The Mindset Project in the First-Year Seminar: An Exploratory Study

Research in both education and in entrepreneurship has shown that certain attitudes, skills, and behaviors are helpful in working through problems to achieve success (Brown & Ryan, 2003; Dino, 2015; Duckworth et al, 2007; Dweck, 2009; MacCann et al., 2012; Metcalfe & Shumamura,1994; West et al., 2016). Fortunately, many of these attitudes, skills, and behaviors are embedded in theoretical constructs taught in first-year seminar (FYS) courses. However, constructs such as motivation, academic self-efficacy (Bandura, 1982), growth mindset (Dweck, 2009), mindfulness (Brown & Ryan, 2003), and grit (Duckworth et al, 2007) have not been integrated in a way that provides a cohesive framework that students can use to understand the process of how progress is made to achieve academic success. To remedy this problem, the Inquisitive Mindset Project focused on students developing an inquisitive mindset using a design-thinking approach. Students spent one semester learning about and using the inquisitive mindset in four FYS courses. This article presents a qualitative analysis of pre- and posttest data from open-ended survey questions related to developing an inquisitive mindset. The students' mindsets changed over the semester after being educated about and using an inquisitive mindset.