How what our teacher thinks affects our motivation
Scientific litsketch on boosting motivation
Research shows that we have greater motivation and performance when our teachers have a growth mindset or a belief that intelligence and abilities can increase over time with effort (Canning et al., 2019).
A survey of 150 professors from a large public univeristy in a STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) course measured their beliefs about whether intelligence can increase over time (e.g., “To be honest, students have a certain amount of intelligence, and they really can’t do much to change it."). The survey data was matched with 15,466 students' course grades.
The analyses revealed that students, who were taught by professors with a growth mindset, had higher grades than those who were taught by professors with the belief that intelligence is fixed and cannot increase over time. Also, students of a minority race such as Black, Latino or Native American had much lower course grades compared to White or Asian students when they were taught by professors who held the belief that intelligence is fixed and cannot increase over time. In other words, when professors hold a growth mindset, not only do students' motivation and performance increase, the difference in academic performance between minority and majority racial groups becomes much smaller.
When we become leaders, managers, mentors or instructors, the belief we hold about whether our intelligence can be nurtured can significantly affect the motivation and performance of our followers or students. As students, we should seek out teachers who believe that our intelligence and abilities can grow in order for us to maintain high levels of motivation and performance.
Canning, Elizabeth A., Katherine Muenks, Dorainne J. Green, and Mary C. Murphy. "STEM faculty who believe ability is fixed have larger racial achievement gaps and inspire less student motivation in their classes." Science advances 5, no. 2 (2019): eaau4734.