To whom do students believe a growth mindset applies?

Intelligence mindset has been studied extensively in education research, but domain-specific intelligence mindset research is relatively new in the physics context. Additionally, recent mindset research has uncovered separable factors within the intelligence mindset construct. In this study, we test a model involving four factors (My Ability, My Growth, Others’ Ability, and Others’ Growth) to pre and post survey data from Physics 1 classes. In particular, we explore how these mindset factors change over time as well as their ability to predict course grade. We find that students are less likely to endorse a growth mindset for themselves and others at the end of their first calculus-based introductory physics course than at the beginning. We also find that decrease in mindset measures are more drastic for female students than male students. Finally, we find that the best predictor of course grades is the My Ability component of the mindset construct, which has implications both for creating equitable and inclusive learning environment and determining how educators implement mindset interventions.