Overcoming Students’ Limiting Viewpoints via Learner & Stress Mindset Teaching Interventions

Abstract

The mindsets, or core beliefs students hold towards learning, intelligence, challenge, resilience and stress can greatly influence their academic behaviours and achievement. However, students entering university may (inadvertently) have appropriated negative or self-limiting mindsets, which can adversely influence not only their academic success but also their overall mental and physical well-being. Constructively stated, these mindsets can be taught by targeting students’ core beliefs. Educational interventions have shown to transform students’ experiences and achievements in school. This case study has two overall purposes. First, to ascertain to what extent university students’ mindsets are self-limiting. Second, to discover if classroom mindset interventions throughout a semester can be effective in helping students realize and overcome any such self- limiting viewpoints. The interventions were separated into four distinct sessions based on four key areas of academic tenacity: 1) Learner Mindsets (Fixed vs Growth); 2) Performance vs Learning Goals; 3) Grit/resilience; and 4) Stress Mindsets. A mixed method research design was employed to collect data from 53 Japanese university ESL students. Questionnaires given before and after the intervention were employed for data collection. To support the quantitative data, qualitative data analysis was conducted at the end of the semester through student reflections. Results from baseline questionnaires showed a notable percentage of students initially did have self-limiting viewpoints regarding academic tenacity factors. However, final questionnaires and reflections showed a significant shift in awareness, and the desire by students to utilize positive mindsets in their academic, professional, and personal lives.