Evidence Based Practice: Growth Mindset/Cognitive Wrapper
Karyn Turla
What is it?
This activity helps students think about how they study and how they might change what they are doing going forward to be more successful.
When to use it?
This technique works best when administered after the first major assessment.
Summary of Technique
We all have a variety of fixed and growth mindsets about various aspects of our lives. The mindset we have greatly affects how we respond to failure. In academia, students with a growth mindset understand that their talents can be cultivated through hard work, changing study/course strategies, and collaboration. Students with a fixed mindset believe their abilities and skills are innate and cannot be developed further; a failure indicates an inability. Students with a growth mindset tend to do better in their courses, making adjustments in their strategies as needed, while students with a fixed mindset tend not to change what they are doing even when faced with failure. The growth mindset can be developed by coupling growth mindset activities (introducing students to a growth mindset, what it means, and how it can benefit them) with other activities that help the students see how they can change their study strategies. One such activity is the Cognitive Wrapper.
A cognitive wrapper (an exam wrapper or an assessment wrapper) improves students’ metacognition (understanding course goals, knowing one’s strengths and weaknesses, reflecting, evaluating, and adjusting course strategies). Cognitive wrappers improve student learning by encouraging students to think about what they are doing and how they might be able to change their strategy to improve their course performance. This enhances the student’s self-regulating ability and develops critical thinking skills. Cognitive wrappers are simple surveys that can be administered before and/or after assessments. The pre-exam wrapper surveys the students about their study plans, including resources used, time spent studying, etc. The post-exam wrapper asks the students to reflect on
- their satisfaction with their exam performance,
- the strategies they employed to prepare for the exam,
- changes they will make to their study strategies going forward.
Extra credit points may be assigned to the wrappers' completion for a higher participation yield.
Links to Resources
Growth Mindset
How to Foster a Growth Mindset in the Classroom
How Teachers Can Build a Growth-Mindset Classroom, Even at a Distance
Cognitive Wrapper
Cognitive Wrappers: Using Metacognition and Reflection to Improve Learning
Designing Effective Exam Wrappers …
Personal Experience
I include a Growth Mindset exercise after the first exam in each course that I teach. A description of the Growth Mindset and information about how to develop it are provided. This exercise is also coupled with the completion of a cognitive wrapper. This is a 10-question survey with the following questions:
- What % score did you achieve on Exam 1?
- Were you satisfied with your Exam 1 score?
- In preparing for Exam 1, did you study from the Foundations PowerPoints?
- In preparing for Exam 1, did you read the textbook?
- In preparing for Exam 1, did you look at the study guides at the end of each PowerPoint?
- In preparing for the Exam 1, did you review quiz questions?
- In preparing for Exam 1, did you review homework questions?
- Did you attend any of the tutoring sessions? (Yes or No). If yes, how many sessions did you attend?
- In preparing for Exam 1, did you participate in any peer study groups?
- In preparing for exam 1, did you review the Discussion board questions and answers?
- In preparing for Exam 1, did you review the Top Hat questions?
- Have you reached out to the instructor for help?
- Estimate in hours the amount of time you spent studying for Exam 1.
- In thinking about how you studied for Exam 1, when did you do most of your studying?
- List three things you plan to do differently in the future to improve your overall exam performance.
- Is there anything you want me to tell or want me to know?
The students are given a few days to read about the growth mindset and complete the cognitive wrapper. Students who complete the wrapper by the due date and time will get two extra credit points added to their first exam score. Before I meet with students to discuss their exam performance, I review their cognitive wrapper so I know how to direct my comments.
I think the students like the cognitive wrapper, and many change what they are doing and how they do it. Frankly, the first time I did this exercise, I was skeptical and pleasantly surprised by its effectiveness. It did not take that much effort, and it positively impacted the students' behavior.
Reference List
- Canning, E. A., Ozier, E., Williams, H. E., AlRasheed, R., & Murphy, M. C. (2021). Professors who signal a fixed mindset about ability undermine women’s performance in STEM. Social Psychological and Personality Science. https://doi.org/10.1177/19485506211030398
- Dweck, C. S. (2006). Mindset: The new psychology of success. Random House.
- Hecht, C. A., Kroeper, K. M., Murphy, M. C., Yeager, D. S. (manuscript in prep). When do motivational beliefs affect behavior? The case of a growth mindset.
- Kegan, R., Lahey, L. L. (2009) Immunity to Change: How to Overcome it and Unlock the potential in yourself and your Organization 9Harvard Business Review Press)
- Kroeper, K. M., Fried, A. C., & Murphy, M. C. (in press). Towards fostering growth mindset classrooms: Identifying teaching behaviors that signal instructors’ fixed and growth mindsets beliefs to students. Social Psychology of Education.
- LaCosse, J., Murphy, M. C., Garcia, J. A., & Zirkel, S. (2021). The role of STEM professors’ mindset beliefs on students’ anticipated psychological experiences and course interest. Journal of Educational Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1037/edu0000620
- Lovett, M. C. (2013), “Make exams worth more than grades: Using exam wrappers to promote metacognition” in Using reflection and metacognition to improve student learning, Kaplan, M, Silver, N, Lavaque-Manty, D., Meizlish, D., ed. San Francisco: Sterling, VA: Stylus. www.learningwrappers.org
- Muenks, K., Canning, E. A., LaCosse, J., Green, D. J., Zirkel, S., Garcia, J. A., & Murphy, M. C. (2020). Does my professor think my ability can change? Students’ perceptions of their STEM professors’ mindset beliefs predict their psychological vulnerability, engagement, and performance in class. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1037/xge0000763
- Paunesku, D., Walton, G. M., Romero, C., Smith, E. N., Yeager, D. S., & Dweck, C. S. (2015). Mind-set interventions are a scalable treatment for academic underachievement. Psychological Science, 26(6), 784–793. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797615571017
- Ramirez, G. & Beilock, L. (2011). “Writing about testing worries boosts exam performances in the classroom. Science, 331 (6014), 211-213.
- Silver, N. (2013) “Reflective pedagogies and the metacognitive turn in college teaching. In Using reflection and metacognition to improve student learning, Kaplan, M, Silver, N, Lavaque-Manty, D., Meizlish, D., ed. San Francisco: Sterling, VA: Stylus.
- Yeager, D. S., Hanselman, P., Walton, G. M., Murray, J. S., Crosnoe, R., Muller, C., Tipton, E., Schneider, B., Hulleman, C. S., Hinojosa, C. P., Paunesku, D., Romero, C., Flint, K., Roberts, A., Trott, J., Iachan, R., Buontempo, J., Yang, S. M., Carvalho, C. M., … Dweck, C. S. (2019). A national experiment reveals where a growth mindset improves achievement. Nature, 1–6. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-019-1466-y
- Yeager, D. S., Carroll, J. M., Buontempo, J., Cimpian, A., Woody, S., Crosnoe, R., Muller, C., Murray, J., Mhatre, P., Kersting, N., Hulleman, C., Kudym, M., Murphy, M., Duckworth, A. L., Walton, G. M., & Dweck, C. S. (2022). Teacher mindsets help explain where a growth-mindset intervention does and doesn’t work. Psychological Science, 33(1), 18–32. https://doi.org/10.1177/09567976211028984
