The Role of Mindset in Education: A Large-Scale Field Experiment in Disadvantaged Schools
Abstract This article shows that a four-year mindset intervention in disadvantaged middle schools led to a 0.05-standard-deviation increase in grade point average, associated with more optimistic beliefs, more self-criticism and improved school behaviour. Treatment effects were larger in terms of both grade point average and National Exam results for students with relatively better social, academic and discipline profiles. According to international empirical benchmarks, this mindset intervention is highly cost effective, but the effect size remains small despite repeated exposure over four years.
Authors
- Élise Huillery (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9931-4610)
- Adrien Bouguen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0062-9370)
- Axelle Charpentier
- Coralie Chevallier (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7358-4962)
- Yann Algan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8120-5969)
Institutions
- Santa Clara University (US)
- École Normale Supérieure (BI)
- Ministère de l’Éducation nationale, de l’Enfance et de la Jeunesse (LU)
- Université Paris Dauphine-PSL (FR)
- HEC Paris (FR)
Publication Details
- Journal
- The Economic Journal
- Published
- 2025-02-12
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1093/ej/ueaf015
- Citations
- 3
- Primary Topic
- Grit, Self-Efficacy, and Motivation
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 7.32
Funders
- Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
- Agence Nationale de la Recherche
- Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam
- European Research Council