Periodic Reporting for period 1 - EXPLOREYOURBRAIN2.0 (Explore Your Brain 2.0: a maximally effective, usable and scalable growth mindset intervention to break through adolescents’ declining rates of motivation and school achievements)
Periodo di rendicontazione: 2024-05-01 al 2025-10-31
Adolescence is a period of sharp declines in school motivation, achievement, and mental wellbeing. These declines have negative consequences not only for the societal opportunities and wellbeing of youth, but also for parents, teachers and schools. To counter these negative trends, educational (technological) innovations are highly needed. A promising target for intervention is the belief that abilities can improve (growth mindset), which has been shown to protect adolescents against declines in school outcomes. In previous growth mindset interventions, adolescents (high school students) received lessons in which they learned how the brain changes when learning (e.g. brain cells develop more and stronger connections between them), aiming to convince students of their growth mindset. However, effects on school outcomes were small. To make such lessons more convincing and effective, we developed Explore Your Brain (EYB), where students directly experience the influence they have on their own brain and learning during various ‘brain games’, using state-of-the-art mobile neurofeedback. This was integrated into a tailored lesson program focused on improving growth mindset in adolescents. While EYB was 4.5x more effective than other programs, impact was still limited due to problems in usability and scalability.
The main goal of this Proof of Concept project was to drastically increase the impact of Explore Your Brain on school outcomes, by increasing usability (Objective 1) and scalability (Objective 2), to reach as many adolescents as possible.
The main goal of this Proof of Concept project was to drastically increase the impact of Explore Your Brain on school outcomes, by increasing usability (Objective 1) and scalability (Objective 2), to reach as many adolescents as possible.
Achievement 1: improved prototype of Explore Your Brain
The second prototype of our lesson series, developed during the Proof of Concept project, has improved usability and scalability as we developed an easy-to-use tablet version of our neurofeedback application. This allowed Explore Your Brain to be used by teachers themselves. A pilot with this new version (EYB 2.0) demonstrated that teachers are able to independently work with the application in the lesson series, and the technical aspects were working well.
Achievement 2: identified the market potential for scaling Explore Your Brain
We identified the added value for users: Direct users of EYB benefit through the development of a growth mindset. This can counteract decreases in motivation, achievement, and well-being. The users experience agency over their ability to improve through their own actions, especially after experiencing failure. This growth mindset thereby influences their academic achievement but also tends to spill over to other aspects of their life. This further creates positive effects on parents, teaching staff and schools’ performances. Public schools tend to lack the resources to instill this mindset onto each individual student. Our solution can in a short period of time scale up students' motivation, achievement and mental wellbeing, with very low effort from teaching staff. The long-term consequences of growth mindset interventions might affect many socio-economic factors, such as a reduction in dropout rates and truancy.
Competitive analysis: We identified 12 other providers of services aimed at promoting a growth mindset in the Dutch market, and explored 3 additional providers outside the Netherlands. Almost all of them focus on the educational market. The considerable number of providers confirms there is an interest and market for such products within the educational field. Most providers sell (online) growth mindset materials, sometimes in combination with training for professionals. Only a few competitor interventions have a strong scientific basis (tested for efficacy). No other provider uses our approach – combining theory and experience with neurofeedback technology. Others do innovate by or example creating online teaching environments. However, EYB stands out in its innovative nature since it is the only provider applying specific neuroscientific technology in the classroom. The price of the competitor's products per student was between €20-€187. Many providers focus on limited target groups (e.g. low or high IQ), limiting their scalability.
Stakeholder analysis: In 15 stakeholder interviews during our ERC PoC project, we spoke to teachers, school department heads, and school directors to understand how they view EYB’s opportunities and challenges. These stakeholders indicated that the decline in motivation, achievement and wellbeing was widely observed and was one of their top priorities. EYB made a strong impression, and the use of neuro-technology was seen as very fitting for this age group. They explicitly mentioned the added value of the experiential learning component. Most interviewees suggested integrating EYB during mentor hours or biology lessons and department heads indicated the importance of EYB being evidence-based in their purchasing decision. They also emphasized the importance of a broad support base within the school and indicated a price range of €10-€25 per student, funded with either structural cash flows or temporary government funding.
The stakeholder interviews, together with the competitive analysis allowed us to make a clear overview of the competitive advantage of EYB.
The second prototype of our lesson series, developed during the Proof of Concept project, has improved usability and scalability as we developed an easy-to-use tablet version of our neurofeedback application. This allowed Explore Your Brain to be used by teachers themselves. A pilot with this new version (EYB 2.0) demonstrated that teachers are able to independently work with the application in the lesson series, and the technical aspects were working well.
