Closing the gap :what role can attribution retraining interventions and implicit theories of intelligence play?

Abstract

This thesis consists of three chapters: a systematic review, a bridging document and a piece of empirical research. Chapter one consists of a quantitative investigation into the effectiveness of attribution retraining programmes on school-aged children’s achievements. The findings of this systematic review suggest that attribution retraining programmes have variable degrees of success. The most successful attribution retraining programmes are those that focus their attention to a given “gap” rather than those that aim to raise achievement generally. While the findings are positive, the lack of longer-term research designs is a cause for concern. Chapter two consists of a bridging document, intending to guide the reader from the systematic review of the literature to my empirical research. The bridging document outlines my personal interest in the research area, the development of my research focus, my epistemological and ontological perspectives, as well as my thoughts on the methodological choices I made along the way. In addition, it considers the ethical implications of my research and reflections upon the ways in which the research area can be interpreted. The third and final chapter consists of my empirical research study. This research study aimed to explore the mindsets (Dweck, 2006; Hong, Chiu, Dweck, Lin, & Wan, 1999) of parents whose children access their two year old Early Education Entitlement in Children’s Centres (the Two Year Offer). The research study adopted a two-phase mixed methods design. The first phase noted that far more parents than would be expected reported having incremental theories of intelligence (growth mindsets). The second stage involved carrying out semi-structured interviews with seven parents, which were then analysed using latent theory-driven Thematic Analysis. Six themes were created and were discussed in the light of implications for Educational Psychologists’ (EP) practice.