The present study explores the ways in which young people’s relationships with
adults and peers as well as their ability to express agency within their school
environments influence their academic mindsets. Using a nationally representative
sample of 3,300 high school aged youth, this study first investigates the ways in which
the independent mindsets associated with an academic mindset (i.e., a sense of belonging,
a growth mindset, self-efficacy beliefs, and the belief that one’s work is meaningful) are
related to one another, and then explores the ways in which positive school based
relationships and expressions of agency within their school environments contribute to
those belief systems. The study is grounded in relational developmental systems theory
and employs a positive youth development framework to understand the ways in which
interpretive and recursive person-context developmental relations contribute to young
people’s beliefs about themselves, their educational environments, and themselves in
relation to those environments. As educational practices increasingly shift towards deeper
learning and a whole child educational paradigm, understanding the ways in which
relationships and expressions of agency influence positive academic mindsets may aid in
enhancing educational experiences for all young people. This study finds that all four
beliefs under consideration load onto the higher order construct of academic mindset, that
relationships with both school adults and peers are positive associated with academic
mindset, and that agency fully accounts for the association between relationships with
adults and academic mindset, and partially accounts for the association between
relationships with peers and academic mindset. Implications for policy and practice are
discussed.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bu.edu/oai:open.bu.edu:2144/42651 |
| Date | 28 May 2021 |
| Creators | Margolius, Max |
| Contributors | Zaff, Jonathan F. |
| Source Sets | Boston University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis/Dissertation |
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