Strategies for Developing Growth Mindset in a Seventh Grade Mathematics Classroom with Hispanic Students in a Low Socioeconomic Secondary School

Abstract

This thesis aims to address the following question: What is the impact of growthmindset- developing strategies on the perceptions of math self-efficacy among Hispanic students from low socio-economic status (SES) background in a seventh-grade math classroom? The introduction of the Common Core State Standards and the eight mathematical practices shifted the pedagogical context in how teachers present math learning to students (National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, 2015). As a result of this pedagogical shift, a heightened focus and need to teach students non-cognitive skills emerged. The growth mindset developing interventions chosen for this project, are informed by the following theoretical frameworks: incremental (growth mindset), entity theory (fixed mindset), and self -efficacy theory (Bandura and Dweck, 1985). The interventions focused on teaching students growth-mindset-developing strategies in order to help them develop a growth mindset through a conscious transformation of their views of intelligence as malleable rather than fixed. Recommendations were made for future research with an underlying focus on the implications for practice, as these emerged, from the observed effects that growth-mindset developing strategies had on students’ academic and social success.