A new study in the scientific journal Child Development shows that if you teach students that their intelligence can grow and increase, they do better in school.
All children develop a belief about their own intelligence, according to research psychologist Carol Dweck from Stanford University.
"Some students start thinking of their intelligence as something fixed, as carved in stone," Dweck says. "They worry about, 'Do I have enough? Don't I have enough?'"
Dweck calls this a "fixed mindset" of intelligence.
"Other children think intelligence is something you can develop your whole life," she says. "You can learn. You can stretch. You can keep mastering new things."
She calls this a "growth mindset" of intelligence.
Dweck wondered whether a child's belief about intelligence has anything to do with academic success. So, first, she looked at several hundred students going into seventh grade, and assessed which students believed their intelligence was unchangeable, and which children believed their intelligence could grow. Then she looked at their math grades over the next two years.
