By: Emily Shwake

Last week, in “Can Kids Be as Smart as They Want to Be?” we discussed the difference between crystallized intelligence (i.e. the result of the knowledge and skills we have learned over time) and fluid intelligence (i.e. critical thinking) which scientists had thought to be stagnant. That is, until recent studies have shown that performing challenging tasks may increase fluid intelligence. This week, we talk about how grit might just be even more important than that.

If you have yet to jump on the “grit” bandwagon, grit is a positive, non-cognitive trait that helps individuals achieve their long-term goals through perseverance and dedication to achieving those goals. Angela Duckworth, now a PhD and professor at the University of Pennsylvania, left teaching seventh grade math in order to discover why some students performed better than others. In her studies, she found that grit often acts as a better predictor of success than IQ or talent. Even more groundbreaking, those characteristics are often inversely related to grit.

Duckworth’s study pulls from Walter Mischel’s famous research on self-control in 1972: when children were left in a room with a marshmallow or other treat, and told that if they didn’t eat it before the researcher came back, they could have more treats. This self-monitoring or delayed gratification translates in their academic success. Those students that did not eat the marshmallow scored an average of 210 more on their SATs than the other children. Grit is the educational equivalent of self-control.

In result of Duckworth’s 2013 TED Talk, “grit” is all the rage in education and positive psychology circles. However, some are skeptical about how “mindset interventions” (ways to teach grittiness) should be executed. In the study, Motivation Matters: How New Research Can Help Teachers Boost Student Engagement, Susan Headden and Sarah McKay synthesized the impressive research performed on grit thus far, but acknowledged the possible gaps.

Some critics are concerned that grit research places too much blame on the child and not enough on the education system: “The more effort we devote to getting students to pay attention to the teacher rather than daydreaming despite boredom and frustration, the less likely we are to ask whether those assignments are actually worth doing, or to rethink an arrangement where teachers mostly talk and students mostly listen,” said Alfie Kohn in her article, “Dispelling the Myth of Deferred Gratification.
 

Other skeptics like Magdalena G. Grohman, associate director of the Center for Values, Medicine and Technology at the University of Texas, Dallas, emphasize that grit research is limited to only the learning done in structured environments. In her observation, the success of students in artistic achievements had no correlation to their level of grit.

The important thing to know is that grit is not stagnant—it can be taught. Headden and McKay explain: “Ranging from comprehensive workshops, to messages embedded in curricula, to subtle tweaks in how teachers provide feedback on assignments, these and other interventions can help students turn fixed attitudes into growth-oriented ones.”

Psychologist David Yeager at University of Texas explained to Headden and McKay that the power of these lessons about grit may lose efficacy in the eyes of your nieces and nephews if they are repeated too many times. Students that received little or no reinforcement since their original grit lesson still reaped the benefit years after the original message was instilled.

Photo: evren_photos
?Published: August 18, 2015