challenges, show more persistence and adaptive behavior after experiencing failure, and thus learn more and have better achievement outcomes [3][4][5]. Despite the significance of students' beliefs about the malleability of intelligence (i.e., their intelligence mindsets) for motivation and achievement in school, most mindset research to date has focused on adolescents and college students [3,6,7]. ...
... In addition, prior work has found that individuals with stronger growth (vs. fixed) mindsets tend to engage in more challenge-seeking behaviors (e.g., [3,16]), show more perseverance and less negative reactions after experiencing failure (e.g., [4,5]), and earn better grades in school (e.g., [3,6]; see also [21,28]). Therefore, we also measured children's preference for challenges (Study 2), their persistence (Study 1), their affective response to failure (Study 1), and their achievement in two subjects (math and English; Study 2). ...
Beliefs about the malleability of intellectual ability—mindsets—shape achievement. Recent evidence suggests that even young children hold such mindsets; yet, no reliable and valid instruments exist for measuring individual differences in young children’s mindsets. Given the potential relevance of mindsets to children’s achievement-related behavior and learning, we developed and tested the psychometric properties of the Growth Mindset Scale for Children (GM-C). Among other psychometric properties, we assessed this instrument’s (a) factor structure, (b) measurement invariance, (c) internal consistency, (d) temporal stability (test-retest reliability), (e) concurrent validity, and (f) cross-cultural robustness in samples of US children (Study 1; N = 220; ages 4 through 6; 50% girls; 39% White) and South African children (Study 2; predominantly grades 4 and 5; N = 331; 54% girls; 100% non-White). The GM-C scale exhibited four factors, representing beliefs about the instability of low ability, the malleability of low ability, the instability of high ability, and the malleability of high ability. The GM-C scale also demonstrated invariance across age, acceptable internal consistency (αs between .70 to .90), and moderate temporal stability over approximately one month (rs between .38 to .72). Concurrent validity was supported by significant relations between children’s scores on the subscales about low ability and their goal orientations (Studies 1 and 2), challenge-seeking behavior, and achievement in math and English (Study 2). These findings suggest that the GM-C scale is a promising tool for measuring mindsets in young children. We offer practical recommendations for using this new scale and discuss theoretical implications.
... For example, although the conventional method of encouraging students to adopt a growth mindset is through praise, praising improperly can also have the opposite impact. The literature has demonstrated that praising talent promotes a fixed mindset among students, whereas praising meaningful effort promotes a growth mindset [6]. Therefore, it is essential to provide students with appropriate feedback to inspire them to make the effort needed to reach their objectives. ...
... Educational games with the growth mindset concept have been proposed as well. For example, to enhance student perseverance and growth mindset behaviors, the Brain Points game explicitly rewards effort, strategic use, and incremental advancement [6]. Motion Math along with teaching elementary math, emphasizes growth mindset messages, especially for students vulnerable to failure [15]. ...
Research has shown that learners learn best when they learn actively. In collaborative learning, students take charge of learning and work with others to achieve a common goal. It helps them experience seeking and synthesizing knowledge effectively by forming and planning their research and study strategies to reach their goals. Along with collaborative learning, a growth mindset helps them to believe that their effort and hard work can help them to succeed. To help students learn and adopt a growth mindset, we propose an online learning system called “iQUIZ!”, that uses persuasive strategies (praise, simulation, self-monitoring, similarity, suggestion, and reminder) to give students feedback to foster a growth mindset and motivate the students to practice active participation in a collaborative learning environment.KeywordsCollaborative LearningGrowth MindsetPersuasive Strategies
... Above and beyond goal orientations, learners' growth mindsets have been found to be associated with other desirable outcomes, such as higher expectations (Burnette et al., 2013), higher interest (Lee et al., 2024), stronger persistence when struggling (O' Rourke et al., 2014), more positive achievement emotions such as excitement or happiness (Daniels et al., 2022;Robins & Pals, 2002; but see also King et al., 2012), and higher well-being in school (e.g., Lüftenegger et al., 2021). Fostering a growth mindset in psychology students also reduced their anxiety in statistics classrooms (Smith & Capuzzi, 2019). ...
Experimental evidence of effects of instructors’ growth or fixed mindsets has so far been provided only by studies on U.S. university students. Research outside the US and on primary and secondary school students has relied on correlational data. In two preregistered vignette experiments with secondary school and university students in Germany (N = 214 in total), we therefore tested for effects of fictitious instructors’ growth and fixed mindsets. Both studies revealed detrimental effects of fictitious instructors’ fixed mindsets. In Study 1, the fixed mindset teacher elicited lower anticipated positive emotions, stronger anticipated negative emotions, stronger anticipated performance-avoidance goals, and less anticipated help-seeking in fifth-to-seventh graders compared with the growth mindset teacher. In Study 2, the fixed mindset professor elicited lower anticipated positive emotions, stronger anticipated negative emotions, higher anticipated stress, less anticipated help-seeking, lower anticipated success expectancies, and less anticipated motivation in university students than the growth mindset professor did. Moreover, larger effects were found for female than male university students. These findings provide a more fine-grained perspective on the risks of being taught by a fixed mindset teacher or professor and support the idea that growth mindset instructors are an important part of a learning environment that helps every student flourish.
