CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Mindsets refers to a set of belief that shape how you make sense of the world and yourself Dweck (2000). The phrase ‘growth mindset’ developed from Carol Dweck’s research into self-theories and motivation. Africans held that growth mindset is the author of good educational achievements. Resilience refers to successful adaption to situations despite risks that put someone at a disadvantage or adversity (Windle et al.2011). In line with this general definition, academic resilience refers to the capacity of students to perform well in school despite a disadvantaged background (OECD 2011) or more precisely the heightened likelihood of success in school despite environmental adversities brought about by early traits, conditions, and experiences (Wang et al. 1994). Given that humans with a growth mindset can experience high level of academic resilience, the research wanted to be sure that it apply in Cameroon and the University of Bamenda in Particular.

BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Historically, tracing back to the early days, researchers has invested little time and energy on the role of growth mindset on students’ academic resilience. This has brought a big misconception on the role of a growth mindset on students’ academic resilience especially in the less developed countries, which we happened to be among. The phrase ‘growth mindset’ developed from Carol Dweck’s research into self-theories and motivation. Dweck (2000) argues that how people view on intelligence can be classified into two main types. The first is referred to as a ‘fixed mindset’ or entity theory, where intelligence is viewed as something that is inherent and fixed, and little can be done to change it. The opposite is termed a ‘growth mindset’ or incremental theory, where a person believes that intelligence is changeable and something that can develop through effort and perseverance. This was had to take as some Africans held that growth mindset is the author of good educational achievements, which saw light in 1830s, by education advocates such as Mann and Sammuel Gribley. It saw it growth in 1914 when Kanas brought a silent reading test and is defined as the measure of students performance across various academic disciplines (education policy 2024)

Resilience refers to successful adaption to situations despite risks that put someone at a disadvantage or adversity (Windle et al.2011). In line with this general definition, academic resilience refers to the capacity of students to perform well in school despite a disadvantaged background (OECD 2011) or more precisely the heightened likelihood of success in school despite environmental adversities brought about by early traits, conditions, and experiences (Wang et al. 1994). To illustrate how many and which students were classified as academically resilient, we selected two individual student characteristics (gender and language spoken at home). As validity measures, we selected two school-related characteristics (sense of belonging and absence from school) that can be supposed to assess similar concepts. This study examined their concurrent validity by comparing the relations of these external constructs to the different conceptualizations of academic resilience.

Conceptually, Since minimizing the influence of students’ background on the outcomes of schooling is a central topic for accomplishing equity in education, a better understanding of academic resilience may help policymakers and educators to support students from a disadvantaged background in improving their academic achievement. Notwithstanding, the different concepts this study will be looking at includes the concepts of academic resilience, growth mindset, character strength, optimistic and accountability.

However, different conceptualizations of academic resilience may re sultan conflicting conclusions. Itis therefore crucial to ensure the validity of a definition. Studies on academic resilience typically employ some operationalization of socioeconomic status (SES) as an indicator of students’ risk or adversity, and they use some type of educational outcome as an indicator of positive adaptation (Tudor and Spray 2017). A shift in emphasis in mental health policy to include promotion of positive mental health as a preventative measure (WHO, 2005), together with the identification of resilience and coping as one of eight positive mental health grouping (Parkinson, 2008), underlines the value of studies examining resilience. Abiola and Udofia (2011) suggest resilience is associated with increased quality of life, wellbeing and functional capacity in times of adversity. Although there is an intuitive appreciation for the “meaning” of resilience and what it infers (about the individual), consensus in defining psychological resilience, both conceptually and operationally as a measurable construct, has yet to be reached. As Friedland (2005) notes, perspectives on resilience are highly diverse and the concept of resilience is highly elusive. In an attempt to illustrate the concept, Gilligan (2001) uses the example of a resilient child as a child who does better than they ought to, bearing in mind what has happened to them. Friedland (2005) goes on to discuss resilience as inferring hardiness, toughness, and resistance, along with somewhat paradoxically elasticity and flexibility.

As is common with many psychological constructs selfefficacy for example, there is debate around the existence and relevance of a global resilience construct. Instead, there is a strong argument for resilience to be considered and measured as a context-specific construct. Riley and Masten (2005) explain the need to contextualize resilience on the basis that judgments about risk and adversity relate directly to events and contexts, as do evaluations of competencies and outcomes.

