Zeit: Donnerstag, 28.05.2026, 16:00-17:30 Uhr 

Ort: Seminarraum 4, Porzellangasse 4, Stiege 2, 3. Stock, 1090 Wien

Anmeldung: zlb@univie.ac.at

Students hold different beliefs about the nature of ability. Some view it as something that can be changed through effort and effective strategies, whereas others see it as largely fixed and difficult to change. The former belief is commonly referred to as a growth mindset, whereas the latter is referred to as a fixed mindset. Decades of research have shown that these mindsets shape students’ motivation and learning trajectories, with a growth mindset typically leading to more positive academic outcomes. Given the significance of these beliefs, understanding how they develop is essential. This talk draws on both experimental and correlational evidence to highlight two broad sources of mindset development: students’ own achievement-related experiences and social-contextual factors such as parents’ and teachers’ beliefs and expectations. It also discusses interventions aimed at fostering a growth mindset by targeting both individual experiences and the broader social context, along with evidence regarding their effectiveness.

Sungwha Kim is a postdoctoral researcher at the Hector Research Institute of Education Sciences and Psychology at the University of Tübingen in Germany. Her research focuses on academic motivation, particularly in the areas of growth mindset, achievement goals, and self-regulated learning. She is especially interested in distinguishing between different motivational constructs from both theoretical and empirical perspectives, examining the role of sociocultural factors in shaping student motivation, and developing interventions to enhance student motivation in K-12 classrooms. Her work has been published in the Journal of Educational Psychology, Contemporary Educational Psychology, and Social Psychology of Education, covering a range of related yet diverse topics such as the effects of different types of achievement goals, the influence of socializers’ beliefs on student motivation and the development and evaluation of intervention programs designed to improve educational outcomes.