College Readiness in Mathematics Related to Student Academic and Belonging Mindsets

My quantitative study investigated the differences and correlations between students’ academic (growth vs. fixed) mindsets and belonging mindsets when enrolled in a college-level mathematics course or enrolled in both the college-level mathematics and learning support mathematics courses. The study was conducted at a Tennessee community college in the Fall 2021 semester. Sixty-two students completed the paper survey, which consisted of 17 items that measured academic (growth vs. fixed) and belonging mindsets and included demographic items (age and gender) and ACT mathematics scores. I conducted independent t-tests to find any significant differences between academic (growth vs. fixed) mindset scores and belonging mindset scores of students enrolled in both a learning support and college-level math class and those enrolled in only a college-level math course (Research Questions 1, 2, 3,). The results indicated no significant differences between the two groups. I conducted Pearson correlation coefficients to find any correlations between ACT scores and academic (growth vs. fixed) mindset scores and belonging mindset scores (Research Questions 4, 5, 6). The results indicated no significant correlations in any of the areas. I conducted independent t-tests to find any significant differences between males and females when comparing students’ fixed mindset scores, growth mindset scores, and belonging mindset scores (Research Questions 7, 8, 9). The results did indicate a significant difference between males and females when comparing belonging mindset scores. Female participants tended to have higher belonging mindset scores than male participants.