Effects of an inquiry-focused school improvement program on the development of pupils’ attitudes towards curiosity, their implicit ability and effort beliefs, and goal orientations

The present study describes the effects of a 2-year inquiry-focused school improvement intervention on pupils’ attitudes towards epistemic curiosity, their implicit beliefs about the malleability of their ability, their effort beliefs, and their goal orientation motivations were investigated. Six Dutch primary school teams participated in the study. Quantitative data were collected from the 4th, 5th and 6th grade pupils and examined based on a longitudinal pretest–posttest control group design. A Structural Equation Modeling approach was first used to examine the relationships among pupils’ attitude, belief, and motivation scores. In line with attitude and motivation theory, pupils’ attitudes towards epistemic curiosity and their implicit ability beliefs positively related to their effort beliefs and goal orientation motivations. In addition, the intervention affected positive changes in pupils’ attitude, belief and motivation scores over time. Findings may inform the further development of school development projects aimed at stimulating pupils’ inquiry in primary education, namely by fostering pupils’ attitudes towards epistemic curiosity and their implicit ability beliefs.