Engineering Mindsets and Learning Outcomes in Elementary School
Background
Students may exhibit growth mindsets, where intelligence is seen as malleable and failures prompt more effort and new approaches, or fixed mindsets, where intelligence is seen as immutable and failures indicate lack of intelligence. One's mindset in general may be different from that for a particular domain such as engineering. Having a growth mindset predicts more positive learning outcomes.
This article describes the general and engineering mindsets of students in fifth‐grade U.S. classrooms (ages 10 and 11) who received engineering instruction. It explores how general mindsets may predict engineering learning outcomes and how engineering mindsets may be predicted by general mindset and other variables.