PERKS AND PITFALLS OF DIFFERENT TRAJECTORIES: THE MODERATING ROLE OF EDUCATIONAL MOBILITY ON THE ACADEMIC EFFECTIVENESS OF GROWTH MINDSETS

Abstract

Can educational mobility hinder or supplement beneficial psychological processes of learning? We hypothesize that growth mindsets of intelligence – an adaptive mental tool for learning – would be less effective in learning environments that have lower mobility. Analysis of a large cross-national dataset and a longitudinal experiment supported this novel hypothesis. Study 1 examined data from secondary school students across 30 countries (n = 235,141 persons). Educational mobility at the country-level moderated the efficacy of student-level growth mindsets; countries higher on educational mobility showed larger effect sizes. Study 2 (n = 744) experimentally manipulated educational mobility in a realistic learning environment. The role of educational mobility as a moderator held strong and extended to active learning behavior, which subsequently predicted performance. Supplemental analyses further suggest that both advantaged and disadvantaged learners benefited from growth mindsets in high-mobility environments, although likely via different mechanisms.