... Based on Google Scholar searches of mindset research between 2010 -2020, 86 relevant studies were found (e.g., Aditomo, 2015;Corradi et al., 2018;Gutshall, 2016;Lee et al., 2010;Ngek, 2012;O'Rourke et al., 2014;Posey et al., 2011;Septianto, 2020;Stewart et al., 2017;Wyles et al., 2013;Zhang et al., 2019). Of these studies, 90% used mindset questionnaires as a research instrument, 6% implemented interviewing, 3% used a mixed method of a questionnaire and interview, and 1% tried activities as Table 1 shows below. ...
Mindsets which are beliefs and fundamental perceptions about our life as well as how we cope with challenges in life play a pivotal role in our learning and development. These subjective views determine our mental attitudes and behavior. Mindsets, therefore, have attracted considerable attention from scholars in different fields. In education, mindsets have been investigated using different research instruments ranging from questionnaires, interviews, and other self-report methods. However, the subjective and complex nature of individuals' mindsets are major challenges in mindset research. In this paper, we proposed the use of Q instruments as a promising tool for dealing with these challenges. Q procedures consist of a methodical design of Q statements, Q grid, in-depth interviews with participants, and the Q inverted factor analysis technique. This paper illustrates how the method can be employed to effectively to reveal participants' mindsets. Principles, detailed procedures, and applications to research in teacher education are also discussed.
... Students with a fixed mindset are more likely to give up in the face of challenges, avoid taking risks, and attribute their failures to lack of ability while those with a growth mindset are more likely to persist in the face of challenges, take risks, and attribute their failures to lack of effort (Carr et al., 2012;Chiu et al., 1997). Over the last decade, research has focused on the integration of growth mindsets into specific curricular material to enhance the learning process and intervention studies have demonstrated that adopting a growth mindset can significantly improve various academic outcomes, such as reading and writing skills (Andersen & Nielsen, 2016) as well as learning motivation and behaviours (O'Rourke et al., 2014), indicating that incorporating growth mindsets in education can be a valuable strategy to enhance academic performance and motivation. ...
This study examined how the mindsets and feedback preferences of 91 Thai undergraduate students in an English composition course influence their writing skills. Using a mixed-methods approach, the research gathered data on students' mindsets, feedback preferences, and writing outcomes. While most students displayed a fixed mindset and were reluctant to accept feedback, qualitative results revealed they were generally positive about feedback and believed it could enhance their writing. However, no direct connection was found between their overall mindsets, feedback preferences, and writing outcomes. Yet, qualitative data suggested a positive relationship between their attitudes towards written corrective feedback (WCF) and their writing improvements. These findings suggest that teaching strategies should focus on modifying EFL students' mindsets and attitudes towards feedback. ARTICLE HISTORY
... different (Esparza et al., 2014;Lee et al., 2012;Mangels et al., 2006;Miele, Son, & Metcalfe, 2013;Yan, Thai, & Bjork, 2014;Chanita Rungrueng and Seree Chadcham, 2016) The Growth Mindset is the belief that human beings can change and develop their characteristics and attributes. It is crucial and necessary that individuals with a growth mindset tend to focus on the pursuit of new ideas and the effort and training themselves to be successful in their learning (Chan, 2012;O'Rourke, 2014). Whereas individuals with a fixed mindset tend to believe that effort reflects their inability because competent individuals do not need the effort to do things (Chan, 2012;Lee et al., 2012). ...
The aim of the study is to demonstrate the need for the development of artificial intelligence and to determine its role in quantum mechanics.
... Of course, we can add more incentives such as 1) giving players experience points as rewards as they learn to handle the basic gaming mechanics, 2) graphical clues on where to proceed, or 3) more items to collect. O'Rourke (et al.) proposes to use a "growth mindset incentive structure", where instead of guiding players with technical terms, players should be guided with a "growth mindset" that emphasizes the mental benefits of perseverance in an educational game [23]. Incentives can, however, at best be only a part of the solution in instructing players toward educational content in an open-world situation, especially if we want to gain diverse learning experiences. ...
... Of course, we can add more incentives such as 1) giving players experience points as rewards as they learn to handle the basic gaming mechanics, 2) graphical clues on where to proceed, or 3) more items to collect. O'Rourke (et al.) proposes to use a "growth mindset incentive structure", where instead of guiding players with technical terms, players should be guided with a "growth mindset" that emphasizes the mental benefits of perseverance in an educational game [23]. Incentives can, however, at best be only a part of the solution in instructing players toward educational content in an open-world situation, especially if we want to gain diverse learning experiences. ...
... Of course, we can add more incentives such as 1) giving players experience points as rewards as they learn to handle the basic gaming mechanics, 2) graphical clues on where to proceed, or 3) more items to collect. O'Rourke (et al.) proposes to use a "growth mindset incentive structure", where instead of guiding players with technical terms, players should be guided with a "growth mindset" that emphasizes the mental benefits of perseverance in an educational game [23]. Incentives can, however, at best be only a part of the solution in instructing players toward educational content in an open-world situation, especially if we want to gain diverse learning experiences. ...
