Mindsets and Motivation

CHAPTER 2

MINDSETS AND MOTIVATION

In elementary school, Charlie’s teachers always praised him for his intelligence and how quickly and easily he finished every assignment. From his teachers’ comments, he knew that being smart meant understanding immediately and finishing quickly compared to his peers. Since his assignments weren’t that different from last year, Charlie understood them right away. He was able to do very little and make good grades. As he transitioned to middle school, Charlie’s parents and teachers noticed he was having difficulty adjusting. He was always the first one to finish, but his work was often careless and filled with mistakes. When the teacher went over the correct answers, Charlie would put his head down or take out his book and read. When Charlie did not do well right away, he stopped trying altogether, instead choosing to talk or distract others. When someone in class did well, he would roll his eyes and make rude comments. His parents noted that he had begun to study less and less. Recently, his teacher noticed him cheating off another student’s paper during a test and having a group member do all his work during a collaborative assignment.

Like Charlie in this preceding scenario, many students lose their drive to succeed as curricula become more difficult. However, as you may have guessed, motivation is necessary for student academic functioning and achievement in school even when controlling for level of cognitive skill (Ryan & Deci, 2020). In this chapter, you’ll learn about the connection between these types of intrinsic motivation and self-regulated learning and how a growth mindset and self-efficacy impact motivation, and acquire useful strategies for developing mindsets and setting goals that increase motivation.

REALIZING THE CONNECTION

Self-regulated learning strategies not only help learners begin to reflect on their own thinking process but also increase their motivation and willingness to engage in learning. Richard M. Ryan and Edward L. Deci (2020), professors in the