Grit
Overview
Duckworth et al. (2007) have defined grit as the “perseverance and passion for long-term goals” and state that grit “entails working strenuously toward challenges, maintaining effort and interest over years despite failure, adversity, and plateaus in progress”.
Duckworth et al. (2007) have defined grit as the “perseverance and passion for long-term goals” and state that grit “entails working strenuously toward challenges, maintaining effort and interest over years despite failure, adversity, and plateaus in progress”.
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Key Concepts
Fixed vs. Growth Mindsets
Research demonstrates that students’ mindset greatly influences resilience, or grit, when presented with academic and social challenges (Yeager & Dweck, 2012).Grit, accompanied by perseverance and self-discipline, serve as better predictors of college performance than the SAT or IQ standardized tests (Duckworth & Seligman, 2005, 2007). Variation exists however, in terms of how much grit each person has, and this is influenced by whether the individual has adopted a fixed or growth mindset. Implicit theories of intelligence, including the entity theory of intelligence (fixed) and the incremental theory of intelligence (growth), impact academic resilience greatly (Hochanadel & Finamore, 2015). Students adopting the entity theory of intelligence view intellectual ability as fixed and unchanging. The focus with the entity theory is primarily to measure ability, which is usually considered threatening (Hochanadel & Finamore, 2015). Alternatively, those with the incremental theory of intelligence understand that intellectual ability may be enhanced and developed over time. With this implicit theory, all encounters are seen as opportunities to learn, grow and improve (Hochanadel & Finamore, 2015).
The theory that intelligence is fixed and unchangeable can wrongfully lead students to believe that they are inherently “dumb” and lack intelligence (Yeager & Dweck, 2012). As a result of this, students who may excel and perform well academically, may be discouraged from investing time and effort into academic work, due to their adopted mindset. This would result in students who are capable and intelligent underachieving, as a result of not trying resulting from misconceptions of learning.
Grit and Socioeconomic Status
In recent years, the gap in academic achievement between high- and low-income students has increased. Students in low-income situations tend to perform to lower academic standards which subsequently hinders them from improving on their potential opportunities (e.g., continuing to college or university). Traditionally, cognitive factors such as IQ have been used a predictive factors for continued academic success. However, newer research has focused on how non-cognitive factors (emotions, attitudes, values, beliefs, motivation, anxiety, and grit) may play a role in the high-achieving status of students. The conversation about the link between grit and academic success of our students has been highly debated since its widespread introduction by Duckworth et al. (2007). Increasingly so when discussed in relation to those schools which serve our students coming from low socioeconomic backgrounds.
Proponents of the grit mindset believe that teaching students grit will offer a solution to the poor performance of low-income schools (Ris, 2015). Studies have shown that low-income students who show high levels of grit have been able to achieve academic performance levels on par with students whose socioeconomic status was higher than the average (Huang and Zhu, 2017). Associations between the grit level of the student and their higher achieving status indicated to the authors that the achievement gap may be reduced by implementing resilience education.
On the other hand, skeptics of the grit mindset view grit as a way to simply explain away why poor communities remain poor (Ris, 2015). Many researchers state that students of low-income backgrounds are more likely to already possess high levels of grit as their hardships have already taught them the facets of grit and perseverance (Ris, 2015). In these cases, the conversation of grit is not driven by concerns for our low-income students, but rather by the anxiety of middle and upper-class parents attempting to explain why their children have not performed to the expected standard.
Golden (2015) states that the conversation on grit detracts from the fact that schools catering to students of different classes have access to widely varying funding, pedagogies, curricula, and educational focuses. In underfunded institutions, with high numbers of culturally, ethnically, racially, and linguistically minoritized learners, cannot possibly overcome the inequalities in funding and opportunities solely through the adoption of a grit mindset within their students.
Grit and its Relationship to Personality
Grit is considered a personality trait is often seen as one that is subordinate to conscientiousness (Big Five Personality Traits). Grit is a non-cognitive trait and is generally seen as a soft skill. Grit is commonly measured using the Grit-S scale developed by Duckworth & Quinn (2009). Grit works together with gratitude to lower suicidal ideation in comparison to conscientiousness, thus grit is a good trait to develop in that it fosters resiliency, increases in the meaning of life and perseverance.
