Using technology to create a stronger growth mindset in students
‘If you believe it, you can achieve it’ is a mantra we’re probably all familiar with. But is it actually true? That’s what the EU-funded BRAINBELIEFS project wanted to find out. “’Growth mindset’ is a way of viewing challenges and setbacks,” explains Nienke van Atteveldt, a professor of Neuroscience and Society at VU Amsterdam. “People with such a mindset believe that, even if they struggle with something, they can improve.” In the BRAINBELIEFS project, which received support from the European Research Council, van Atteveldt and her team looked at the role growth mindsets play in secondary school. Specifically, they wanted to understand how adolescents’ self-beliefs about their own learning abilities shape the way they deal with challenges and setbacks at school. “Using observational research, we demonstrated that adolescents’ mindsets have a direct impact on their learning behaviour, that is, their choice of whether or not to invest effort in learning,” says van Atteveldt. However, researchers also noted that the difference isn’t as simple as having a growth or a fixed mindset. “Learning self-beliefs are complex, with students holding richer, more diverse belief systems that they adapt to their learning contexts,” adds van Atteveldt.
Stimulating a growth mindset
Next, researchers looked at whether one could stimulate a growth mindset in students. To find out, they developed Explore Your Brain, an intervention that included portable, EEG-based neurofeedback games that allow students to experience the influence they have over their brains. For example, one game showed students a line moving up and down and asked them to control it using only the power of their brain. “This is the first time that mobile EEG-based neurofeedback technology has been used to empower a student’s motivation and self-beliefs,” notes van Atteveldt.
A growth mindset and resilience to school-related stress
Used in a randomised controlled trial at schools, researchers showed that their technology-based intervention created a stronger growth mindset in students within the first year of use. The study also showed that the intervention protected students against a decline in maths grades. But would the effect last? Unfortunately, the planned 2-year follow-up landed right in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, when most schools were closed and students were learning remotely. However, where others may have thrown in the towel, the BRAINBELIEFS project saw an opportunity. “We adapted the 2-year follow-up to include measures of COVID-related stress exposure and coping styles,” says van Atteveldt. “This allowed us to investigate the effect a growth mindset has on school-related stress resilience.” Interestingly, the results showed that students who had received the EEG-based intervention the year prior were more resilient to COVID-19 related stress, thanks in part to their use of more adaptive coping strategies. “This gives further credence to the effectiveness of using neurofeedback technology as a means of promoting growth mindsets amongst students,” adds van Atteveldt. Many of the project’s results are available via the project’s Lab of Learning. Researchers are also looking to further develop the Explore Your Brain intervention and make it more readily available to classrooms and those students who may benefit from it.
Keywords
BRAINBELIEFS, learning, learning behaviour, learning abilities, growth mindset, brain, neuroscience, neurofeedback technology
