The Effects of Learning About the Five States of Mind on Elementary Children in Grades 3, 4, and 5

Lyn Rinaldi, Fielding's School of Educational Leadership & Change

The purpose of the study was to investigate whether children in Grades 3, 4, and 5 who learned about the Five States of Mind (Costa & Garmston, 1994) would improve their mindset, their knowledge of the Five States of Mind, and their performance on the Mathematics Constructed Response and Rubrics assessment. Student participant growth was assessed using pretests and posttests of the Five States of Mind Inventory, the Implicit Theories of Intelligence Children’s Self-Form, and the Mathematics Constructed Response and Rubrics. These participant groups included mostly Hispanic, Title I, English language learners. The teacher participants were former coaches who had returned to the classroom. A total of 108 students participated. Over a 10-week course, the teachers instructed the student participants in the Five States of Mind. Students created Question Banks for each State of Mind and used their Question Banks to solve mathematics problems. In a one-way repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA), significant effects were found on the Five States of Mind Inventory for time, p < .001; scale by teacher, p = .010; and teacher, p = .037. Third-grade students grew significantly on the Implicit Theories of Intelligence Children’s Self-Form from Time 1 to Time 2, p = .013. Students in Grades 4 and 5 did not grow significantly from Time 1 to Time 2. Students grew significantly overall on paired-samples t tests on the Mathematics Constructed Response and Rubrics in Grade 3, p < .001; Grade 4, p < .001; and Grade 5, p < .001. This study suggests that applying mindset theory with Cognitive Coaching has a positive outcome on elementary school students’ intellectual development.

Key Words: Student achievement, Mindset Theory, The Five States of Mind, Efficacy, Flexibility, Craftsmanship, Resourcefulness, Interdependence, Cognitive Coaching, Mathematics Constructed Response and Rubrics, Implicit Theories of Intelligence Children’s Self-Form, Five States of Mind Survey.