... Learning Management Challenges in Accepting Failures and Mistakes in Learning Management The open-minded side accepts criticism in the management of learning. Inspiration from the success of others because of the high demand (PNI modified not lower than 0.32) compliant with (Chan, 2012;Dweck, 2012;O'Rourke et al., 2014) sees such attributes as an important attribute of people with a growth mindset. As for the growth mindset of teachers (Goldstein & Brooks, 2007 ( . ...
The purposes of this article were 1) to study the current condition, the need for developing a growth mindset to strengthen the learning management of primary school teachers, and 2) to study guidelines for developing a growth mindset to strengthen learning management among primary school teachers under the Office of the Basic Education Commission. There were 2 stages of research: Step 1: Study the current conditions. It is necessary to develop a growth mindset to strengthen the learning management of primary school teachers. The sample consisted of 427 primary school teachers in the academic year 2022 derived by multi-stage sampling. Step 2: Study ways to develop a growth mindset to strengthen learning management among primary school teachers under the Office of the Basic Education Commission. The group of informants is qualified by studying the best practices of 5 persons by specific sampling. The research instruments were 1) a 5-level estimation scale questionnaire, 2) a semi-structured interview form, and 3) a 5-level estimation scale development guidelines assessment form. Statistics used to analyze data include means, standard deviations, priority sorting of PNImodified data, and content analysis. The results of the research showed that 1) the overall current condition and the overall aspect are moderate, and the overall desirable conditions are substantial. It was found that the growth mindset strengthens teachers’ learning management. There is a need for development in all 6 areas. In order: Learning efforts, Acceptance of failures, Acceptance of criticism, Learning challenges, Development paradigms, and Motivation for success. 2) Approaches to developing a growth mindset to strengthen the learning management of primary school teachers under the Office of the Basic Education Commission. This can be done by developing all 6 items and 20 approaches. There are development methods that consist of workshops, and learning from other people. Integration in operations, Self-study, Building a professional learning community, Counselor, and Mentoring.
... Thus, growth mindsets enable students to increase their self-efficacy by increasing their learning and academic success (Keenan, 2018). According to O'Rourke et al., (2014), students with developed growth mindsets are aware of their learning ways and learn in that way, they try to overcome difficulties and make an effort to learn. These students tend to be lifelong learners and are motivated by their personal development, they do not see failure as a threat, and they continue to learn to succeed (Dweck, 2012;Ng, 2018). ...
This study aims to explore the students’ growth mindset theories in terms of nutritional behaviors. The study sample consists of 3782 students studying at high schools in different regions of Türkiye. While 61.9% of the students in the sample are females, 38.1% are males. 79.2% of the students study at Anatolian High School, 16.4% at Vocational High School, and 4.4% at Science and Social Sciences High School. In this study, which was designed with the quantitative research method and analyzed with the SPSS 18.0 program, The Mindset Theory Scale (MTS) was used to describe the mental structures of high school students. According to the research results, while the students’ meat consumption behaviors did not make a significant difference in the growth mindset theories, the egg and milk consumption behaviors made a significant difference. Agricultural group (vegetable, fruit, and grain) nutritional behaviors made a significant difference in students’ growth and fixed mindset theories. The growth and fixed mindset theory dimension mean scores do not differ significantly according to the chocolate, sugar, and salty consumption behaviors of the students. According to the results of the research, the nutritional behaviors of the students affect the growth mindset theories. Therefore, actions can be developed for students’ awareness of healthy eating behaviors. Similar studies can be carried out by collecting students’ food consumption on the same subject with the data obtained with ratio scales.
... In the latter, research into this concept has generated several striking results. For example, it has been shown to have a positive effect on the persistence levels of individuals who play educational video games (O'Rourke et al., 2014(O'Rourke et al., , 2016, on improving the self-belief of individuals in terms of being a competent member of the computing community (Stout & Blaney, 2017), and on the potential to enhance interest in related careers (Burnette et al., 2020;Huang et al., 2019). The application of the theory covers a range of subject areas in the field of education, in addition to certain related sectors, including educational psychology (Apiola & Sutinen, 2020;Campbell & Green, 2022;Savvides & Bond, 2021). ...
Computer-based interventions that aim to help students endorse a growth mindset have been designed and tested in high-income countries for a number of years. However, there is no evidence of their effectiveness in middle-income nations. In those studies, students’ growth mindset has traditionally been measured using surveys where students report the extent to which they believe intelligence is fixed or malleable, without linking intelligence with a more specific dimension, such as math or language. In addition, these measurements have been undertaken without distinctions being made between personal ability (“my” intelligence) and more general abilities (everyone’s intelligence). Therefore, by means of a randomized experiment, this study assesses the impact of a single-session online growth-mindset intervention in Chile on distinct measurements of the growth mindset of students (general, personal, and subject-specific), as well as their propensity to seek out challenges. Accordingly, a sample of 248 students was recruited from 9 and 11th grades in three secondary schools, all of whom were randomly assigned to either a treatment or control group. The intervention was found to increase their propensity to seek out challenges and to experience an increase in growth mindset scores in all tested dimensions. No evidence of the heterogeneity of results by gender or prior growth mindset was identified.
... In order to help students access potential benefits of growth mindsets, many interventions provide scripts for teachers that re-frame students' mistakes as opportunities to learn [57]. In educational games, growth mindset interventions have also increased overall gameplay, positive strategies, and persistence after challenges [43]. As such, growth mindset interventions focused on changing students' perceptions of failure while they engage with CALPs may be effective for improving learning behaviors and outcomes. ...
