According to new research from Stanford University and the University of Texas, brief online interventions had a significant positive effect on students at risk of dropping out.

The online interventions were split into two types: "growth mindset" and "a sense of purpose." Together, these two 45-minute sessions helped boost student achievement, according to an article from TheJournal.com.

Specifically, the growth mindset was aimed to teach students the philosophy that intelligence is developed rather than determined at birth and that "struggling through challenging tasks is an opportunity to improve intelligence."

The intervention is designed to undo a "fixed mindset," where "people believe their basic qualities, like their intelligence or talent, are simply fixed traits," according to the intervention's site. It aims to teach people- specifically students- that hard work and dedication will develop their talents and skills.

The sense-of-purpose intervention, on the other hand, prompted students to think and write about "how the world could be a better place" and to read about how achieving academically can help them positively impact the world.

With these two interventions tested on a sample of 1,594 students in 13 high schools, both were proven to raise grade-point-averages and increase "the rate at which the students performed satisfactorily in each course by 6.4 percentage points," according to the article.

The researchers have now taken this data and are moving forward to develop online curriculum that can be used by schools everywhere to "teach the growth mindset" and help motivate students who have otherwise seemingly given up.

Read the full article here and comment below.

Article by Nicole Gorman, Education World Contributor

04/29/2015