Sunday, 17 April 2016

Angela Lee Duckworth – Ex-teacher and psychologist on 'Grit'



After several years in teaching I’ve come to the conclusion that intelligence is not the only difference between the best and worst students. Researching this lead me to find the work of Angela Lee Duckworth, an ex-teacher and psychologist.






 Below are her findings:

Some of the strongest performers do not have stratospheric IQ scores.

Some of the smartest kids aren’t doing so well.

Concepts [in English] are hard, but not impossible. I’m firmly convinced every one of you can learn these things if you work hard and long enough.

Doing well in school, and life, depends on much more than your ability to learn quickly and easily.

Studied which people were successful and why in schools, the military and private companies. In all contexts there was one constant: grit.

It wasn’t social intelligence, it wasn’t good looks, physical health or IQ, it was grit.

Grit is passion and perseverance for very long-term goals. Grit is having stamina. Grit is sticking with your future, day-in and day-out. Not just for the week, not just for the month but for years. It is working hard to make the future you want a reality.

Life is a marathon, not a sprint.

Studied Grit in Chicago public schools, she asked thousands of high school students to take grit questionnaires, waited a year and then saw who graduated. It turns out ‘grittier’ kids were significantly more likely to graduate, even when matched on things like family income, standardised test scores and how safe they felt at school.

So how do we build grit? How do we instil a solid work ethic? How do we keep them motivated for the long run?

Data shows natural talent doesn’t make you ‘gritty’. In fact, data shows ‘grit’ is usually unrelated or inversely related to measures of talent.

The best way to build ‘grit’ in students is something called ‘growth mindset’. This is an idea developed at Stanford University by Dr Carol Dweck.

This the belief that the ability to learn is not fixed; it can change with your effort.

Dr Dweck has shown that when kids learn that the brain grows in response to challenge, they are much more likely to persevere when they fail because they don’t believe that failure is a permanent condition.



Some things other things I'll look into: 





No comments:

Post a Comment