As evidence grows supporting the importance of non-cognitive factors in learning, computer-assisted learning platforms increasingly incorporate non-academic interventions to influence student learning and learning related-behaviors. Non-cognitive interventions often attempt to influence students’ mindset, motivation, or metacognitive reflection to impact learning behaviors and outcomes. In the current paper, we analyze data from five experiments, involving seven treatment conditions embedded in mastery-based learning activities hosted on a computer-assisted learning platform focused on middle school mathematics. Each treatment condition embodied a specific non-cognitive theoretical perspective. Over seven school years, 20,472 students participated in the experiments. We estimated the effects of each treatment condition on students’ response time, hint usage, likelihood of mastering knowledge components, learning efficiency, and post-tests performance. Our analyses reveal a mix of both positive and negative treatment effects on student learning behaviors and performance. Few interventions impacted learning as assessed by the post-tests. These findings highlight the difficulty in positively influencing student learning behaviors and outcomes using non-cognitive interventions.
... Several studies have successfully demonstrated how the principles of a growth mindset can be instilled through educational technology (Park et. al., 2017;O'Rourke et. al., 2014;Wilkins, 2014;Ricci & Lee, 2021;Shirazi & Rahimi, 2023). In addition, research on game-based interventions for health learning goals reveals promising benefits in improving students' understanding of them (Ebrahimi, 2018;Gan et. al., 2019). Given the power of the growth mindset in motivating people to make positive changes, and given the ...
The number of overweight school-age children facing the risk of Type 2 diabetes from obesity is rising at an alarming rate worldwide. Studies have shown that adopting a healthy lifestyle by following a nourishing diet and engaging in frequent physical activity is vital in tackling the problem. However, knowing about it does not equate to knowing how to do it. Hence, through design research, we employed a cross-disciplinary approach in creating an educational simulation to inform and provide the how-to on making health-related choices for teenagers. This study was aimed at constructing an interactive visual novel by intertwining growth mindset principles with the game’s narrative using the integrative behaviour prediction model as the framework. Upon completion of the prototype, we asked four students to test the game, and their feedback was analysed for emerging themes. Discovery learning, the thrill of the game, and empowerment by information each coincide with the three essential design elements of successful educational experiences: simulation, game, and pedagogy. The findings suggest that the potential for growth mindset principles to be used to reinforce healthy decision-making among teenagers through a narrative game is highly promising, while at the same time providing the learners with a meaningful and engaging experience.
... Depression has been associated with a fixed mindset (Da Fonseca et al., 2009), and individuals with depression tend to see their failures as stemming from internal, global, and unchanging factors (i.e., an entity theory of failure, aligning with a fixed mindset), rather than from external and situation-specific factors (i.e., an incremental theory of failure, aligning with a growth mindset). On the other hand, individuals who possess incremental beliefs demonstrate more adaptive behaviors in challenging situations (e.g., greater persistence in a challenging educational game, see O'Rourke et al., 2014) and therefore experience better outcomes. ...
Individuals possess different beliefs regarding the malleability of intelligence, also known as intelligence mindsets. Despite evidence demonstrating a link between a growth mindset of intelligence—the belief that intelligence can develop through effort—and academic achievement, this link has not been closely examined from a mental health perspective. Given the increasing prevalence of mental health conditions, such as anxiety and depression, among undergraduate students, an important question is whether the well-established link between mental health symptom severity and academic outcomes depends on the intelligence mindset beliefs that individuals possess. A growth mindset of intelligence might buffer the negative impact of anxiety and depression on academic outcomes, whereas a fixed mindset—the belief that intelligence cannot be changed—might exacerbate this negative relationship. The present study examined data collected from 660 undergraduate psychology students in the United States to test whether intelligence mindset beliefs moderated the relationship between mental health symptom severity and various indicators of academic outcomes: academic self-efficacy, GPA, and perceived academic standing. Results revealed that intelligence mindset beliefs did not moderate the observed negative association between mental health symptom severity and academic outcomes. Findings indicate that promoting a growth mindset of intelligence might not be a particularly effective strategy for buffering university students from the negative impact of anxiety and depression on academic outcomes. However, this conclusion is limited by the cross-sectional design of the study, and future prospective research is necessary to further clarify the relationship between intelligence mindset, mental health, and academic outcomes.
... Dental team members who adopt a growth mindset perceive well, it is important to be kind to yourself setbacks as a necessary part of the learning process and can 'bounce back' by increasing their motivational effort. 3,4 Therefore it is important for all members of the dental team to understand how they can move from a fixed mindset to a growth mindset if they wish to succeed in their chosen career or clinical discipline. ...
... The use of games for educational purposes proliferated in the past decade with the video game industry's growth. On the academic research side of the story, a significant number of studies investigated the effectiveness of video games in learning [25], and several studies explored the factors that affect serious game design empirically and theoretically [1,9,12,18]. From the perspective of practice, serious games or educational games in general have been applied in various education settings, ranging from K-12 to higher education [3,6,9,13], and covering numerous disciplines, from STEM education to value education and humanity (e.g., [3,10,11,19]). ...
