Epistemological beliefs and implicit theories of intelligence as predictors of achievement goals

Passion and grit in individuals with high levels of growth mindset are different than in individuals who have low growth mindset

The main aim of the study was to investigate whether passion and grit varied in individuals with distinct levels of growth mindset. From an original sample of 1548 participants in the age 13 to 77 years, two groups with the 5 % highest scoring and the 5 % lowest scoring on growth mindset, respectively, were compared on their scores in passion and grit. Participants completed as a measure of Mindset the Theories of intelligence Scale (TIS). Grit-S scale was used to assess grit and to assess passion the eight item Passion Scale was used. Findings displayed that the growth mindset group with low scoring had significantly lower score in passion and grit than the growth mindset group with high scoring, indicating that adults with low growth mindset shows lower levels of passion and grit related to their peers with a high-level score. These results may probable be significant for better understanding of the relationship between these constructs positively related to life satisfaction, well-being, achievement, and learning. Additionally, acquiring a better picture of what indicate individuals with different levels of growth mindset can increase our comprehension of how to increase motivation, pursue long-term goals and maintain effort in different groups. It can be argued that growth mindset should be all encompassing in our society. Both in schools, sports, working life and within the walls of the family.

I CAN Intervention to Increase Grit and Self-Efficacy: A Pilot Study

In recent years, there has been a growing interest in increasing motivational factors within the domain of psychology. Among these factors, Grit, Mindset, Self-Efficacy, and Well-Being (Flourishing) have been suggested to play an important role in individuals' performance and Well-Being. Thus, cultivating these factors in the general population is important. Previous interventions have displayed substantial effects in certain areas. However, these interventions have primarily been Mindset oriented. This paper presents a novel intervention approach by also emphasizing the importance of brain development; the importance of stimuli for building a network in the brain; the importance of repetition for strengthening the network; and the importance of perseverance and deliberate practice for achievement. The purpose of the current study was to examine the effects of a 35-40 min online intervention to increase the beliefs of 'I CAN' for 38 university students in Norway. The mean age of the 38 participants was 22.55 (SD = 1.59) and they completed a pre-test assessment of the Grit-S Scale, Theories of Intelligence Scale (Mindset), General Self-Efficacy Scale, and Flourishing Scale (Well-Being). This was followed up by the novel intervention and finally a post-test of the scales eight weeks later. The results showed an increase in Grit, Self-Efficacy, and Well-Being. However, only Grit displayed a significant increase. We aimed at creating an intervention where the participants would "turn on the switch", meaning that they develop stronger beliefs. These promising results warrant a further development of the intervention, and studies with a larger group.

Lay Definitions of Intelligence, Knowledge, and Memory: Inter- and Independence of Constructs

The present study examined how lay participants define the following concepts used widely in psychology: being intelligent, knowing, and remembering. In the scientific community, knowledge overlaps with the contents of semantic memory, crystallized intelligence reflects the accumulation of knowledge, knowledge and event memory interact, and fluid intelligence and working memory correlate. Naturally, the lay public has implicit theories of these constructs. These theories mainly distinguish between intelligent and unintelligent behaviors and tend to include characteristics outside psychometric studies of intelligence, such as emotional intelligence. Here, we asked lay participants from the online platform Prolific to explain "what does being intelligent mean to you?" as well as "knowing" and "remembering" to understand their degree of alignment with theoretical conceptualizations in the research community. Qualitative coding of participant definitions showed that intelligence and knowledge are closely related, but asymmetrically-when defining what it means to be intelligent, participants reference knowledge, but intelligence is not considered in explaining knowing. Although participants note that intelligence is multi-faceted and related to problem-solving, there is an emphasis (in terms of frequency of mentions) on the crystallized side of intelligence (i.e., knowledge). A deeper understanding of lay participants' mental models of these constructs (i.e., their metacognitions) is essential for bridging gaps between experts and the general public.

Motivational Factors Are Varying across Age Groups and Gender

The aim of the current study was to explore differences in passion for achievement, grit, and mindset across age and gender, by using a cross-sectional design. The sample consisted of 1548 participants including 931 females and 617 males aged from 13 to 77 years (Mage 26.53 years, SD = 11.77). The eight-item Passion for Achievement Scale was used to assess general passion and the Grit-S scale was used to assess grit. Mindset was assessed using the eight-item Theories of Intelligence Scale (TIS). The results indicated significant differences between the three factors related to age, age groups, and gender. For the total sample, there was a significant gender difference in passion, where males score higher, and growth mindset, where females score higher. With age, passion decreases until the age of 50–59, and slightly increases for the remaining age groups. After a decrease in grit between the first (13–19 years) and the second (20–29 years) age group, grit increases with age. Mindset scores decline strongly after the age of 40–49. Generally, the patterns show that mindset and passion decrease across the life-span, while grit increases. Indeed, these attributes seems to be different from each other, and how they change varies across age groups.

