STEM Profs’ Views on Intelligence May Affect Student Outcomes

Students, especially racial minorities, tend to perform worse when professors believe intelligence is fixed

| 2 min read

Register for free to listen to this article
Listen with Speechify
0:00
2:00
Share

ABOVE: © ISTOCK.COM,
SAMI SERT

STEM professors’ beliefs about their students’ intelligence may factor into their academic performance, researchers reported today (February 15) in Science Advances.

The researchers surveyed 150 professors spanning many STEM departments at a large public university to see if they held a growth mindset, namely, the view that intelligence and ability can develop over time, or if they thought intelligence was fixed. They also examined the academic records of more than 15,000 students to correlate classroom performance with their professors’ views on intelligence.

The results showed that professors who viewed intelligence as malleable had narrower racial achievement gaps and better overall performance in their classrooms. In growth-minded classrooms, the gap between minorities, black, Latino, and Native American students, and white and Asian students was 0.1 GPA points. The difference almost doubled to 0.19 points in classes taught by professors with a fixed mindset.

The faculty members’ mentality ...

Interested in reading more?

Become a Member of

The Scientist Logo
Receive full access to more than 35 years of archives, as well as TS Digest, digital editions of The Scientist, feature stories, and much more!
Already a member? Login Here

Keywords

Meet the Author

  • Carolyn Wilke

    This person does not yet have a bio.
Share
3D illustration of a gold lipid nanoparticle with pink nucleic acid inside of it. Purple and teal spikes stick out from the lipid bilayer representing polyethylene glycol.
February 2025, Issue 1

A Nanoparticle Delivery System for Gene Therapy

A reimagined lipid vehicle for nucleic acids could overcome the limitations of current vectors.

View this Issue
Enhancing Therapeutic Antibody Discovery with Cross-Platform Workflows

Enhancing Therapeutic Antibody Discovery with Cross-Platform Workflows

sartorius logo
Considerations for Cell-Based Assays in Immuno-Oncology Research

Considerations for Cell-Based Assays in Immuno-Oncology Research

Lonza
An illustration of animal and tree silhouettes.

From Water Bears to Grizzly Bears: Unusual Animal Models

Taconic Biosciences
Sex Differences in Neurological Research

Sex Differences in Neurological Research

bit.bio logo

Products

Photo of a researcher overseeing large scale production processes in a laboratory.

Scaling Lentiviral Vector Manufacturing for Optimal Productivity

Thermo Fisher Logo
An illustration of an mRNA molecule in front of a multicolored background.

Generating High-Quality mRNA for In Vivo Delivery with lipid nanoparticles

Thermo Fisher Logo
Tecan Logo

Tecan introduces Veya: bringing digital, scalable automation to labs worldwide

Explore a Concise Guide to Optimizing Viral Transduction

A Visual Guide to Lentiviral Gene Delivery

Takara Bio