The belief that ‘I can change my fate’ goes beyond an inborn quality and leads to brain-bending. The brain changes itself and has its own means of healing from damage; this throws off the entity theory of belief. The brain is a muscle that gets stronger by activating neuronal circuits. Learning can turn on genes that alter the neural structure, a ‘rewiring of neural circuits.’ The growth mindset can change brain function and create cognitive reserves. Learning needs to be facilitated through a pedagogy that fosters a growth mindset, incorporating the belief that ‘with practice and hard work, I can do better.’ The pedagogy that creates a new horizon, including the structures mentioned, is the ‘Growth Mindset Pedagogy.’ The challenge of bringing this pedagogy into the classroom arises when dealing with disciplinary content.
This book addresses the realities of the classroom through the following pedagogical framework: ‘How to Develop a Growth Mindset-Oriented Classroom Culture.’ It provides both the tools and the roadmap required to do so.
This study aimed to establish growth mindset indicators and a growth mindset measurement scale for Thai children residing in the five provinces bordering the southern border. The research approach employed a mixed methodology consisting of the following five steps -Step 1:identifying indicators of a growth mindset, Step 2: examining the growth mindset indicators, Step 3: constructing the growth mindset assessment instrument and performing a secondary confirmatory component analysis, Step 4:establishing standard criteria (norms) for the growth mindset assessment tool, and Step 5: studying the growth perspective of children located in the five southern border provinces. The research findings indicated that the growth mindset indicator comprised three elements: effort and challenge management, growth from failure, and self-efficacy, and 9 indicators: 1) the perception of intelligence set at birth (genetic), not by environmental influences, 2) the perception of being scared of difficult tasks, 3) the perception related to enough effort for accomplishment, 4) the lack of enthusiasm for solving problems, 5) the rejection of challenges since initial stage, 6) the refusal to learn too difficult things, 7) the confidence of their own problem solving skills, 8) the leadership, and 9) the assertiveness . The entirety of the nine-item survey possessed the subsequent reliability values:.742,.728,.726, and.718 for the individual components and the entire scales, respectively. The findings of the second order confirmatory factor analysis of growth mindset indicators were fitted. The Factor Loadings(𝛽) for each component were positive and statistically significant at the .01 level. The norms of Thai children in the five southern border provinces’ growth mindsets had a scaled of extended t value between 11.19 and 74.67, based on the usual growth mindset requirements. The findings of the investigation on the growth mindset of Thai children in the five southern border provinces have been obtained, the average was precisely 36.34, students Songkhla Province the greatest mean, following by Narathiwat, and Yala Province got the lowest average.
The surge in computer science student enrollment in Data Structures and Algorithm course necessitates flexible teaching strategies, accommodating both struggling and proficient learners. This study examines the shift from manual grading to auto-graded and peer-reviewed assessments, investigating student preferences and their impact on growth and improvement. Utilizing data from Plussa LMS and GitLab, auto-graders allow iterative submissions and quick feedback. Initially met with skepticism, peer-review gained acceptance, offering valuable exercises for reviewers and alternative solutions for reviewees. Auto-grading became the favored approach due to its swift feedback, facilitating iterative improvement. Furthermore, students expressed a preference for a substantial number of submissions, with the most frequently suggested count being 50 submissions. Manual grading, while supported due to its personal feedback, was considered impractical given the course scale. Auto-graders like unit-tests, integration tests, and perftests were well-received, with perftests and visualizations aligning with efficient code learning goals. In conclusion, used methods, such as auto-grading and peer-review, cater to diverse proficiency levels. These approaches encourage ongoing refinement, deepening engagement with challenging subjects, and fostering a growth mindset.
The purpose of this study is to test the growth mindset theories of high school students' grits with explanatory models. The correlational design of the quantitative research approach was used in the current study. This study consists of 35000 students studying secondary education in the city center of Konya, Türkiye. The sample of this study consists of 783 students to whom the scales were applied in the selected schools. The study results highlighted a negative significant relationship between the fixed mindset dimension of Mindset Theories, belief in invariance and procrastination sub-dimension scores of high school students, and the perseverance of effort and consistency of interest scores of their grits. The fixed mindset dimension predicts 12.6% of students' grits' consistency of interest and perseverance of effort, 3.6% of the variability in belief in invariance sub-dimension, and 17.3% of the variability in the procrastination. While the consistency of interest dimension of the students' grits does not have a significant predictor of the growth mindset dimension of mindset theories, it has a significant predictor of the variability in the fixed mindset dimension. The study found that the consistency of interest fixed mindset predicted the variability in the procrastination dimension more. It can be suggested to organize training, activities, and projects for the development of students' grit, and to test grit and mindset theories across cultures by conducting similar studies in different countries.
Designing and studying computationally-supported roleplaying for changing social perspectives of players is a complex and challenging problem. As indispensable components of roleplaying games (RPGs), narratives have the potential to promote successful perspective-taking. In this paper, we first present the design of a visual novel style RPG scenario addressing xenophobia and bullying, using an interactive narrative powered by a computational narrative engine. We then report on a usability evaluation of our interactive narrative system and an empirical evaluation of the RPG’s effectiveness in promoting successful perspective-taking through a crowdsourced online experiment.KeywordsRoleplayingRoleplaying GamesNarrative GamesXenophobiaBullying
Over the last ten years learning analytics (LA) has grown from a hypothetical future into a concrete field of inquiry and a global community of researchers and practitioners. Although the LA space may appear sprawling and complex, there are some clear through-lines that the new student or interested practitioner can use as entry points. Four of these are presented in this chapter, 1. LA as a concern or problem to be solved, 2. LA as an opportunity, 3. LA as field of inquiry and 4. the researchers and practitioners that make up the LA community. These four ways of understanding LA and its associated constructs, technologies, domains and history can hopefully provide a launch pad not only for the other chapters in this handbook but the world of LA in general. A world that, although large, is open to all who hold an interest in data and learning and the complexities that follow from the combination of the two.