Predictive Factors of Literacy Achievement in Young Gifted Children in Rural Schools

The present study investigated predictive factors of literacy achievement in third-grade students identified as gifted in rural schools. The sample consisted of 180 identified students in a total of eight districts, three of which were randomly assigned to the treatment condition and five of which were randomly assigned to the control condition. Students in the treatment condition received instruction with a place-based folklore unit of the Challenge Leading to Engagement, Achievement, and Results (CLEAR) curriculum, a language arts based curriculum designed to challenge gifted learners, in addition to an intervention promoting an incremental mind-set. Results of the present study indicated that prior achievement, mind-set, and gender were all statistically and practically significant predictors of literacy achievement for students identified as gifted in rural areas. A stronger incremental mind-set was associated with lower literacy achievement scores. Practical implications and recommendations, as well as limitations and directions for further research, were discussed.

Goal Orientation: A Review of the Miles Traveled and the Miles to Go

Goal orientation, a theory that originated primarily in the educational and social psychology fields, has emerged in the past two decades as a prominent theory in organizational psychology and organizational behavior. We review the state of affairs for goal orientation research with the following roadmap. First, we discuss the historical roots of goal orientation. Next, we summarize the nomological network of goal orientation and describe the processing frameworks associated with goal orientation factors. We then discuss the crucial role of moderator variables to explain the notable variance found in goal orientation–outcome variable relationships. We next summarize the research findings on the relationship of goal orientation with the proximal mediator and distal outcome variables. We conclude the review with a miles-to-go discussion of several major issues currently faced in goal orientation research.

Math Self-Efficacy and STEM Intentions: A Person-Centered Approach

Research pertaining to STEM interest and persistence continues to be a top priority in the educational research arena. The current study employed a person-centered approach to examine the impact of math self-efficacy and various distal predictors, such as individuals' demographic information, beliefs about math, and social group identification, on STEM interest and intentions. Specifically, we conducted a latent profile analysis (LPA), thereby inferring three homogeneous subgroups of individuals or latent classes from their response patterns on the 18-item sources of math self-efficacy measure. Our analyses showed that individuals' ethnicity, implicit theories of math ability, and other group orientation were predictive of class membership (Mastery, Moderate, and Unconfident). We also found that there were significant differences in interest in STEM subjects, interest in STEM activities, individuals' majors, and retention grade point average across the three latent classes. Our findings support the importance of math self-efficacy in choice of major as well as overall academic performance regardless of whether a student is in a STEM field or a non-STEM field.

Moral growth mindset is associated with change in voluntary service engagement

Incremental implicit theories are associated with a belief regarding it is possible to improve one's intelligence or ability through efforts. Previous studies have demonstrated that incremental implicit theories contributed to better academic achievement and positive youth development. Our study aimed to examine whether incremental implicit theories of morality significantly influenced change in students' engagement in voluntary service activities. In our study, 54 Korean college students for Study 1 and 180 Korean 8th graders for Study 2 were recruited to conduct two two-wave studies. We surveyed participants' implicit theories of morality and participation in voluntary service activities. The effect of implicit theories of morality on change in service engagement was analyzed through regression analysis. In Study 1, the moral growth mindset significantly moderated longitudinal change in service engagement. In Study 2, the moral growth mindset significantly influenced engagement in art-related activities, while it significantly moderated change in engagement in youth-related activities.

Conceptual Issues and Assessment of Implicit Theories

Abstract. We reviewed fundamental conceptual issues and the state of research on the definition and assessment of implicit theories. We grappled with the following controversies related to the construct: (a) Are entity theory and incremental theory opposite ends of the same continuum? (b) How can scholars use more sophisticated methodologies to classify individuals into either the entity or incremental theory? (c) Given shifting conceptions of what intelligence is, how can scholars refine the implicit theory of intelligence construct? Given these conceptual issues, we then addressed practical issues related to the assessment of implicit theories. We point to the need for more sophisticated methods such as implicit association tests and the use of virtual environments as more “stealthy” ways to assess the construct.

Examining the Effects of Task Instructions to Induce Implicit Theories of Intelligence on a Rational Thinking Task

Abstract. In two experiments with Norwegian undergraduates and one experiment with US undergraduates, we examined the potential effects of brief task instructions aligned with incremental and entity views of intelligence on students’ performance on a rational thinking task. The research demonstrated that even brief one-shot task instructions that deliver a mindset about intelligence intervention can be powerful enough to affect students’ performance on such a task. This was only true for Norwegian male students, however. Moreover, it was the task instruction aligned with an entity theory of intelligence that positively affected Norwegian male students’ performance on the rational thinking task, with this unanticipated finding speaking to the context- and culture-specificity of implicit theories of intelligence interventions.

Exploring the relationships between epistemic beliefs about medicine and approaches to learning medicine: a structural equation modeling analysis

BACKGROUND

Students' epistemic beliefs may vary in different domains; therefore, it may be beneficial for medical educators to better understand medical students' epistemic beliefs regarding medicine. Understanding how medical students are aware of medical knowledge and how they learn medicine is a critical issue of medical education. The main purposes of this study were to investigate medical students' epistemic beliefs relating to medical knowledge, and to examine their relationships with students' approaches to learning medicine.

