Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Alzahra university

Abstract

The present study investigated the relationship among teachers 'mindsets and their perceptions of students' behavior, learning, and achievement, their interpretations of students 'behavior, and their strategies to increase students' motivation through a qualitative approach and a descriptive phenomenological design.The target population of this study includes all female primary school teachers in District 1 of Yazd city. Initially, 18 teachers volunteered to participate in the study, according to the call. Then, they completed mindset questionnaire and after evaluating the answers and determining teachers’ mindset, 5 teachers were purposefully selected for a more profound and more extensive study. The data were collected using Dweck's Mindset Questionnaire (2000) and Semi-structured interviews. Content analysis was used to analyze the data and the results showed that the relationship between teachers 'mindsets and their perceptions of students' behavior, learning, and progress could be traced through the categories such as fixed mindset's teacher, growth mindset's teacher, and six factors including stereotypes, performance interpretation, evaluation, instruction, motivation, and responsibility. In general, it can be said that teachers 'mindset affect the way, they interpret students' behavior, learning, and success, it is influential on teachers' instructions, evaluations, and responsibilities in the teaching process as well as the type of activities that they use to increase students' motivation. Furthermore, the results showed that teachers' mindsets are intertwined with cultural assumptions; and teachers can be made aware of cultural challenges by increasing their level of knowledge and modifications of their mindsets.