The paper considers the problem associated with the possibility of functional programming of intelligent systems, which are based on the definition of intelligence as the ability to model the environment around the system in order to use this model to form the specified behavior of the system in this environment. Such behavior is considered as the result of a consistent solution of intermediate tasks, into which the general task is divided, determined by the goal set for the system. In the variant under consideration, the environment model is built on the basis of knowledge collected by the system or obtained from its knowledge base. Separate knowledge has a multi-element representation, making available for the user several tools for solving problems. The options proposed in his paper are: sets of properties, logical and ontological representations of individual components of the environment surrounding the system, and related associations of these components. It should be noted that various variants of logics can be incorporated into the system, including non-classical ones, on which the system builds its conclusions. In addition, the system can use various variants of mathematical structures that are stored in its knowledge base when building a model.When developing an intelligent system, the methods and tools of functional design can be applied as a way to develop a specific system. In this work, this approach is applied on the example of the development of an intelligent military robot that operates in a specific subject area and solves the problem of defending and attacking a specific enemy.Keywordsintelligencemodelingintelligent systemknowledge representationintelligent robots
A growing literature on stereotype validation suggests that negative, self-relevant stereotypes activated after poor task performance may lead stigmatized individuals to feel more certain they performed poorly. The present research examined a potential moderator of these effects: lay theories of intelligence. In two studies, gender stereotype accessibility was manipulated after participants finished a test of sports (Study 1) or science (Study 2) knowledge. Findings were consistent with increased stereotype validation among women who held incremental theories of intelligence. In particular, these women expressed elevated certainty in their poor performance when negative stereotypes were made salient after the performance. Furthermore, this enhanced certainty predicted negative downstream consequences for follow-up performance in the domain.
As growth mindset interventions increase in scope and popularity, scientists and policymakers are asking: Are these interventions effective? To answer this question properly, the field needs to understand the meaningful heterogeneity in effects. In the present systematic review and meta-analysis, we focused on two key moderators with adequate data to test: Subsamples expected to benefit most and implementation fidelity. We also specified a process model that can be generative for theory. We included articles published between 2002 (first mindset intervention) through the end of 2020 that reported an effect for a growth mindset intervention, used a randomized design, and featured at least one of the qualifying outcomes. Our search yielded 53 independent samples testing distinct interventions. We reported cumulative effect sizes for multiple outcomes (i.e., mindsets, motivation, behavior, end results), with a focus on three primary end results (i.e., improved academic achievement, mental health, or social functioning). Multilevel metaregression analyses with targeted subsamples and high fidelity for academic achievement yielded, d = 0.14, 95% CI [.06, .22]; for mental health, d = 0.32, 95% CI [.10, .54]. Results highlighted the extensive variation in effects to be expected from future interventions. Namely, 95% prediction intervals for focal effects ranged from −0.08 to 0.35 for academic achievement and from 0.07 to 0.57 for mental health. The literature is too nascent for moderators for social functioning, but average effects are d = 0.36, 95% CI [.03, .68], 95% PI [−.50, 1.22]. We conclude with a discussion of heterogeneity and the limitations of meta-analyses.
In recent years there has been increasing interest in the phenomena of "gaming the system," where a learner attempts to succeed in an educational environment by exploiting properties of the system's help and feedback rather than by attempting to learn the material. Developing environments that respond constructively and effectively to gaming depends upon understanding why students choose to game. In this article, we present three studies, conducted with two different learning environments, which present evidence on which student behaviors, motivations, and emotions are associated with the choice to game the system. We also present a fourth study to determine how teachers' perspectives on gaming behavior are similar to, and different from, researchers' perspectives and the data from our studies. We discuss what motivational and attitudinal patterns are associated with gaming behavior across studies, and what the implications are for the design of interactive learning environment.
There has recently been a great deal of interest in the potential of computer games to function as innovative educational tools. However, there is very little evidence of games fulfilling that potential. Indeed, the process of merging the disparate goals of education and games design appears problematic, and there are currently no practical guidelines for how to do so in a coherent manner. In this paper, we describe the successful, empirically validated teaching methods developed by behavioural psychologists and point out how they are uniquely suited to take advantage of the benefits that games offer to education. We conclude by proposing some practical steps for designing educational games, based on the techniques of Applied Behaviour Analysis. It is intended that this paper can both focus educational games designers on the features of games that are genuinely useful for education, and also introduce a successful form of teaching that this audience may not yet be familiar with.
