The roles of generic and domain-specific mindsets in learning graphic design principles

ABSTRACT

It is possible that individuals do not endorse a general mindset or theory of intelligence and that their mindset is specific to particular domains. There is currently a dearth of evidence to support this possibility. It is also not known how these two types of mindset influence learning behaviors and outcomes. This study investigates the roles of generic mindsets (i.e. beliefs about general ability) and domain-specific mindsets (i.e. beliefs about domain-specific abilities) in students’ learning of graphic design principles. Pre-service teachers (n = 107) played an online assessment game in which they designed three posters. For each poster, they had three chances to seek critical (i.e. constructive) feedback and one chance to revise their posters. Students’ poster performance was measured by the game, whereas their learning of graphic design principles was measured by a post-test. Results show that critical feedback-seeking moderated the relation between generic and domain-specific growth mindsets. Critical feedback-seeking improved learning outcomes only when students endorsed a weak fixed generic mindset. Theoretical implications suggest that generic and domain-specific mindsets are distinct psychological constructs, and that generic mindsets seem to be more important than domain-specific mindsets in predicting learning of graphic design principles.

KEYWORDS:

• Mindset
• feedback seeking
• revision
• performance
• assessment game

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank all the participants in this study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

We would like to thank the funding agencies that supported this work: the Killam Trusts Research Fund Cornerstone Grant RES0032227, the SSHRC IDG Grant RES0034954, the SSHRC IG Grant RES0048110, and the Canadian Network for Research and Innovation in Machining Technology, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada Discovery Grant RES 0043209.

Notes on contributors

Maria Cutumisu

Maria Cutumisu is an associate professor in the Department of Educational Psychology, University of Alberta. She earned a Master’s and a Ph.D. degree in Computing Science from the University of Alberta and was a post-doctoral scholar at the Graduate School of Education at Stanford University.

Nigel Mantou Lou

Nigel Mantou Lou is a post-doctoral scholar at McGill University. He earned a Master’s and a Ph.D. degree in Psychology from the University of Alberta and was a post-doctoral scholar at the Department of Educational Psychology, Faculty of Education, University of Alberta.