An Examination of Secondary School Students Mindsets in Terms of Gender, Grade Level and Age Variables within the Context of Implicit Theories

This article aims to examine the growth and fixed mindsets of secondary school students within the framework of implicit theories, according to the variables of gender, grade level and age. A correlational survey model, one of the quantitative research methods, was employed in the study. The research sample consisted of a total of 221 students enrolled in the 7th and 8th grades of a state secondary school affiliated with the Ministry of National Education (MEB) in the Marmaris district of Muğla province during the 2024–2025 academic year. To determine the students’ self-theories regarding intelligence, the researchers used a three-item “Personal Information Form” and the Mindset Scale (MS), which was developed by Dweck (1999, 2013) and revised and updated by De Castella and Byrne (2015). The adaptation, validity and reliability studies of the scale into Turkish were conducted by Orhan (2021). Data analysis involved frequency, percentage, independent samples t-test and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA). The results indicated that there were no significant differences in students’ scale scores across the variables of gender, grade level, and age. The findings suggest that the students possess a growth mindset.