Theoretically, the study makes use of the Psychological Theory. The theory behind growth mindsets originally stemmed from research into how children respond to failure. This is very common in Cameroon as some students even commit suicide when they fail public examination which needs to be handled before things deteriorate.  Diener (1998) identified two main types of responses: one termed ‘helpless’ and the other ‘mastery-oriented’. Dweck (2000) found that children with a helpless response viewed the failure as out of their control and unchangeable, whereas those who were mastery-oriented persisted despite the failure and focussed on mastering a task. Dweck and Leggett (1998) extended this further by linking the helpless and mastery-oriented responses to the goals that a child pursued, and how their implicit beliefs can influence the type of goal they prefer. Dweck and Leggett (1998) suggested that a child who responds to failure in a helpless manner is likely to prefer performance goals (where the aim is to gain judgement about their current competence), and hold an entity theory of intelligence. On the other hand, a mastery-oriented child would be more likely to pursue learning goals (where the aim is to increase competence) and hold an incremental theory of intelligence. Research has supported this theory and found that implicit beliefs about intelligence predicted a pupil’s response to failure and goals pursued (Robins & Pals, 2002), and, importantly, predicted their grades (Blackwell 2007), with incremental theorists scoring higher than entity theorists. Considering educational psychology practice, if it is possible to change a child’s implicit belief to that of a growth mindset, there are clear benefits that this could have for pupil motivation and academic achievement. Interventions that promote a growth mindset could be implemented universally across schools to encourage this way of thinking in all pupils. Considering the nature of the intervention, educational

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Although there is an intuitive appreciation for the “meaning” of resilience and what it infers (about the individual), consensus in defining psychological resilience, both conceptually and operationally as a measurable construct, has yet to be reached Masten (2005). Resilience is described by Hamill (2003) as competence in the face of adversity and by Gilligan (2001) as “a set of qualities that help a person to withstand many of the negative effects of adversity. Growth mindsets as asserted by a host of authors goes with positive education.” Positive education is “education for both traditional skills and for happiness” (Seligman et al., 2009). Peterson (2006) put forward the idea that schools could become positive institutions, if they cultivate a growth mindset and placed great emphasis not only on the academic performance of students but also on their character and wellbeing. Positive education teaches the skills of wellbeing through direct practice and the curriculum, aiming to equip students with skills to build their resilience, optimism, character strengths, formation of positive relationships, and other significant factors that contribute to a flourishing life.  There are several benefits of growth mindset, including providing an antidote to the depression of young teenagers, serving as a pathway which increases life satisfaction, nurtures creativity, and fosters class cohesion and civic citizenship (Seligman 2009). Notably, research shows that growth mindset promotes the psychological characteristics and character strengths which are associated with students’ higher academic performance, lower risk behaviors, and long-term benefits for their physical health (Durlaketal 2011). However, to the best of our knowledge, little research has directly investigated the “the role of growth mindset” which is an underlying mechanisms involved in cultivating the psychological characteristics and character of students that can increase both psychological wellbeing and school achievement (resilience). To date, there is no study that demonstrates the causal relationship between the role of a growth mindset and academic resilience, which is to that effect that this study is out to find answers on the role of growth mindset on academic resilience.

RESEARCH OBJECTIVES

This study has one main objective and three specific objective as seen below;

MAIN RESEARCH OBJECTIVES

The main research objective of the study is to assess the role of growth mindset on academic resilience of students in the University of Bamenda.

SPECIFIC RESEARCH OBJECTIVE

• To examine the effect of character strength (passion & attitude) on academic resilience of students in University of Bamenda.
• To evaluate how being optimistic (willingness & believe) influence the academic resilience of students in University of Bamenda.
• To assess how being accountable influence the academic resilience of students in University of Bamenda.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

This study one main research question and three specific research questions as follows;

MAIN RESEARCH QUESTIONS

The main research question of the study is, what is the role of growth mindset on academic resilience of students in the University of Bamenda.

SPECIFIC RESEARCH QUESTIONS

• What is the effect of character strength (passion & attitude) on academic resilience of students in University of Bamenda?
• How does being optimistic (willingness & believe) influence the academic resilience of students in University of Bamenda?
• How does being accountable influence the academic resilience of students in University of Bamenda?