A challenging math problem can make some students break into a cold sweat and others excited to wrap their brains around a puzzle.
A wealth of research suggests that a student鈥檚 academic 鈥渕indset"鈥攚hether she believes math skill is an inborn, fixed trait or that it can be grown through practice鈥攃an make the difference in how she engages with the subject. Now, a forthcoming study in the journal gives some of the first biological evidence that presenting math in a way that encourages a growth mindset changes not just students鈥� motivation to learn, but the the way their brains tackle problems.
Researchers from the University of Essex in the United Kingdom used an EEG, which measures electrical impulses, to track brain activity as college students worked through either standard math problems or those previously shown in from Stanford University researcher Jo Boaler to encourage a student鈥檚 growth mindset, such as approaches that:
- Have multiple methods, pathways, and representations.
- Give students opportunities to conduct their own inquiries.
- Ask the problem before teaching the method to solve it.
- Ask students to explain the math in a visual representation, such as a chart.
- Use a task that can engage students of both higher and lower math ability.
- Ask students to reason out and convince someone of their findings.
Unlike similar studies, researchers did not tell participants anything about the concepts of growth or fixed mindsets, but they did survey the students using mindset-related questions from the Program for International Student Assessment, such as 鈥淚 am strongly motivated to solve the problem,鈥� 鈥淚 intend to put in a good effort solving this problem,鈥� and 鈥淒oing well at this problem means a lot to me.鈥�
Students who were given standard math problems were more accurate than those who saw the adapted problems, but they showed less and less interest in continuing the test as they answered more questions. By contrast, the students answering the adapted math problems became slightly more motivated as they worked.
At the same time, researchers found stronger patterns of activity associated with motivation and engagement鈥攕hifting activity to the left side of the prefrontal cortex鈥攊n the brains of students who were working through the 鈥済rowth鈥� adapted math problems. In prior studies, this pattern of 鈥渕otivation-related鈥� brain activity tends to decline when students work through challenging problems, but it increased with the growth-adapted questions.
鈥淏y presenting mathematical problems formulated according to [math growth mindset] theory to learners, it is possible to increase learner motivation ... by engaging the brain鈥檚 stimuli reward pathways,鈥� the researchers concluded. 鈥淭his provides evidence that, by only making simple changes to how mathematical problems are presented, it is possible to increase the motivation of mathematical learners.鈥