Relationships Between Growth Mindset, Test Anxiety, and Grading

Download or read book Relationships Between Growth Mindset, Test Anxiety, and Grading written by Camille Phinney and published by . This book was released on 2018 with total page 80 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Traditional grading systems may reduce student cognitive well-being by promoting fixed mindset and reduce student emotional well-being by promoting test anxiety. This correlational study intended to determine the relationship between mindset, test anxiety, and attitudes toward grading and to find relationships between these measures and demographic factors including gender and grade level. One-hundred ninety-six high school students participated by filling out three questionnaires which were analyzed for correlations. The results showed a significant negative relationship between growth mindset and test anxiety; however, when separated by gender, this result was only true for females, not for males. The study showed a small significant positive correlation between mindset and grading items related to fairness, ability to learn, and the importance of homework and classwork while the results showed a significant negative correlation between test anxiety and the same grading items. The study showed no significant correlations between mindset and test anxiety across grade levels. These results were consistent with prior research that suggested that a focus on evaluation could contribute to lower mindset scores and higher test anxiety. Similarly, lower mindset scores and higher test anxiety are both associated with lower levels of achievement which may explain the more negative attitudes toward grading demonstrated in this study by students with fixed mindset and higher test anxiety. Prior research demonstrated higher test anxiety among females, consistent with the findings in this study. This study indicates that there is a relationship between mindset, test anxiety, and attitudes toward grading which should be studied further.