The Role of Growth Mindset, Metacognitive Strategies, and Grit in Improving Students’ Academic Achievement: A Systematic Literature Review

Abstract

This systematic review synthesizes evidence on the contribution of growth mindset, metacognitive strategies, and grit to the academic achievement of senior high school students. A search using the Scopus indexer yielded 319 titles. A series of exclusion criteria were then applied for the relevance and quality of the dataset: exclusion of articles published outside the 2013–2025 period (n = 71), exclusion of records not suggested as journal articles (n = 27), exclusion based on non-journal source type (n = 0), and exclusion of publications not written in English (n = 30). After applying these criteria, 191 articles remained and were retained for further screening and analysis. All search results were exported in RIS and Microsoft Excel comma-separated values file (CSV) formats for systematic organization and data management. Next, screening was carried out using the catchii.org application and obtained a PRISMA diagram and obtained 12 articles. The results of this study indicate that growth mindset is the most frequently studied construct and shows a reliable relationship with standardized test performance, motivation, and learning regulation, especially among students with low socioeconomic status or low achievement characteristics. Findings regarding metacognitive strategies show strong predictive value for GPA (GPA) and learning regulation, indicating a major role in growing motivational efficacy into effective academic behavior. Meanwhile, the Grit construct contributes primarily through an indirect pathway, mediating the effects of growth mindset through persistence and academic self-efficacy. Several other variables that influence student academic achievement are socioeconomic status, previous achievement, gender, and digital navigation patterns forming the third variable (construct) on student learning achievement.