Keywords

Blackwell, L. S., Trzesniewski, K. H., & Dweck, C. S. (2007). Implicit theories of intelligence predict achievement across an adolescent transition: A longitudinal study and an intervention. Child Development, 78(2), 246-263.
Chiu, C., Hong, Y., & Dweck, C. S. (1997). Lay dispositionism and implicit theories of personality. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 73(3), 19-30.
Cresswell, J.W., & Plano Clark,V. (2016). Combined research methods. (Translated by Alireza Kiamanesh and Javid Sarai). Tehran, Ayizh Publishing.
Claro,S., Pauneska, D.,& Dweck,C.S. (2016). Growth mindset tempers the effects of poverty on academic achievement, Proc. Nat.Sci, 113(31), 8664-8668.
Dweck, C. S. (1999). Self-theories: Their role in motivation, personality, and development. Philadelphia: Psychology Press.
Dweck, C. S., Chiu, C. Y., & Hong, Y. Y. (1995). Implicit theories and their role in judgments and reactions: A world from two perspectives. Psychological Inquiry, 6(4), 267-285.
Dweck, C. S. (2000). Self-theories: Their role in motivation, personality and development. New York, NY: Psychology Press.
Dweck, C. S. (2006). Mindset: The new psychology of success. New York, NY: Random House Publishing Group.
Dweck, C. S. (2010). Even geniuses work hard. Educational Leadership, 68(2), 16-22.
Dweck, C. S. (2012). Mindsets and human nature: Promoting change in the Middle East, the schoolyard, the racial divide, and willpower. American Psychologist, 67(4), 614-622.
Dweck, C. S., & Leggett, E. L. (1988). A social cognitive approach to motivation and personality. Psychological Review, 95(3), 265-273.
Dweck, C. S. (2008). Mindsets and math/science achievement. New York: Carnegie Corporation of New York, Institute for Advanced Study, Commission on Mathematics and Science Education.
Delaware, Ali. (1997). Theoretical and practical foundations of research in humanities and social sciences. Tehran, Roshd Publications.
Denzin, N.K., & Lincoln, Y.S. (2005). Introduction: The discipline and practice of qualitative research. In N.K. Denzin & Y.S. Lincoln (Eds.), The sage handbook of qualitative research (2nd Ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA:Sage. 
Georgiou, S. N., Christou, C., Stavrinides, P., and Panaoura, G. (2002). Teacher attributions of student failure and teacher behavior toward the failing student. Psychol. Sch., 39(1), 583– 595.
Glaser, B. G., & Strauss, A. L. (1967). The discovery of grounded theory: Strategies for qualitative research. New York: Aldine De Gruyter.                                                                                                        
Johnson, R. B., & Christensen, L. (2017). Educational research: Quantitative, qualitative and hybrid approaches. (Translated by Alireza Kiamanesh et al.). Tehran, Publishing Science. (Original language release, 2014).
Jonsson, A.C., & Beach, D. (2012). Predicting the use of praise among pre-service teachers: The influence of implicit theories of intelligence, social comparison and stereotype acceptance. Education Inquiry, 3(1), 259–281.
Johnson,B., & Christensen,L.B. (2014). Educational research: quantitative. Qualitative, and mixed. University of south Alabama.
Kärk-käinen, R., and Räty, H. (2010). Parents’ and teachers’ views of the child’s academic potential. Educ. Stud. 36(2), 229-232. 
Kuusisto, E., Laine, S., & Tirri, K. (2017). How do school children and adolescents perceive the nature of talent development? A case study from Finland. Education Research  International, 2017, 1-8.
Lavy, V., & Sand, E. (2015). On the origins of gender human capital gaps: Short- and long-term Consequences of teachers’ stereotypical biases. NBER Working paper series, working paper 20909. Cambridge, MA: National bureau of economic research.
Manadi, Morteza (1385). Qualitative method in social and behavioral sciences. Seminary and  University Quarterly, 47 (12), 93-80.
Molden, D. C., Plaks, J. E. & Dweck, C. S. (2006). “Meaningful” social inferences: Effects of implicit theories on inferential processes. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 42(3), 738-752.
Molden, D. C., & Dweck, C. S. (2006). Finding “meaning” in psychology: A lay theories approach to self-regulation, social perception, and social development. American  Psychologist, 61(3), 192–203.
Mueller, C. M., & Dweck, C. S. (1998). Praise for intelligence can undermine children’s motivation and performance. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 75(1), 33–52.
Matthews, D. (2007) "Book Review: Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, by Dweck, C. S. (2006)," Gifted Children: Vol. 1: Iss. 2, Article 7.
Plaks, J. E., Stroessner, S. J., Dweck, C. S., & Sherman, J. W. (2001). Person theories and attention allocation: Preferences for stereotypic versus counter stereotypic information. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 80(6), 876–893.
Paunesku, D. (2013). Scaled-up social psychology: Intervening wisely and broadly in education. (Doctoral Dissertation; Stanford University).
Patterson, M., Kravchenko, N., Chen-Bouck, L., & Kelley, J. A. (2016). General and domain specific beliefs about intelligence, ability, and effort among pre-service and practicing teachers. Teaching and Teacher Education, 59(2), 180-910.
Rissanen, I., Kuusisto, E., Tuiminen, M., & Tirri, K. (2019). In search of a growth mindset pedagogy: a case study of one teacher’s classroom practices in a Finnish elementary school. Teacher Education, 77,204-213.
Rissanen, I., Kuusisto, E., Hanhimaki, E., & Tirri, K. (2018a). Teachers’ implicit meaning systems and their implications for pedagogical thinking and practice: A case study from Finland. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, 62(4), 487-500.
Rissanen, I., Kuusisto, E., Hanhimaki, E., & Tirri, K. (2018b). The implications of teachers’ implicit theories for moral education: A case study from Finland. Journal of Moral Education, 47(1), 63-77.
Ronkainen, R., Kuusisto, E., & Tirri, K. (2018). Pedagogical leadership in action: A case study of a teacher with growth mindset in learning. Manuscript in preparation.
Rattan, A., Good, C., & Dweck, C. S. (2012). “Its ok not everyone can be good at math”: Instructors with entity theory comfort (and demotivate) students. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 48, 731-737.
Rydell, R. J., Hugenberg, K., Ray, D., & Mackie, D. M. (2007). Implicit theories about groups and stereotyping: The role of group entitativity. Personality and Social Psychonology Bulletin, 33(4), 549–558.
Seif, Ali Akbar. (2016). Modern Educational Psychology, Tehran, Doran Publishing.
 Schmidt, J. A., Shumow, L., & Kackar-Cam, H. (2015). Exploring teacher effects for mindset intervention outcomes in seventh-grade science classes. Middle Grades Research Journal, 10(2), 17-32.
Sarrasin, J. B., Nenciovici, L., Foicy, L. B., Duquette,G., Riopel,M., & Masson, S. (2018). Effects of teaching the concept of neuroplasticity to induce a growth mindset on motivation, achievement, and brain activity: A meta-analysis. Trends in Neuroscience and education, 12, 22-31.
Swann, W. B., & Snyder, M. (1980). On translating beliefs into action: Theories of ability and their application in an instructional setting. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,38(6), 879–888.
Strosher, H. (2003). Prospective and Practicing Teachers’ Beliefs: A Study of Implicit Theories of Intelligence and Teacher Efficacy. Alberta: Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Calgary.
Shabani, Hassan (2013). Educational skills (teaching methods and techniques). Tehran, Samat Publications.
 Uiterwijk-Luijk, L., Krüger, M., Zijlstra, M., Volman,M. (2019). Teachers' role in stimulating students’ inquiry habit of mind in primary schools. Teaching and Teacher Education, 86(3), 102-894.
Yeager, D. S., & Dweck, C. S. (2012). Mindsets that promote resilience: when students believe that personal characteristics can be developed. Educational Psychologist, 47(4), 302–314.