Your Brain, Yourself!: Understanding the Mindsets of Children

1. the Family Interaction Research (FAIR) Laboratory Department of Psychology, San Francisco State University Brea Kelsey(bkelsey@mail.sfsu.edu) Toi Sin Arvidsson Vanessa Calavano Jeffrey Cookston Abstract Method Tables and Figures Measures The following areas of readiness for growth mindset education were assessed. For each question, we developed a unique coding scheme based on past research and emergent themes. Responses were coded by independent members of the research team. The interrater reliability kappa estimates for our coding efforts tended to be excellent and were above .73 for all questions. Knowledge of brain. Prior to any training, three questions on knowledge of the brain were asked. The first was “What does the brain do?” and was coded as either (a) long term memory, (b) motor actions; (c) working memory, (d) speech production, (e) learning, (f) sensation, or (g) others (k = .73). The second question was “How does the brain work?” and was coded as either (a) specific biological processes, (e.g. neurons, the heart), (b) vague processes (e.g. sending messages, feelings, emotions), (c) others, or (d) don’t know (k = .83). The third question was “ How do you care for your brain?” and were coded as (a) physical body maintenance (e.g. eating healthy, exercising, body protection), (b) sleeping, (c) exercising the brain, (d) other, or (e) don’t know (k = .80). Identifying brain care knowledge. In a one week follow-up were students learned about the brain and brain care, students were asked “In the last week, how did you take care of your brain” and were coded as (a) physical body maintenance (e.g. eating healthy, exercising, body protection), (b) sleeping, (c) exercising the brain, (d) other, or (e) don’t know (k = .91). Children’s mindset. Prior to training about mindset, one question to assess students’ mindset was asked: “Do you think you can get better at the things you are not good at?” and questions were coded as either (a) yes, (b) no, (c) others, or (d) don’t know (k = .82). Identifying fixed mindset. One week after students were trained about mindset, one question about whether they notice doubting their abilities were asked: “How often did you notice yourself doubting your abilities last week?” and were coded as the numerical number provided. Children tend to be curious about thought processes, however, we presently know very little about what elementary school-aged children understand about the brain, how it functions, and how cognition occurs. We asked children to explain their understanding of the brain and their beliefs about ability, we assessed whether they could recognize beliefs that may interfere with success, and we explored if an intervention program could change beliefs about ability. A sample of 77 school children in the third(n = 40) and fourth and fifth (n = 37) grades from a public elementary school provided qualitative data and their responses were thematically coded by our research team with high levels of interrater reliability. Specifically, participants were asked to write (or draw) open-ended responses to the following questions: “What does the brain do?” “How does the brain work?”, “ What can you do to take care of your brain?”, “How often did you notice yourself doubting your abilities last week?”, “Do you think you can improve at the things you are not good at?”, and “How do you improve the things you are not good at”. Results suggest students have the capacity to identify growth and entity mindsets. Implications of the findings are discussed in the context of the potentials for teaching techniques to children to recognize a fixed mindset and in turn develop a growth mindset through the introduction about the brain. Your Brain, Yourself!: Understanding the Mindsets of Children Figure 3. Percentages of students answering “How do you take care of your brain?” (Before) and “In the last week, how did you care for your brain?” (After) Results Introduction In response to the question, “What does the brain do?”, See Figure 1. In response to “How does the brain work?”, See Figure 2. In response to “What can we do to take care of our brain?”, See Figure 3. In the weekly follow-up asking students “In the last week, how did you take care of your brain?”, See Figure 3. When asked about their beliefs about ability before training, less than half (40%) believed it was possible to get better at things that they thought they were not good at. However, after students received training in changing beliefs about ability, when the students were asked if they noticed themselves doubting their abilities to do something, nearly three-quarters (69%) indicated they noticed at least once in the past week. In the scientific literature, two belief systems have been identified that tend to be linked to the academic motivation of school-aged children (Dweck, 2006). First, some children view their abilities as fixed, as unchanging, and tend a view competencies in math, science, and verbal performance from an entity mindset – abilities don’t change! Alternatively, other children tend to see abilities as changeable via effort and have adopted a more growth-oriented mindset. Children who endorse a growth mindset tend to evidence better academic achievement than children with a more fixed mindset (Stipek & Gralinski, 1996). Interventions that teach students to endorse a growth mindset are effective for adolescents and adults (Blackwell et al., 2007; Sriram, 2010). However, it is less clear whether elementary school-aged children understand the link between cognition and behavior and, thus, may be less amenable to growth mindset training. Children tend to be curious about the brain, and we argue that teaching them about the functionality of the brain may offer an opportunity to link belief systems to the physical body. We expected the elementary-aged children in our sample to have limited knowledge about the brain. A previous study showed that elementary students were able to answer questions regarding beliefs about ability (Stipek & Gralinski, 1996), we set out to find out if they are able to be trained to identify a fixed mindset. Discussion Most children do not know how the brain works and will benefit from ongoing learning sessions that directly explain the inner working of the brain and how it directly relates to their daily life and abilities. Even after producing answers about how to take care of the brain, and given more helpful tips to strengthen the brain; in the one-week follow up children indicated exercising the brain was a good way to take care of the brain. Although, students overall increased their responses—indicating awareness of the importance of tips given in the sessions—and less were inclined not to offer the answer of not knowing. Only about one-fourth of the students believe that their abilities could change but, after some training, many of them were able to identify moments when they doubted their abilities. Teaching students how to identify doubting thoughts -- characteristics of a fixed mindset -- may be a first step to help students adopt a growth mindset. The current study found that students in elementary age are receptive to an integrated training that teaches students about the brain and mindsets. Tables and Figures Method Participants 40 third graders and 37 fourth/fifth graders were consented to partipate in this formative evaluation project from an ethnically diverse public elementary school. Information on age and gender of children were not obtained. Procedure The Your Brain, Yourself! program was offered in the Spring of 2011 to 3 third-grade classrooms, 1 fifth grade classroom, and 1 classroom that included both fourth and fifth graders. The program included six 30-minute sessions with content and activities about the brain, mindset, and stress. During the sessions, students were frequently asked to write or draw in a journal in response to prompts that either assessed baseline knowledge or addressed how techniques taught in previous sessions had been used by the children. Acknowledgement We are grateful to the families who participated in this study, the school for hosting the enrichment class, and other members of the FAIR lab for helping with data coding and data entry, which made this work possible. To learn more about our lab or to download this poster with full references please visit http://online.sfsu.edu/devpsych/fair/. Figure 1. Percentages of students answering “What does the brain do?” Figure 2. Percentages of students answering “How does the brain work?”