Changing students' attitudes towards learning through learning instruction on metacognition and growth-mindset intelligence

Abstract

Teaching students how to be successful learners is an important part of a teacher's set of skills to use in the classroom. There are many documented methods on how to do this, but few have recorded the experience of the teacher and the attitudes of the students as the teacher goes about teaching their students different methods of learning and views on intelligence. This project explored the experiences and changes in attitudes of students as they go through the course of the fall semester in a high school geometry class, as well as the experiences of the teacher. Data was collected on students' attitudes and experiences through a series of two self-reported surveys. The teacher's experiences on both interactions with students, and impacts of the project on teaching were recorded in a reflective journal. The results of the data gathered were then analyzed which showed some small gains in the percent of students who gave aligned responses that reflected a growth mindset. Additional findings are also discussed used to make recommendations for future teaching.