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The Relationship Of Growth Mindset And Goal-Setting In A First-Year College Course, Chelsea E. Sorensen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Previous research has found that mindset and goal orientation are intricately related in motivation and academic achievement, which holds significant implications for students in higher education (Dweck, 2009). While growth mindset-focused intervention has been studied, finding improvement in mastery goal-setting (Blackwell, Trzesniewski, and Dweck, 2007), goal-focused intervention accounting for student mindset has not. Firstyear college students’ implicit theory of intelligence, or mindset, was measured before they were randomly assigned to set either a mastery- or performance-based goal in relation to their first exam in a difficult chemistry course. Upon receiving their first exam score, students were free to set whatever …