Questioning Your Own Brilliance: How Shifts in Physics Ability Mindset Differ Across Students and Grades

Students’ domain-specific ability mindsets play a significant role in shaping their experiences and persistence in STEM fields. Physics is often viewed as a domain requiring innate brilliance, which can reinforce fixed mindset views, particularly after early setbacks in introductory courses. Our study examines shifts in physics ability mindsets, as well as gender differences in these shifts in an introductory calculus-based physics course. Our findings indicated the presence of three mindset categories—Hesitant, Hopeful, and Confident—with gender differences in representation at the high and low ends. We found an overall decline in students’ physics ability mindsets, with women being significantly more likely than men to shift away from the Confident category, especially those earning Bs or Cs (the most commonly awarded grades in this course). Our findings provide empirical evidence for the dynamic, grade-sensitive nature of students’ mindsets in introductory physics courses and highlight the need for instructional strategies that mitigate shifts toward fixed mindsets, as well as targeted interventions to support students at higher risk of adopting a fixed mindset.