The objective of this preliminary study is to investigate whether educational video games can be integrated into a classroom with positive effects for the teacher and students. The challenges faced when introducing a video game into a classroom are twofold: overcoming the notion that a "toy" does not belong in the school and developing software that has real educational value while stimulating the learner. We conducted an initial pilot study with 39 second grade students using our mathematic drill software Skills Arena. Early data from the pilot suggests that not only do teachers and students enjoy using Skills Arena, students have exceeded our expectations by doing three times more math problems in 19 days than they would have using traditional worksheets. Based on this encouraging qualitative study, future work that focuses on quantitative benefits should likely uncover additional positive results.
Video games have enormous mass appeal, reaching audiences in the hundreds of thousands to millions. They also embed many pedagogical practices known to be effective in other environments. This article reviews the sparse but encouraging data on learning outcomes for video games in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) disciplines, then reviews the infrastructural obstacles to wider adoption of this new medium.
Praise for ability is commonly considered to have beneficial effects on motivation. Contrary to this popular belief, six studies demonstrated that praise for intelligence had more negative consequences for students' achievement motivation than praise for effort. Fifth graders praised for intelligence were found to care more about performance goals relative to learning goals than children praised for effort. After failure, they also displayed less task persistence, less task enjoyment, more low-ability attributions, and worse task performance than children praised for effort. Finally, children praised for intelligence described it as a fixed trait more than children praised for hard work, who believed it to be subject to improvement. These findings have important implications for how achievement is best encouraged, as well as for more theoretical issues, such as the potential cost of performance goals and the socialization of contingent self-worth.
Conventional wisdom suggests that praising a child as a whole or praising his or her traits is beneficial. Two studies tested the hypothesis that both criticism and praise that conveyed person or trait judgments could send a message of contingent worth and undermine subsequent coping. In Study 1, 67 children (ages 5-6 years) role-played tasks involving a setback and received 1 of 3 forms of criticism after each task: person, outcome, or process criticism. In Study 2, 64 children role-played successful tasks and received either person, outcome, or process praise. In both studies, self-assessments, affect, and persistence were measured on a subsequent task involving a setback. Results indicated that children displayed significantly more "helpless" responses (including self-blame) on all dependent measures after person criticism or praise than after process criticism or praise. Thus person feedback, even when positive, can create vulnerability and a sense of contingent self-worth.
Two studies explored the role of implicit theories of intelligence in adolescents' mathematics achievement. In Study 1 with 373 7th graders, the belief that intelligence is malleable (incremental theory) predicted an upward trajectory in grades over the two years of junior high school, while a belief that intelligence is fixed (entity theory) predicted a flat trajectory. A mediational model including learning goals, positive beliefs about effort, and causal attributions and strategies was tested. In Study 2, an intervention teaching an incremental theory to 7th graders (N=48) promoted positive change in classroom motivation, compared with a control group (N=43). Simultaneously, students in the control group displayed a continuing downward trajectory in grades, while this decline was reversed for students in the experimental group.
Following up on an earlier issue of The Curriculum Journal (Vol. 16, No. 1), this article focuses on learning outcomes in the context of video games. Learning outcomes are viewed from two theoretical frameworks: Kirkpatrick's levels of evaluation and the CRESST model of learning. These are used to analyse the outcomes claimed in journal articles that report empirical work, indicating the usefulness of the frameworks, and the necessity to consider the role of affective learning. The article ends with some comments on the relationship of instructional design to effective games and learning outcomes.
The field of Educational Games has seen many calls for added rigor. One avenue for improving the rigor of the field is developing more generalizable methods for measuring student learning within games. Throughout the process of development, what is relevant to measure and assess may change as a game evolves into a finished product. The field needs an approach for game developers and researchers to be able to prototype and experiment with different measures that can stand up to rigorous scrutiny, as well as provide insight into possible new directions for development. We demonstrate a toolkit and analysis tools that capture and analyze students' performance within open educational games. The system records relevant events during play, which can be used for analysis of player learning by designers. The tools support replaying student sessions within the original game's environment, which allows researchers and developers to explore possible explanations for student behavior. Using this system, we were able to facilitate a number of analyses of student learning in an open educational game developed by a team of our collaborators as well as gain greater insight into student learning with the game and where to focus as we iterate.
Anyone can master the fundamentals of game design - no technological expertise is necessary. The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses shows that the same basic principles of psychology that work for board games, card games and athletic games also are the keys to making top-quality videogames. Good game design happens when you view your game from many different perspectives, or lenses. While touring through the unusual territory that is game design, this book gives the reader one hundred of these lenses - one hundred sets of insightful questions to ask yourself that will help make your game better. These lenses are gathered from fields as diverse as psychology, architecture, music, visual design, film, software engineering, theme park design, mathematics, writing, puzzle design, and anthropology. Anyone who reads this book will be inspired to become a better game designer - and will understand how to do it.
African American college students tend to obtain lower grades than their White counterparts, even when they enter college with equivalent test scores. Past research suggests that negative stereotypes impugning Black students' intellectual abilities play a role in this underperformance. Awareness of these stereotypes can psychologically threaten African Americans, a phenomenon known as “stereotype threat” (Steele & Aronson, 1995), which can in turn provoke responses that impair both academic performance and psychological engagement with academics. An experiment was performed to test a method of helping students resist these responses to stereotype threat. Specifically, students in the experimental condition of the experiment were encouraged to see intelligence—the object of the stereotype—as a malleable rather than fixed capacity. This mind-set was predicted to make students' performances less vulnerable to stereotype threat and help them maintain their psychological engagement with academics, both of which could help boost their college grades. Results were consistent with predictions. The African American students (and, to some degree, the White students) encouraged to view intelligence as malleable reported greater enjoyment of the academic process, greater academic engagement, and obtained higher grade point averages than their counterparts in two control groups.
