Teachers with a growth mindset are motivated and engaged: the relationships among mindsets, motivation, and engagement in teaching

Past research on mindsets has mostly focused on studying students’ beliefs about the malleability of their intelligence or teachers’ beliefs about the malleability of their students’ intelligence. However, teachers’ mindsets about the malleability of their own teaching ability and how these teaching mindsets shape their motivation and engagement have been seldom explored. In this study, we examined whether teachers’ mindsets about their teaching ability, which can be either growth (belief that teaching ability can be learned and improved) or fixed (belief that teaching ability is innate), would predict teachers’ work engagement through their motivation towards teaching (autonomous and controlled motivation, and amotivation). The participants were 547 in-service Filipino teachers. Variables were assessed using self-report measures and the data were analysed using structural equation modelling. Results showed that a growth teaching mindset positively predicted autonomous motivation, which in turn, predicted higher work engagement. Results held despite controlling for teachers’ mindset about intelligence and demographic covariates. Our work reveals the importance of growth teaching mindset in promoting teachers’ motivation and engagement.