Mindset and Reading Strategy Intervention for MFL
Author
Laura Molway, Cherwell School and University of Oxford.
Summary
The study aimed to improve students self-efficacy in learning German through intervention training in mindset and in reading strategies. The results indicate that, as Dweck (1999) has previously demonstrated targeted intervention can influence students Intelligence Theories in both the short term and the longer term. Whilst some students do move gradually along the continuum from Fixed to Incremental, it was shown that some students can be persuaded to make more radical Mindset shifts. The fact that the second “top-up” Mindset Intervention appeared to result in a second wave of students altering their ideas suggests that, as one might sensibly predict, a scheme of work spanning multiple lessons and reinforcing an Incremental theory may be more effective than a single session.
Self-reported strategic classroom behaviours increased significantly for all of the intervention groups. (No increase in the control group). There was a sharp decrease in maladaptive, non-strategic classroom behaviours for the Mindset Intervention groups. (A corresponding decrease was not seen in the Reading Strategy or Control groups). Conclusion: the combination of Mindset and Reading Strategy Interventions appears to have had a significant effect on student attributions and in particular, on the ways in which students explain failure.