Teaching a lay theory before college narrows achievement gaps at scale.

ABSTRACT: Previous experiments have shown that college students benefit when they understand that challenges in the transition to college are common and improvable and, thus, that early struggles need not portend a permanent lack of belonging or potential. Could such an approach-called a lay theory intervention-be effective before college matriculation? Could this strategy reduce a portion of racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic achievement gaps for entire institutions? Three double-blind experiments tested this possibility. Ninety percent of first-year college students from three institutions were randomly assigned to complete single-session, online lay theory or control materials before matriculation (n > 9,500). The lay theory interventions raised first-year full-time college enrollment among studen

SUBMITTER: Yeager DS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4914175 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature