Project Title and Abstract

Does Mindset Buffer Students from Instructors’ Implicit Bias?

Although it is important to address and reduce instructors’ racial bias, it may also be useful to buffer students from instructors’ biased expectations. The current research seeks to conceptually replicate and extend upon previous research by investigating whether a mindset intervention may buffer students from instructors’ biased expectations. In particular, we seek to investigate the following questions: Does math instructors’ implicit bias predict minority students’ math attitudes, behaviors, and perceptions of the math instructor? Does receiving the growth mindset intervention moderate the relationship between math instructors’ implicit bias and students’ math attitudes, behaviors, and perceptions of the math instructor? Do factors of the school context (e.g. school race/ethnic diversity, poverty, level of economic inequality) influence the above relationships? Given the high-quality measures and study design, and great interest the racial/ethnic achievement gap, we believe the results will have a scientific and social impact, regardless of the outcome.