Fixed vs. Growth Mindsets
Research demonstrates that students’ mindset greatly influences resilience, or grit, when presented with academic and social challenges (Yeager & Dweck, 2012).Grit, accompanied by perseverance and self-discipline, serve as better predictors of college performance than the SAT or IQ standardized tests (Duckworth & Seligman, 2005, 2007). Variation exists however, in terms of how much grit each person has, and this is influenced by whether the individual has adopted a fixed or growth mindset. Implicit theories of intelligence, including the entity theory of intelligence (fixed) and the incremental theory of intelligence (growth), impact academic resilience greatly (Hochanadel & Finamore, 2015). Students adopting the entity theory of intelligence view intellectual ability as fixed and unchanging. The focus with the entity theory is primarily to measure ability, which is usually considered threatening (Hochanadel & Finamore, 2015). Alternatively, those with the incremental theory of intelligence understand that intellectual ability may be enhanced and developed over time. With this implicit theory, all encounters are seen as opportunities to learn, grow and improve (Hochanadel & Finamore, 2015).
The theory that intelligence is fixed and unchangeable can wrongfully lead students to believe that they are inherently “dumb” and lack intelligence (Yeager & Dweck, 2012). As a result of this, students who may excel and perform well academically, may be discouraged from investing time and effort into academic work, due to their adopted mindset. This would result in students who are capable and intelligent underachieving, as a result of not trying resulting from misconceptions of learning.
Grit and Socioeconomic Status
In recent years, the gap in academic achievement between high- and low-income students has increased. Students in low-income situations tend to perform to lower academic standards which subsequently hinders them from improving on their potential opportunities (e.g., continuing to college or university). Traditionally, cognitive factors such as IQ have been used a predictive factors for continued academic success. However, newer research has focused on how non-cognitive factors (emotions, attitudes, values, beliefs, motivation, anxiety, and grit) may play a role in the high-achieving status of students. The conversation about the link between grit and academic success of our students has been highly debated since its widespread introduction by Duckworth et al. (2007). Increasingly so when discussed in relation to those schools which serve our students coming from low socioeconomic backgrounds.
Proponents of the grit mindset believe that teaching students grit will offer a solution to the poor performance of low-income schools (Ris, 2015). Studies have shown that low-income students who show high levels of grit have been able to achieve academic performance levels on par with students whose socioeconomic status was higher than the average (Huang and Zhu, 2017). Associations between the grit level of the student and their higher achieving status indicated to the authors that the achievement gap may be reduced by implementing resilience education.
On the other hand, skeptics of the grit mindset view grit as a way to simply explain away why poor communities remain poor (Ris, 2015). Many researchers state that students of low-income backgrounds are more likely to already possess high levels of grit as their hardships have already taught them the facets of grit and perseverance (Ris, 2015). In these cases, the conversation of grit is not driven by concerns for our low-income students, but rather by the anxiety of middle and upper-class parents attempting to explain why their children have not performed to the expected standard.
Golden (2015) states that the conversation on grit detracts from the fact that schools catering to students of different classes have access to widely varying funding, pedagogies, curricula, and educational focuses. In underfunded institutions, with high numbers of culturally, ethnically, racially, and linguistically minoritized learners, cannot possibly overcome the inequalities in funding and opportunities solely through the adoption of a grit mindset within their students.
Grit and its Relationship to Personality
Grit is considered a personality trait is often seen as one that is subordinate to conscientiousness (Big Five Personality Traits). Grit is a non-cognitive trait and is generally seen as a soft skill. Grit is commonly measured using the Grit-S scale developed by Duckworth & Quinn (2009). Grit works together with gratitude to lower suicidal ideation in comparison to conscientiousness, thus grit is a good trait to develop in that it fosters resiliency, increases in the meaning of life and perseverance.
Practical Suggestions for Educators
Fixed vs. Growth Mindsets
According to Yeager & Dweck (2012), mindset can contribute to two of the most important issues encountered by educators. They include:
1) Academic underachievement
2) The impact of peer exclusion and victimization.
Integrating grit in the classroom is therefore important to targeting these issues and working towards improving student outlook and attitude towards learning.
According to Bashant (2014), effective ways to integrate grit into the classroom are as follows:
Grit and Socioeconomic Status
As educators, we should consider implementing grit with regards to socioeconomic status based on the following:
As educators, we should encourage the development of grit within our students from the perspective of giving them an appreciation for perseverance and hard work towards an achievable end goal. However, we must remember, that grit alone is not the final predictor of whether or not our students will succeed in long-term goals or achieve success in life. It will however give them a sense of self-motivation that if a task or goal is important enough to them, they should work to achieve that goal despite challenges and setbacks that may arise along the way.
Grit and its Relationship to Personality
Teachers can empower students by teaching them that character matters, inclusive in character development is teaching grit. Teachers can provide positive character feedback and develop students’ metacognitive skills by teaching SMART goal planning and encouraging students to adopt a growth mindset.
