Barbara Johnson, Kenda S. Hamersley, School of Science
Principal Investigator: Barbara Johnson, lecturer, Department of Mathematical Sciences, School of Science
Co-Principal Investigator: Kenda S. Hamersley, Associate Director of Mathematics Assistance Center, lecturer, Department of Mathematical Sciences, School of Science
Project Title: Mindset Outside the Classroom: Developing a Growth Mindset in Mathematics in the Context of Tutoring
Funding Level: $3,440
Abstract: The Mathematics Assistance Center (MAC) at IUPUI provides tutoring and review sessions for students enrolled in 24 mathematics courses, serving over 23,000 students during Academic Year 2018-2019. Students who come to the MAC for help are often struggling in their courses, and many of them show evidence of a fixed mathematics mindset; that is, they believe that some people are “good” at mathematics and that people cannot actually grow in mathematical intelligence. The individualized and personalized nature of peer tutoring provides an ideal opportunity to challenge this fixed mindset and encourage the development of a growth mindset in mathematics. Such a growth mindset is associated with increases in academic achievement, program retention, and equity. As part of this project, the MAC tutors, who are graduate and undergraduate students, will receive training to understand what growth mindset in mathematics is and how to encourage its development while offering students help with their mathematics courses. We anticipate that growth mindset of the students involved, measured by an implicit theories of intelligence scale, will be greater at the end of each semester than at the beginning.
