The growth mindset, a concept developed by Carol S. Dweck and Dennis L. Eggett, is defined as the belief that intelligence and intellectual ability are not fixed and unchangeable traits but, on the contrary, can be expanded and enhanced through effort and practice. Several studies have indicated that students with a stronger growth mindset tend to be more motivated and achieve greater academic success, and that teachers’ growth mindsets also appear to lead to better outcomes. However, this relationship between beliefs about the malleability of intelligence and academic performance is complex and depends on various factors, as noted in a 2020 study by David Yeager and Carol Dweck.
For example, the positive relationship between a growth mindset and academic success seems to require a classroom environment that is also aligned with these concepts, with teachers who possess this mindset and a reward system that promotes effort and strategy as steps toward growth and offers support when needed. However, even under these circumstances, factors such as students’ socioeconomic status or their initial level of academic success appear to influence the impact of a growth mindset, as noted in a 2018 study led by Victoria F. Sisk.
It is also important to note that several researchers, such as in a study led by Alexander P. Burgoyne in 2020, have criticized the concept of a growth mindset, both because its effects on academic success are not always replicated and because they have proven to have little impact. In fact, research points to highly varied effects of the growth mindset, making it difficult to predict exactly under what conditions it might lead to improved academic performance.
Thus, according to the study led by Victoria F. Sisk in 2018, the impact of interventions aimed at fostering a growth mindset in schools is also too varied to conclude that they yield widespread benefits. It is also important to note that growth mindset has often been confused with the idea that increasing effort is always sufficient to achieve goals, ignoring contextual differences among students. Another misconception about growth mindset is that it means effort, even if it fails, should be recognized just as success is. On the contrary, researchers such as Carol S. Dweck in 2015 and Milad Memari in 2024 have been warning against this “false” growth mindset, which masks learning problems rather than helping to solve them. For example, the belief that all students have the same abilities and that, if they all try equally hard, they can achieve the same goals masks the need to use the most effective learning strategies and provide support to students based on their abilities and context. Precisely to assess how students’ context can influence the effects of the growth mindset on their academic performance, researchers Pimmada Charoensilp, Hanjoe Kim, and Suppanut Sriutaisuk, from Thailand and South Korea, examined whether socioeconomic status influences the relationship between growth mindset and mathematical literacy. In the study, published in the scientific journal Plos One, they used the results of the 2022 PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) in mathematics for 15-year-old students, which included 507,588 students from 74 countries. PISA is a large-scale assessment of academic performance conducted by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, which not only measures students’ literacy levels but also includes variables such as creative thinking, growth mindset, self-efficacy, and sociodemographic and school characteristics, among others.
The results indicated that, in 50 of the 74 countries in the sample, students with a growth mindset tended to perform better in mathematical literacy. This was the case in countries such as Portugal and the United States. However, in 5 countries, including Poland and the Philippines, the opposite relationship was observed; and in 19 countries, such as France, Italy, or Greece, growth mindset and mathematical literacy were not related. Students’ socioeconomic status moderated the relationship between growth mindset and mathematical literacy in 33 countries. However, the effect of socioeconomic status was not the same across these 33 nations. In 7 of them, such as Croatia and Serbia, students from higher socioeconomic backgrounds benefited less from a growth mindset than students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds; but in 26 countries, such as Malaysia and Qatar, it was students from higher socioeconomic backgrounds who benefited most from a growth mindset. In Portugal, as well as in 40 other countries, the impact of socioeconomic status on the relationship between growth mindset and mathematical literacy was not significant.
These results point, once again, to significant variation in the effect of growth mindset on academic performance, in this case specifically on mathematical literacy. However, they also show that in most countries the effect is positive or negligible, which may justify investing in the promotion of growth mindsets. Nevertheless, in most countries where socioeconomic status affected the relationship between growth mindset and mathematical literacy, it was students from higher socioeconomic backgrounds who benefited most from having a growth mindset.
This finding contradicts some earlier studies, conducted primarily with U.S. students, but is consistent with other research that has shown a similar pattern of results in the same geographic regions: Southeast Asia and Latin America. In countries where this effect was observed, there are significant socioeconomic inequalities, and the authors of the article suggest that, in these cases, poorer students lack the opportunities and support necessary to benefit from a growth mindset. Conversely, in more developed countries with education systems that prioritize equity, such as Germany and Austria, students with lower socioeconomic status were the ones who benefited most from a growth mindset.
The study we analyze in this text makes an important contribution to our understanding of growth mindset and how contextual variables influence its potential impact on mathematical literacy. Although it has several limitations—such as the fact that growth mindset is measured by only one item and does not allow for the establishment of causal relationships between the variables studied—the research indicates that interventions aimed at increasing growth mindset will only be successful if it is ensured that all students have access to similar learning opportunities. That is, a growth mindset only leads to greater academic success in a context where the malleability of intelligence and cognitive abilities is acknowledged.