Journal of Educational and Developmental Psychology; Vol. 6, No. 2; 2016 ISSN 1927-0526 E-ISSN 1927-0534 Published by Canadian Center of Science and Education 135 Student Perceptions of Teachers’ Mindset Beliefs in the Classroom Setting C. Anne Gutshall 1 1 Teacher Education Department, College of Charleston, Charleston, USA Correspondence: C. Anne Gutshall, Teacher Education Department, College of Charleston, Charleston, USA. E-mail: gutshalla@cofc.edu Received: July 8, 2016 Accepted: July 31, 2016 Online Published: September 19, 2016 doi:10.5539/jedp.v6n2p135 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.5539/jedp.v6n2p135 Abstract Academic Mindset is a collection of 4 beliefs that directly impacts student academic perseverance, academic behaviors and academic performance (Farrington et al., 2012). Research suggests teachers and students hold beliefs about the stability/malleability of ability (Dweck, 2006); however, little is known about the nature of the relationship between student ability beliefs and teacher ability beliefs in classroom settings. The current research explores the nature of Student Mindset beliefs (n=359) (SM), Students’ Perception of Teacher Mindset beliefs (SPTM) and Teacher Mindset (TM) beliefs. Results suggest that Student Mindset (SM) is related to Teacher Mindset (TM) and fully mediated by Student Perception of Teacher Mindset (SPTM). Implications for educators are discussed. Keywords: teachers’ mindset beliefs, students’ mindset beliefs, classroom environments 1. Introduction Classroom settings are complicated. Complex interactions occur among teachers, students, environments and pedagogy. Finding what works to improve student learning can be daunting admist all of these possible interactions, however, student and teacher beliefs appear to be a key component of successful student outcomes. Research suggests a strong relation to student performance for students who believe their ability can always be improved. These students demonstrate improved learning outcomes, resistance to failure and persistence in the face of setbacks (Dweck, 2012). Research studies in goal theory (Dweck, 1986; Dweck & Leggett, 1988) attribution theory (Weiner, 1979) expectancy-value theory (Eccles, Adler, Futterman, Goff, Kaczala, Meece, & Midgely, 1983) and self-efficacy (Bandura, 1986) suggest that what a student believes about themselves and their learning impacts their performance in the learning environment. More recently, as part of a comprehensive and critical research review of the behaviors and beliefs essential for student success conducted at the University of Chicago, it has been suggested that these key student beliefs are best represented as one of five broader, bigger categories, referred to as the essential “non-cognitive” factors known to directly impact academic performance (Farrington, Roderick, Allensworth, Nagoaka, Keyes, Johnson, & Beechum, 2012). The five broad categories suggested in the review include: Academic Behaviors, Academic Perseverance, Academic Mindsets, Learning Strategies and Social Skills. The Academic Mindset category encompasses student beliefs and will be the focus of this paper. Academic Mindsets is a term that includes 4 beliefs which are listed below (Farrington et al., 2012). 1) I belong in this academic community 2) My ability and competence grow with my effort 3) I can succeed at this 4) This work has value for me (Farrington et al., 2012, chapter 2, p. 9) The second belief focusing on student ability and competence, is one of several implicit beliefs related to people’s perception of their abilities. Implicit beliefs about ability are commonly referred to as “mindset” (Dweck, 2006). Specifically, mindset is the extent to which people believe their ability can be grown by effort and persistence versus the extent to which people believe their ability is fixed or unchangeable, regardless of