Abstract
Does the mindset about fixed intelligence have an effect on inadequate reading self-concept? Recognition that students’ beliefs or perceptions about intelligence and ability affect their cognitive functioning and learning is amongst the top twenty psychological principles for teaching and learning of young people (APA, 2015). Research into these beliefs, which are named fixed versus growth mindset, suggests that a fixed mindset represents an important barrier to successful learning. In our paper, we use the PISA 2018 data to investigate the occurrence of a fixed mindset amongst Slovenian 15-year-olds, and, as a focus of the paper, the context that the mindset forms for the relationship between actual ability and self-concept. We address the question of whether there is a difference in reading self-concepts for students with similar reading literacy but different mindsets. We found that there are no gender differences in the proportion of students with fixed mindsets and, as expected, somewhat higher proportions of low-achieving students have fixed mindsets in comparisons with high-achieving students. Differences amongst reading self-concepts of boys and girls are well-known. Our analyses further revealed the within-gender differences in self-concepts between those with fixed and those with growth mindset; girls or boys with a growth mindset have, on average, higher reading literacy, higher self-concept and enjoy reading more than girls or boys with a fixed mindset. If these comparisons are further adjusted only to students with similarly low levels of reading literacy, we find that students with average-low reading literacy have a similar self-concept of reading competence regardless of their mindset, their perceptions of how many difficulties they have in reading in general and on the PISA reading test are, however, very different. While girls with average-low reading literacy and a growth mindset are perceived to have an average (within the group of average-low readers) amount of problems in both reading in general and in the PISA test, girls with average-low reading literacy and a fixed mindset are perceived to have more of such problems – despite being similarly successful on the PISA test. Boys with average-low reading literacy of both mindsets reported fewer difficulties in reading in general than girls – even though their reading achievements are similar. However, fewer problems on the PISA test were reported by boys with average-low reading literacy and a growth mindset, while those with a fixed mindset, interestingly, reported a similar amount of these problems as girls with average-low reading literacy and a growth mindset. The effects of a fixed mindset therefore seem to show in some cases in an inappropriate self-assessment of reading problems. Key words: Fixed and growth mindset, reading literacy, reading self-concept, PISA study
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