Achievement 2: identified the market potential for scaling Explore Your Brain
We identified the added value for users: Direct users of EYB benefit through the development of a growth mindset. This can counteract decreases in motivation, achievement, and well-being. The users experience agency over their ability to improve through their own actions, especially after experiencing failure. This growth mindset thereby influences their academic achievement but also tends to spill over to other aspects of their life. This further creates positive effects on parents, teaching staff and schools’ performances. Public schools tend to lack the resources to instill this mindset onto each individual student. Our solution can in a short period of time scale up students' motivation, achievement and mental wellbeing, with very low effort from teaching staff. The long-term consequences of growth mindset interventions might affect many socio-economic factors, such as a reduction in dropout rates and truancy.
Competitive analysis: We identified 12 other providers of services aimed at promoting a growth mindset in the Dutch market, and explored 3 additional providers outside the Netherlands. Almost all of them focus on the educational market. The considerable number of providers confirms there is an interest and market for such products within the educational field. Most providers sell (online) growth mindset materials, sometimes in combination with training for professionals. Only a few competitor interventions have a strong scientific basis (tested for efficacy). No other provider uses our approach – combining theory and experience with neurofeedback technology. Others do innovate by or example creating online teaching environments. However, EYB stands out in its innovative nature since it is the only provider applying specific neuroscientific technology in the classroom. The price of the competitor's products per student was between €20-€187. Many providers focus on limited target groups (e.g. low or high IQ), limiting their scalability.
Stakeholder analysis: In 15 stakeholder interviews during our ERC PoC project, we spoke to teachers, school department heads, and school directors to understand how they view EYB’s opportunities and challenges. These stakeholders indicated that the decline in motivation, achievement and wellbeing was widely observed and was one of their top priorities. EYB made a strong impression, and the use of neuro-technology was seen as very fitting for this age group. They explicitly mentioned the added value of the experiential learning component. Most interviewees suggested integrating EYB during mentor hours or biology lessons and department heads indicated the importance of EYB being evidence-based in their purchasing decision. They also emphasized the importance of a broad support base within the school and indicated a price range of €10-€25 per student, funded with either structural cash flows or temporary government funding.
The stakeholder interviews, together with the competitive analysis allowed us to make a clear overview of the competitive advantage of EYB.
Market Position and scalability
Overall, Explore Your Brain has an edge over the competition, being evidence-based, user friendly, highly effective for all students, scalable, innovative and affordable (our preliminary calculations indicate a pricing range of €15-€30 per student). We developed an easy-to-use tablet version of our neurofeedback application (EYB 2.0) to be used by teachers. To better understand the customer journey, we did a pilot study at a secondary school, where teachers autonomously taught EYB’s lessons to a total of 4 classes. This study showed that a teacher, with an instructional manual and materials for the neurofeedback app, is able to run the growth mindset course independently. This allows us to extend EYB’s scalability and improve our impact.
Needs
For further scaling, we need to keep the momentum of the network of schools interested in using EYB. To fulfill this need, we are continuing offering EYB 2.0 to schools using volunteers (student trainers), to optimize the practical logistics and financial model. In parallel, we are applying for further grants to continue this validation research and work towards paying customers.
In addition, we are setting up a foundation through which we will offer EYB to schools in a nonprofit manner. This ensures that we offer EYB in an affordable way. For example, through a foundation, philanthropic organizations can make donations to contribute to fulfilling our mission of ensuring that all adolescents have the opportunity to optimize their learning potential.
Overall, Explore Your Brain has an edge over the competition, being evidence-based, user friendly, highly effective for all students, scalable, innovative and affordable (our preliminary calculations indicate a pricing range of €15-€30 per student). We developed an easy-to-use tablet version of our neurofeedback application (EYB 2.0) to be used by teachers. To better understand the customer journey, we did a pilot study at a secondary school, where teachers autonomously taught EYB’s lessons to a total of 4 classes. This study showed that a teacher, with an instructional manual and materials for the neurofeedback app, is able to run the growth mindset course independently. This allows us to extend EYB’s scalability and improve our impact.
Needs
For further scaling, we need to keep the momentum of the network of schools interested in using EYB. To fulfill this need, we are continuing offering EYB 2.0 to schools using volunteers (student trainers), to optimize the practical logistics and financial model. In parallel, we are applying for further grants to continue this validation research and work towards paying customers.
In addition, we are setting up a foundation through which we will offer EYB to schools in a nonprofit manner. This ensures that we offer EYB in an affordable way. For example, through a foundation, philanthropic organizations can make donations to contribute to fulfilling our mission of ensuring that all adolescents have the opportunity to optimize their learning potential.