Beliefs Influence on Achievement

Science Café Topic: Do Beliefs Influence Students' Achievement?

with Brooke Macnamara, PhD

AUGUST 13, 2018

According to mindset theory, individuals believe either that their intelligence can grow with effort (i.e., they hold what is called a “growth mindset") or that intelligence is relatively stable (i.e., hold a "fixed mindset"). Some earlier research findings have suggested that holding a growth mindset is beneficial and results in individuals having a greater propensity to try and overcome challenges, whereas holding a fixed mindset is thought to be detrimental, leading to a greater likelihood of giving up too easily when faced with a challenge or even avoiding situations where they might be challenged. These ideas have been widely circulated in the education community and led to intervention programs designed to encourage the growth mindset in students. Brooke recently tested the effectiveness of such interventions on academic achievement and found that these claims may have been overstated. Join us at this month's Science Cafe Cleveland as she shares these findings. (From Science Café website)

The following resources and titles provide an additional look at the topics of Dr. Macnamara's talk for you to explore further. Enjoy!

Online Resources

The following online links highlight Dr. Macnamara and her work:

Brooke Macnamara. Schools are buying ‘growth mindset’ interventions despite scant evidence that they work well. The Conversation. June 26, 2018.
Jenny Abamu. Believe and You Can Achieve? Researchers Find Limited Gains From Growth Mindset Interventions. EdSurge. March 29, 2018.
Study: Teaching students that intelligence can grow with effort does little to improve academic performance. From CWRU's the daily, March 15, 2018.
Abigail Beall. Everyone’s favourite psychology theory isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Wired (UK). March 13, 2018.
5 questions with… Brooke Macnamara, faculty member and psychological sciences’ “rising star” CWRU's the daily, February 2, 2018.
Brooke N. Macnamara, Natasha S. Rupani. The relationship between intelligence and mindset (2017)
Perfect Practice - A short statement (with audio) on the topic of "How you practice is more important than how long you do it for." The Academic Minute, December 23, 2014.

Nonfiction Titles

The following titles explore the connection among pre-conceived beliefs, perception, and other aspects of consciousness.

The Invisible Gorilla : And Other Ways Our Intuitions Deceive Us by Christopher Chabris and Daniel J. Simons (2010)
- Professors of Psychology Chabris and Simons write about six everyday illusions of perception and thought, including the beliefs that: we pay attention more than we do, our memories are more detailed than they are, confident people are competent people, we know more than we actually do, and our brains have reserves of power that are easy to unlock. Through a host of studies, anecdotes, and logic, the authors debunk conventional wisdom about the workings of the mind and what "experts" really know (or don't). Presented almost as a response to Malcolm Gladwell's Blink, the book pays special attention to "the illusion of knowledge" and the danger of basing decision-making, in areas such as investing, on short-term information; in the authors' view, careful analysis of assumed truths is preferred over quick, intuitive thinking. Chabris and Simons are not against intuition, "...but we don't think it should be exalted above analysis without good evidence that it is truly superior." (Excerpt, Publisher's Weekly) Book recommendation from Dr. Macnamara.
The Consciousness Instinct : Unraveling The Mystery Of How The Brain Makes The Mind by Michael Gazzaniga (2018)
- Nothing if not daring, Gazzaniga attempts a task that has long frustrated philosophers and scientists: namely, that of explaining human consciousness. Himself a distinguished neuroscientist, Gazzaniga starts by dispelling a misconception traceable back to Descartes, who viewed the human mind as a spiritual ghost in a biological machine. Despite ever-increasing neurological sophistication in explaining the brain's biochemical machinery, the ghost of consciousness still eludes scientific explanation and will continue to do so, Gazzaniga insists, until researchers recognize in the relationship between brain and mind the same kind of complementarity that quantum physicists discern in a single subatomic entity manifesting two quite different identities. A rare opportunity to probe the frontiers of neurological inquiry. (Excerpt, Booklist)
As/If : Idealization and Ideals by Anthony Appiah (2017)
- Following his practice of producing short, concise, well-written, thoughtful books of interest to a broad audience, Appiah again raises important questions. Following Kant scholar/philosopher Hans Vaihinger (1852-1933), Appiah makes clear the common, practical use of as/if, ideal/fiction language. Thinking as if something that is false is true, for "some useful purpose(s) or other," facilitates theoretical thinking. Pragmatic idealizations help one find one's way in the world more easily; one can control and understand the world better through scientific/metaphysical and ethical/political as/if modelling or theorizing. Though his explanations are interesting, one is still left in a world problematically accepting fictions, outright false beliefs, untruths, inconsistencies, and lies as justifying theoretical foundations. Accepting untruths even for some purpose still potentially destroys trust in democratic politicians/institutions. Undaunted, Appiah claims, in the preface, that "sometimes, in thinking about the world, truth isn't what you need." This is an exploratory, not a definitive, work. (Excerpt, Choice)
Deviate : The Science Of Seeing Differently by R. Beau Lotto (2017)
- Lotto, a world-renowned neuroscientist and TED Talks speaker, takes readers on a mind-bending journey in this culmination of more than 25 years of research. Lotto literally challenges the way we see the world by dissecting how our brains perceive our environments and how we make meaning out of what our senses gather. Lotto compares our perceptions with those of animals from the minuscule bumblebee, which evolved to see color long before humans did, to the majestic reindeer, which can see ultraviolet light and reveals that, visionwise, our worldview is comparably narrow. Through numerous optical illusions, hands-on experiments, and disorienting uses of typography, Lotto engages with readers directly and actively. Lotto's inquiry is densely packed with thought-provoking information, from historical findings to modern-day experiments, and any reader interested in science, psychology, philosophy, or self-improvement will find this groundbreaking work simultaneously engrossing and entertaining. (Excerpt, Booklist)

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