Teachers' Growth Mindset and Work Engagement in the Chinese Educational Context: Well-Being and Perseverance of Effort as Mediators.

Guang Zeng,Xinjie Chen,Kaiping Peng,Hoi Yan Cheung

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00839

Guang Zeng, Xinjie Chen + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00839

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Abstract

The current study investigated the relationships among growth mindset, work engagement, perseverance of effort and well-being for secondary school teachers in the Chinese educational context. We adopted Growth Mindset Inventory, Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES), Grit Scale (Perseverance subscale), and PERMA profiles that measure five dimensions of well-being. Participants included 472 secondary school teachers from 10 secondary schools in central China. Correlation analysis showed that growth mindset, well-being, and perseverance of effort could all predict work engagement. Moreover, the structural equation model and mediation analysis further suggested that well-being and perseverance of effort could partially mediate the relationship between growth mindset and work engagement. This study permitted to advance our knowledge about the relationship between growth mindset and work engagement, which should be considered for future teaching practices and teacher development.

Highlights

Growth mindsets, called implicit theories, are defined as core assumptions about the malleability of personal qualities (Dweck and Leggett, 1988; Dweck et al, 1995; Molden and Dweck, 2006; Yeager and Dweck, 2012)
The low work engagement could be due to the heavy daily workload, high sense of responsibility and stress in the Chinese educational context (Wong, 1989; Chan, 1998)
Our results pointed out the need of promoting work engagement among Chinese teachers

Summary

Introduction

Called implicit theories, are defined as core assumptions about the malleability of personal qualities (Dweck and Leggett, 1988; Dweck et al, 1995; Molden and Dweck, 2006; Yeager and Dweck, 2012). People with a growth mindset (an incremental theory) hold the beliefs that intellect, personality, and ability as something that can be grown or developed over time. People with a fixed mindset (an entity theory) hold the belief that these basic human quality are static and unchangeable (Dweck, 2009; Yeager and Dweck, 2012). People who believed that intelligence as a malleable quality (as opposed to an unchangeable, fixed entity) demonstrated stronger learning goals, more positive beliefs about effort, and engaged in more effort-based strategies, such as working harder and spending more time on the task (Blackwell et al, 2007). Growth mindset people emphasize on learning goals, such as becoming smart and improving their abilities (Dweck and Leggett, 1988; Dweck, 2000). Fixed mindset individuals are more inclined to stereotyping (Levy et al, 1998; Rydell et al, 2007)

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