Students Who Believe They Can Improve With Effort Get Better Grades

Most people have heard “practice makes perfect” so many times it barely registers. But a new study suggests that whether a student actually believes their abilities can grow through effort may be one of the strongest predictors of how well they perform in school.

Researchers from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology surveyed 249 high school students ages 15 to 19, measuring four motivational traits: growth mindset, grit, passion for achievement, and self-efficacy. Growth mindset, the belief that abilities can improve through effort and learning, emerged as the most consistent predictor of academic success across subjects, while self-efficacy also played a meaningful role in physical education. Students who embraced the idea that persistence pays off earned higher grades, felt more capable, and reported greater enjoyment of school. Published in Frontiers in Education, the study suggests that what a student believes about effort may matter more than traits like grit or passion, at least in this study.

That distinction is significant. Grit, defined in the research literature as “perseverance and passion for long-term goals,” has been a buzzword in education circles for more than two decades. Passion for achievement refers to a deep, sustained drive to excel at something personally meaningful. Both have been widely promoted as keys to student success. In this study, however, neither showed strong independent predictive power once other factors were considered.

How a Growth Mindset Predicts Better Grades

Psychologist Carol Dweck, who developed the growth mindset framework, argued that students who believe they can improve through effort approach learning fundamentally differently. They lean into challenges, recover from setbacks more easily, and treat effort as the engine of getting better.

That belief was tied to stronger academic performance. Growth mindset predicted grades in both Norwegian language arts and physical education, and also predicted how capable students felt in each subject. When researchers weighed all four traits against each other, growth mindset was the only factor that consistently stood out in Norwegian, and one of just two that held up in physical education.

Self-efficacy, a related but distinct idea, also mattered, particularly in PE. Where growth mindset is a broad conviction that abilities can grow, self-efficacy is confidence in one’s ability to handle a specific situation. Students who felt generally capable of rising to challenges tended to feel more competent in PE and reported enjoying it more. Physical performance is on full display in gym class, which may help explain why that sense of confidence carries extra weight when effort is visible to teachers and peers.

Grit and Passion Hit a Wall in the Classroom

Despite their popularity, grit and passion showed only weak and inconsistent ties to academic outcomes. Passion correlated positively with grades and how capable students felt, but those connections largely disappeared once growth mindset and self-efficacy were factored in. Grit fared similarly, with one exception: students who scored higher on grit reported enjoying Norwegian class more, even if that enjoyment didn’t translate into better grades.

The researchers suggest that both traits may be better suited to activities students choose for themselves than to required coursework with a set grading system. One possible explanation is that grit and passion tend to shine when someone is chasing a goal they’ve freely chosen and deeply care about, such as a sport, an instrument, or a personal project. Earlier research from the same institution found that passion scores clearly separated the best from the worst performers among elite Norwegian soccer players. A required classroom looks nothing like that environment.

Boys Had More Drive, Girls Had Better Grades

Male students in the study reported significantly higher levels of both grit and passion than female students. Their grades told a different story.

No meaningful gender differences appeared in growth mindset or self-efficacy scores, or in physical education performance. In Norwegian language arts, though, girls pulled substantially ahead. On Norway’s 1-to-6 grading scale, girls averaged 4.49 compared to boys’ 3.91, and reported feeling more capable in the subject.

Higher grit and greater passion didn’t push boys to outperform girls, reinforcing the study’s central finding: growth mindset, evenly distributed across genders, was the trait most closely tied to who actually performed well. Researchers note that factors beyond motivation, including assessment formats, classroom dynamics, and social expectations, may also shape how gender gaps play out in school.

What Schools Can Build on the Growth Mindset Research

For teachers and administrators, the results make a practical case for cultivating belief in students. Helping students genuinely believe their abilities can grow through practice may be more effective than focusing on effort alone.

That premise underlies the I CAN intervention, a program developed at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology designed to build growth mindset and grit in adolescents. Earlier research found that it increased grit among boys in the experimental group, suggesting that targeted mindset work can shift how students think about their own potential.

Grit and passion may be powerful forces in the right setting. Inside a required classroom, the belief that abilities can grow turns out to be the more reliable edge.

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Disclaimer: This article is based on an observational, cross-sectional study and cannot establish cause and effect. Findings are drawn from a sample of Norwegian high school students and may not apply to all student populations or education systems.

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