Teachers’ intelligence mindsets in Mainland China : exploring their relationship with teaching practices, contextual influences, and students’ learning-related outcomes through growth mindset theory /

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Student Theses

2025

Zhang, Kai

Hong Kong : The Education University of Hong Kong

Thesis

The concept of intelligence mindset, particularly as delineated by Dweck et al. and known as growth mindset theory, has emerged as pivotal in influencing teaching practices and student learning-related outcomes. However, current literature presents counter-intuitive findings implying a possible perceived contextual sensitivity within growth mindset theory. Responding to this gap, the present study investigates how teachers’ intelligence mindsets— shaped by their cultural orientation and perceived school climate—ultimately affect student learning-related outcomes, along with exploring if teachers’ intelligence mindsets could predict corresponding mindset feedback in their classroom teaching practice. Grasping these relationships is critical for guiding educational interventions and policy development that promote effective teaching. Specifically, the study explores the relationship between teachers’ intelligence mindsets and their mindset feedback in teaching practices, examines how cultural orientation and perceived school climate influence the formation of teachers’ intelligence mindsets, and investigates the correlation between teachers’ intelligence mindsets and student learning-related outcomes. Data was collected from 810 teachers using instruments such as the Growth Mindset Inventory, Cultural Values Scale, and School-Level Environment Questionnaires. Additionally, 12,165 students taught by these teachers were surveyed to measure their learning-related outcomes, including learning motivation, learning self-efficacy, learned helplessness, and learning engagement through validated scales such as the Academic Motivation Scale, Learning Self-Efficacy Scale, Learned Helplessness Scale and the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale for Students.Several important findings are obtained to illustrate the intricate relationship among teachers’ intelligence mindsets, their teaching practices, contextual influences, and students’ learning-related outcomes in the school context of mainland China, which enrich the discourse of growth mindset theory in relation to its context-sensitivity nature. First, the results suggest that teachers who self-reported as having a growth mindset showed more growth mindset feedback in classroom teaching practice than their fixed mindset counterparts. Second, regarding the effect of contextual influences on teachers’ intelligence mindsets, the results suggest interesting dimension-specific patterns. Specifically, in terms of the influence of the contextual factor—cultural orientation, teachers’ growth mindset was positively related to long-term orientation and negatively related to power distance and uncertainty avoidance, but not significantly related to individualism and motivation towards achievement and success. In terms of the influence of another contextual factor—perceived school climate, teachers’ growth mindset was positively related to school resources, decision making, and instructional innovation, but not with collaboration and student relations. Third, teachers’ growth mindset positively predicted students’ learning-related outcomes, including learning motivation, learning self-efficacy, and learning engagement, while negatively predicted learned helplessness. The results further illustrated that the two contextual factors— cultural orientation and perceived school climate—showed a dimension-specific pattern of moderating effects on the relationship between teachers’ growth mindset and students’ learning-related outcomes. Regarding cultural orientation, the dimension long-term orientation significantly strengthened the effect of teachers’ growth mindsets on students’ learning motivation, self-efficacy, engagement, but weakened its negative effect on learned helplessness; however, other dimensions such as power distance and uncertainty avoidance negatively moderated these relationships. Regarding perceived school climate, the dimensions such as rich school resources, decision-making, and instructional innovation significantly strengthened the effect of teachers’ growth mindsets on students’ learning motivation, self-efficacy, and engagement, but weakened its negative effect on learned helplessness. Notably, no significant moderating effects were found for other dimensions of these contextual factors, including individualism, motivation for achievement for cultural orientation and success, collaboration, and student relations for perceived school climate.Theoretically, this study provides nuanced insights by integrating previously overlooked perceived contextual factors into the growth mindset framework. It argues that growth mindset is not a universally operative construct, but one whose effects are conditioned by specific cultural values and institutional climates. By identifying how discrete cultural dimensions (e.g., power distance, long-term orientation) and school climate features (e.g., instructional innovation, participatory decision-making) shape the function and impact of teacher mindsets, the study contributes to a more context-sensitive understanding of implicit theory frameworks. Practically, it clarifies how contextual factors shape teachers’ intelligence mindsets and moderate their effects on students’ learning-related outcomes

LG51.H43 Dr 2025eb Zhangk

https://educoll.lib.eduhk.hk/records/TdoAOBDs