Darker cells mean a higher score for this topic on that metric.
LessMore
Last reviewed Sources & creditsMedia creditsMethodology
Quick answers
Does this atlas rank groups by IQ, race or nation?
No. Pathways and evidence stay individual. Scores are browsing aids — never group biological or racial ranks.
What did Mueller and Dweck 1998 show?
Children praised for intelligence later avoided challenges more than children praised for effort, in their experiments. Later replications have been mixed.
What did Sisk et al. 2018 find?
Two meta-analyses: mindset–achievement correlations were small on average; interventions had small average effects, with some larger effects for students at higher risk.
What did Li and Bates report?
Failures to replicate core praise effects in their samples. The debate is about robustness and moderators, not about whether beliefs can ever matter.
Did Binet already think intelligence was educable?
Yes. Binet’s original project was instructional. Dweck often cites that history against later “fixed IQ” folklore.
Is growth mindset the opposite of giftedness?
No. Gagné’s talents develop. A gifted label plus incremental theory is a common, coherent pairing. Entity giftedness (“I am a genius, so I must not struggle”) is the failure mode.
Development here follows Gagné-like honesty: aptitudes, practice and catalysts. Growth mindset is not a finished essence.
Windows differ by domain. A closed sport window is not a closed writing window. Read the clocks.
Stages
- Audit adult talk
List last week’s “smart/dumb” comments.
Language is the cheap lever.
- Retarget praise
Process and strategy, not essence.
Mueller & Dweck’s contrast — used modestly.
- Make struggle visible
Teachers show revisions.
Climate before curriculum buy.
- Attach a next problem
Belief without Ericsson’s hour is a poster.
Mindset is not a skill.
- Check load and tracking
Sisk/Yeager: context moderates.
Do not gaslight a bad system.
- Size the claim
Expect small average effects.
Sisk 2018 is the humility device.
Levers
- Adult language — The original experimental handle.
- Task climate — Can a student look confused in public?
- Strategy feedback — Effort without information is empty.
- Supportive scaling — Yeager: lower achievers in climates that allow challenge.
- Honesty about size — Small d, not a district saviour.
Windows
- Early school talk — Entity labels arrive with first grades.
- Junior-high maths — The Blackwell 2007 setting — identity meets algebra.
- High-stakes exam years — Performance goals spike; incremental talk is hardest here.
- Adult retraining — Career changers meet the same entity sentences.
Supports
- Teacher scripts, not posters — A sentence after a mistake beats a wall display.
- Tutoring plus message — Belief without access is the inequality critique.
- Finland-style trust — Late tracking gives incremental theory room to be true in practice.
- Research summaries for staff — Sisk 2018 and Yeager 2019 in one page, not a TED talk.
Growth mindset: catalysts and windows do the daily work. Destiny talk is the failure mode.
OriginsScienceSignsDevelopPracticeExemplarsMyths In this language region