Students who learn that their intelligence can grow as synapses form do better in school.

That finding from a study published in Child Development early in 2007 ranked as National Public Radio's second most emailed story for the year. Implicit in teaching higher order thinking for the 21^st century is a heightened level of metacognition in the classroom and instruction about how the brain works. The popularity of this story suggests educators who add such information to the curriculum will find willing parents and students.

"Some students start thinking of their intelligence as something fixed, as carved in stone," says research psychologist Carol Dweck from Stanford University. "They worry about, 'Do I have enough? Don't I have enough?'"

"Other children," explains Dweck, "think intelligence is something you can develop your whole life," she says. "You can learn. You can stretch. You can keep mastering new things."

Wondering whether a child's belief about intelligence has anything to do with academic success, Dweck looked at several hundred students going into seventh grade, and assessed which students believed their intelligence was unchangeable, and which children believed their intelligence could grow. Then she looked at their math grades over the next two years. Those with a "growth mindset" had steadily increasing grades. Students with a "fixed mindset" showed a decrease.

Dweck and her colleague, Lisa Blackwell, from Columbia University, then asked, "If we gave students a growth mindset, if we taught them how to think about their intelligence, would that benefit their grades?"

To find out, 100 seventh graders, all doing poorly in math, were randomly assigned to workshops on good study skills. One workshop gave lessons on how to study well. The other taught about the expanding nature of intelligence and the brain.

Students in the brain class were, essentially, given a mini-neuroscience course on how the brain works. By the end of the semester, the group of kids who had been taught that the brain can grow smarter had significantly better math grades than the other group.

The students in the brain classes "learned that the brain actually forms new connections every time you learn something new, and that over time, this makes you smarter."

Dweck says this new mindset changed the kids' attitude toward learning and their willingness to put forth effort.

Source: NPR, Students' View of Intelligence Can Help Grades