In laboratory studies, praising children's effort encourages them to adopt incremental motivational frameworks-they believe ability is malleable, attribute success to hard work, enjoy challenges, and generate strategies for improvement. In contrast, praising children's inherent abilities encourages them to adopt fixed-ability frameworks. Does the praise parents spontaneously give children at home show the same effects? Although parents' early praise of inherent characteristics was not associated with children's later fixed-ability frameworks, parents' praise of children's effort at 14-38 months (N = 53) did predict incremental frameworks at 7-8 years, suggesting that causal mechanisms identified in experimental work may be operating in home environments.
The relation between the way in which children interpret human behavior and their beliefs about the stability of human traits is investigated. In interviews with 202 7- and 8-year-olds across 2 studies, the belief that traits are stable predicted a greater tendency to make trait judgments, and an increased focus on outcomes and behaviors through which traits can be judged. In the academic domain, a belief in trait stability was associated with an emphasis on the evaluative meanings of performance outcomes, as opposed to mediating processes such as effort. In the sociomoral domain, the same belief was associated with an emphasis on the evaluative meanings of behaviors (e.g., whether the person is good or bad), as opposed to factors that mediate behavior, such as intention. Results suggest that beliefs about the stability of traits may serve an important role in thinking about and functioning within the academic and sociomoral domains.
This paper describes an effort to model students' changing knowledge state during skill acquisition. Students in this research are learning to write short programs with the ACT Programming Tutor (APT). APT is constructed around a production rule cognitive model of programming knowledge, called theideal student model. This model allows the tutor to solve exercises along with the student and provide assistance as necessary. As the student works, the tutor also maintains an estimate of the probability that the student has learned each of the rules in the ideal model, in a process calledknowledge tracing. The tutor presents an individualized sequence of exercises to the student based on these probability estimates until the student has mastered each rule. The programming tutor, cognitive model and learning and performance assumptions are described. A series of studies is reviewed that examine the empirical validity of knowledge tracing and has led to modifications in the process. Currently the model is quite successful in predicting test performance. Further modifications in the modeling process are discussed that may improve performance levels.
Standardized tests continue to generate gender and race gaps in achievement despite decades of national attention. Research on “stereotype threat” (Steele & Aronson, 1995) suggests that these gaps may be partly due to stereotypes that impugn the math abilities of females and the intellectual abilities of Black, Hispanic, and low-income students. A field experiment was performed to test methods of helping female, minority, and low-income adolescents overcome the anxiety-inducing effects of stereotype threat and, consequently, improve their standardized test scores. Specifically, seventh-grade students in the experimental conditions were mentored by college students who encouraged them either to view intelligence as malleable or to attribute academic difficulties in the seventh grade to the novelty of the educational setting. Results showed that females in both experimental conditions earned significantly higher math standardized test scores than females in the control condition. Similarly, the students—who were largely minority and low-income adolescents—in the experimental conditions earned significantly higher reading standardized test scores than students in the control condition.
Investigated the effects of a gaming approach on knowledge acquisition and retention in 56 male and 4 female military trainees. Ss were presented with either subject matter in paper-based prose form (text), paper-based question-and-answer form (test), or computer-based gaming form (game). Results show Ss assigned to the game condition scored significantly higher on a retention test compared to pretest performance. Ss assigned to the game condition scored significantly higher on a retention test than did Ss assigned to the text condition. Ss assigned to the test and text conditions showed no benefit from training in performance at the retention test. Ss assigned to the game condition rated the training they received as more enjoyable and more effective than did those assigned to the other 2 conditions. Results are discussed in terms of the effectiveness of computer-based games for military training applications. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved)
Children develop trait conceptions, which extend beyond mere descriptions or evaluations of observable behavior, before reaching school age. These trait conceptions help guide children as they make inferences about the mental states of others and reason about their social world. There is evidence that trait conceptions undergo some important changes during the elementary school years. In some cases, children interpret information about traits as though it indicates what individuals are like in general across time and contexts, which is a form of psychological essentialism. This way of conceptualizing traits is associated with an increased risk of maladaptive responses to academic and social challenges and a tendency to interpret negative social and academic outcomes as diagnostic of underlying traits. Across the elementary school years, children develop more coherent essentialist belief systems that correspond to aspects of their emerging understanding of the biological domain.
Why students engage in 'gaming the system' behavior in interactive learning environments
- R Baker
- J Walonoski
- N Heffernan
- I Roll
- A Corbett
- K R Koedinger
Chase, C. The interplay of chance and skill: Exploiting a common game mechanic to enhance learning and persistence
- C Chase
- Chase C.
Why students engage in 'gaming the system' behavior in interactive learning environments
- Baker R.
How Can We Instill Productive Mindsets at Scale? A Review of the Evidence and an Initial R&D Agenda. A White Paper prepared for the White House meeting on Excellence in Education: The Importance of Academic Mindsets
- D S Yeager
- D Paunesku
- G M Walton
- C S Dweck