The 2022 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) results reveal a continued significant decline in student performance in science and reading (a decline which has been observed over the past decade), as well as a large drop between 2018 and 2022 in mathematics (OECD, 2023[1]). These findings emerge at a time when skills and competencies for autonomous, lifelong learning have become paramount. Young people today face increasing uncertainty, complexity and change in their environments (International Commission on the Futures of Education, 2021[2]; OECD, 2024[3]), making it all the more important to understand how students respond to difficulty, handle setbacks and persevere in their learning.
Beyond declines in science, reading and mathematics performance, PISA 2022 results have also shown another concerning trend, as growth mindset was measured for the second time and results showed a clear decline between 2018 and 2022, both on average across the OECD and in a large number of participating countries and economies. In PISA, the concept of a “growth mindset” is defined as the belief that intelligence can be developed through effort, strategies and learning from mistakes. As first conceptualised by Dweck (2006[4]), students differ in their implicit beliefs about intelligence. Those with a growth mindset see ability as malleable and improvable through persistence, effort, help-seeking and support, while those with a fixed mindset view intelligence as innate and largely unchangeable. These are best understood as opposite ends of a continuum of beliefs rather than strict extremes, but they capture meaningful differences in how students interpret effort and feedback.
The declining growth mindset trend is concerning because these beliefs are consistently associated with students' motivation, engagement, academic outcomes and psychological resilience (Yeager and Dweck, 2012[5]; Burnette et al., 2013[6]; OECD, 2024[3]; OECD, 2021[7]; OECD, 2023[1]). In learning environments marked by uncertainty and disruption, mindset beliefs are closely tied to whether students persevere, adapt their strategies, and learn from feedback (Dweck and Yeager, 2019[8]). A decline in growth mindset therefore raises questions about whether fewer students are approaching challenges with adaptive orientations that support resilience. This matters not only for individual achievement, but also for education systems seeking to prepare young people for a world where the ability to recover from setbacks and keep learning is a key condition for success.
The importance of these beliefs was underscored by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, when school closures disrupted the learning of over 1.5 billion students worldwide (OECD, 2021[9]), revealing significant differences in students' ability to direct their own learning. While some demonstrated strong metacognitive strategies and resilience, others struggled in the absence of external support (Gouëdard, Pont and Viennet, 2020[10]; Reimers and Schleicher, 2020[11]).
Fostering a growth mindset should not be limited to praising effort or encouraging unrealistic optimism. As Dweck (2016[12]) and others have argued, developing students' beliefs about learning requires teachers to adapt their practices, for example, to frame mistakes or questions as a chance to learn and grow, to provide critical feedback that helps students learn, and to provide opportunities to improve even after initial difficulty. When embedded within a culture of high expectations and meaningful challenges (Yeager, 2024[13]), a growth mindset can contribute to academic achievement and student well-being (Yeager et al., 2019[14]; Claro, Paunesku and Dweck, 2016[15]; Dweck and Yeager, 2021[16]).
This policy paper draws on PISA 2022 results to explore how growth mindset is distributed across student populations and how it relates to a wide range of learning attitudes and experiences. It offers insights into the circumstances in which mindset and other beliefs are most closely associated with positive learning outcomes.
As in PISA 2018, the measure of whether a student has a growth mindset in PISA 2022 is whether they disagreed with the statement that their intelligence is something about them that they cannot change very much1. A literature review on the topic suggests that a growth mindset is best understood as one piece of a broader motivational profile (see “Why and when growth mindset matters”). It is not a stand-alone driver of achievement, but likely interacts meaningfully with students’ learning strategies, confidence, socio-emotional skills and the school environment. Some of these conditions are malleable, for example, when teacher practices and student beliefs reinforce each other, associations with outcomes tend to be stronger (OECD, 2024[3]). Encouragement is perhaps most meaningful when accompanied by combinations of other beliefs, learning behaviours and academic support, as well as school culture, since teaching a growth mindset alone cannot be assumed to improve educational outcomes for all students.
Drawing on PISA 2022 data, this policy paper examines how growth mindset beliefs interact with:
Student level of performance and other characteristics (e.g. gender and socio-economic status)
Self-efficacy, curiosity and persistence
Self-directed learning and proactive study behaviour
Anxiety, emotional control and stress resistance
Teacher support, relations with students and practices like cognitive activation
School concentration of students with a growth mindset
This integrated approach aims to support more strategic, evidence-based policymaking. Rather than general encouragement of a growth mindset, it argues for tailored and context-sensitive support, and reflecting on how to create environments that cultivate both the belief in self-improvement and the means to achieve it. Finally, as mathematics was the main domain of assessment in PISA 2022, concepts and analyses in this report are directed towards mathematics and related concepts (for example, mathematics self-efficacy or mathematics anxiety).