Can growth mindset interventions improve academic outcomes?

Do growth mindset interventions work for most students? The overall picture is disappointing.

The most comprehensive analysis to date, a 2022 meta-analysis of 63 studies involving nearly 100,000 students, found that growth mindset interventions have a tiny average effect on academic achievement—just 0.05 standard deviations [1]. To put that in plain terms: even if the effect were real, it would be too small to notice in a student's grades or test scores. Worse, when the researchers looked only at the highest-quality studies (6 studies, over 13,500 students), the effect shrank to 0.02 standard deviations and was not statistically significant—meaning it could easily be due to chance [1]. The authors also found evidence of publication bias: studies from authors with a financial stake in the intervention reported much larger effects than independent researchers [1]. So for the average student, the promise of big gains from a growth mindset intervention has not held up under scrutiny.

When and for whom do growth mindset interventions actually help?

Despite the weak overall results, several studies show that growth mindset interventions can produce meaningful gains for specific groups under the right conditions. A 2022 randomized trial with nearly 2,000 U.S. 6th and 7th graders found that a teacher-delivered intervention improved grades for struggling students by 0.27 standard deviations—equivalent to about 2.8 percentage points [3]. Notably, the biggest benefits were for students whose teachers themselves held a fixed mindset before the intervention, suggesting that changing the classroom environment matters as much as changing student beliefs [3]. Another large study of college students found that a brief online growth mindset intervention had no effect on the full student body, but it did improve term GPAs for Latinx students and increased the probability that Pell-eligible and Latinx students would graduate in four years with a selective major [5]. A 2025 study of physiotherapy students found that a 5-week intervention didn't help the average student, but it did significantly improve mindset and academic tenacity for those who started with a fixed or undecided mindset [2]. The pattern is clear: these interventions are not one-size-fits-all; they work best for students who are struggling, who hold fixed mindsets, or who face systemic barriers.

The teacher's own mindset may matter as much as the intervention itself.

A 2025 study using data from a nationwide sample in Chile found that simply being assigned to a teacher with a growth mindset raised students' standardized test scores by about 0.02 standard deviations—a small effect, but larger for students from low socioeconomic backgrounds and those with high prior grades [4]. The researchers also found that growth-mindset teachers were more likely to use effective classroom practices, which may explain the benefit [4]. This aligns with the 2022 teacher-delivered intervention study, where the biggest grade improvements occurred for students whose teachers initially held fixed mindsets [3]. Together, these findings suggest that a growth mindset intervention is only as good as the environment it lands in. If a teacher models fixed-mindset thinking, a student's new belief that 'intelligence can grow' may not survive. So the real leverage point might be training teachers, not just students.

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