METHODS

A total of 340 undergraduate medical students from 9 medical colleges in Taiwan were surveyed with the Medical-Specific Epistemic Beliefs (MSEB) questionnaire (i.e., multi-source, uncertainty, development, justification) and the Approach to Learning Medicine (ALM) questionnaire (i.e., surface motive, surface strategy, deep motive, and deep strategy). By employing the structural equation modeling technique, the confirmatory factor analysis and path analysis were conducted to validate the questionnaires and explore the structural relations between these two constructs.

RESULTS

It was indicated that medical students with multi-source beliefs who were suspicious of medical knowledge transmitted from authorities were less likely to possess a surface motive and deep strategies. Students with beliefs regarding uncertain medical knowledge tended to utilize flexible approaches, that is, they were inclined to possess a surface motive but adopt deep strategies. Students with beliefs relating to justifying medical knowledge were more likely to have mixed motives (both surface and deep motives) and mixed strategies (both surface and deep strategies). However, epistemic beliefs regarding development did not have significant relations with approaches to learning.

CONCLUSIONS

Unexpectedly, it was found that medical students with sophisticated epistemic beliefs (e.g., suspecting knowledge from medical experts) did not necessarily engage in deep approaches to learning medicine. Instead of a deep approach, medical students with sophisticated epistemic beliefs in uncertain and justifying medical knowledge intended to employ a flexible approach and a mixed approach, respectively.

Teaching ill-structured problem solving using occupational therapy practice epistemology

ABSTRACT Epistemic and ontological cognition (EOC) have to do with an individual's beliefs about knowledge and knowing. Research has shown that EOC have an influence on learning and achievement. EOC may be discipline-specific with a profession being defined by its practice epistemology. If an individual's EOC is inconsistent with the profession's practice epistemology, the student or practitioner may struggle with effectively solving ill-structured occupational performance problems. The purpose of this paper is to increase awareness of the constructs of EOC, to describe its importance to occupational therapy education and practice, and to provide recommendations for educators and researchers. Specific examples are detailed and recommendations for future research are proposed.

Epistemological beliefs as predictors of self-regulated learning strategies in middle school students

This study examines the contribution of epistemological beliefs to middle school students’ reported use of self-regulated learning strategies. One hundred and sixty 8th and 9th graders from three public middle schools participated in the study. Gender was about equally represented in the sample (89 girls, 71 boys). During the group examination phase, the participants were asked to complete a Greek version of Epistemological Beliefs Questionnaire (EBQ), based on Schommer-Aikins, Mau, Brookhart and Hutter’s (2000) middle school version of EBQ. During the individual examination phase, they were interviewed using the Self-Regulated Learning Interview Schedule (SRLIS). Epistemological beliefs about the speed of learning and the ability to learn significantly predicted the reported use of cognitive as well as motivational regulation strategies. The educational implications of the results are discussed in relation to cultural influences on the formation of epistemological beliefs.

INVESTIGATION OF TURKISH TRAINEE TEACHERS' EPISTEMOLOGICAL BELIEFS

The aim of this study was to determine Turkish trainee teachers' epistemological beliefs and to examine them with respect to some variables. The study group was composed of 331 Turkish trainee teachers studying at Dumupınar University Education Faculty. Data were collected using the Turkish version of the Epistemological Beliefs Questionnaire (Deryakulu & Büyüköztürk, 2002, 2005; Schommer, 1990). It was found that trainee teachers' beliefs that learning depends on effort rather than ability were sophisticated compared to their other beliefs; while the belief that there is only one unchanging truth was naïve compared to their other beliefs. Turkish trainee teachers' epistemological beliefs differed significantly in terms of gender. That is, female students believed more than did males that learning depends on effort rather than ability.

Die Bedeutung domänenspezifischer epistemologischer Überzeugungen für Motivation, Selbstkonzept und Lernstrategien von Studierenden

Epistemologische Überzeugungen sind Vorstellungen über die Struktur des Wissens und des Wissenserwerbs. Von einem domänenspezifischen Ansatz ausgehend wurden die Verbindungen epistemologischer Überzeugungen in den Naturwissenschaften zu Motivation, Selbstkonzept und Lernstrategien analysiert. An der Fragebogenuntersuchung nahmen einhundertundzwanzig Studierende des Grundstudiums für das Lehramt Biologie teil. Die Studienergebnisse zeigen, dass reifere epistemologische Überzeugungen mit einer höheren Leistungsmotivation und einem höheren fachspezifischen Selbstkonzept einhergehen. Lernende mit höher entwickelten epistemologischen Überzeugungen vermeiden oberflächliche und bevorzugen tiefer gehende Lernstrategien. Aus einer Clusteranalyse geht hervor, dass Personen mit einer relativistischen Weltsicht über ein höheres Selbstkonzept und bessere Lernstrategien verfügen als Personen mit einer konservativen Weltsicht. Eine Verbesserung des epistemologischen Verständnisses könnte zu günstigeren Lerndispositionen beitragen.