Fixed vs. Growth Mindsets
According to Yeager & Dweck (2012), mindset can contribute to two of the most important issues encountered by educators. They include:
1) Academic underachievement
2) The impact of peer exclusion and victimization.
Integrating grit in the classroom is therefore important to targeting these issues and working towards improving student outlook and attitude towards learning.
According to Bashant (2014), effective ways to integrate grit into the classroom are as follows:
- Discuss the power of attitude and persistence to help students understand the value of this trait for success
- Use graphics to help with problem solving in subjects such as math to engage both sides of the brain. This emphasizes to students that the brain changes with learning.
- Begin with smaller problems and gradually integrate more challenging ones. This would help with not discouraging students.
- Explain to students "why" something is being done. Often, if the purpose of a lesson or activity is not explained, students don't understand the relevance.
Grit and Socioeconomic Status
As educators, we should consider implementing grit with regards to socioeconomic status based on the following:
- Implement pedagogies which promote critical consciousness and awareness of the radically different funding inputs into the education facilities of different communities (Golden, 2015)
- Move away from the assumption that academic success is an individual responsibility of the student
- Implement pedagogies which value the learners’ cultural understandings and lived realities as meaningful and impactful (Golden, 2015)
As educators, we should encourage the development of grit within our students from the perspective of giving them an appreciation for perseverance and hard work towards an achievable end goal. However, we must remember, that grit alone is not the final predictor of whether or not our students will succeed in long-term goals or achieve success in life. It will however give them a sense of self-motivation that if a task or goal is important enough to them, they should work to achieve that goal despite challenges and setbacks that may arise along the way.
Grit and its Relationship to Personality
Teachers can empower students by teaching them that character matters, inclusive in character development is teaching grit. Teachers can provide positive character feedback and develop students’ metacognitive skills by teaching SMART goal planning and encouraging students to adopt a growth mindset.
Resources
Al-Mutawah, M.A., Fateel, M.J. (2018). Students’ achievement in math and science: How grit and attitudes influence? International Education Studies. 11(2) 97-105
Blazar, D., Kraft, M. (2017). Teacher and teaching effects on students’ attitudes and behaviors. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 39, 146–170. https://doi.org/10.3102/0162373716670260
Duckworth, A.L., Peterson, C., Matthews, M.D., Kelly, D.R. (2007) Grit: Perseverance and passion for long-term goals. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 92(6) 1087 http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.92.6.1087
Duckworth, A. L., & Quinn, P. D. (2009). Development and validation of the short grit scale. Journal of Personality Assessment, 91(2), 166-174.
Duckworth A. Don’t grade schools on grit. (2016, Mar 26) The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/27/opinion/sunday/dont-grade-schools-on-grit.html.
Farrington, C.A., Roderick, M., Allensworth, E., Nagaoka, J., Keyes, T.S., Johnson, D.W., Beechum, N.O. (2012). Teaching adolescents to become leaders: The role of noncognitive factors in shaping school performance: A critical literature review. Consortium on Chicago School Research.
Golden, N.A. (2015). “There’s Still That Window That’s Open”: The Problem with “Grit”. Urban Education 52(3) 343-369
Hochanadel, A., & Finamore, D. (2015). Fixed and Growth Mindset In Education and How Grit Helps Students Persist In The Face of Adversity. Journal of International Education Research, 11(1), 47-50. Retrieved from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1051129.pdf
Huang, H. (2015). Can students themselves narrow the socioeconomic-status-based achievement gap through their own persistence and learning time? Education Policy Analysis Archives. 23(108) 1-37
Huang, H., Zhu, H. (2017). High Achievers from Low Socioeconomic Backgrounds: The Critical Role of Disciplinary Climate and Grit. Mid-Western Educational Researcher. 29(2) 93
Kleinman, E.M, Adams, L.M., Kashdan T.B., Riskind J.H. (2013). Gratitude and grit indirectly reduce risk of suicidal ideations by enhancing meaning in life: Evidence for a mediated moderation model. Journal of Research in Personality, 47(2013) 539-546, doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2013.04.007
Kraft, M.A., Grace S. Working Paper. Providence, RI: Brown University (2016). Teaching for tomorrow’s economy? Teacher effects on complex cognitive skills and social-emotional competencies. Retrieved from http://scholar.harvard.edu/files/mkraft/files/teaching_for_tomorrows_economy_-_final_public.pdf.
Reardon, S.F. (2011). The widening academic achievement gap between the rich and the poor: New evidence and possible explanations. In R. Murnane &
G Duncan (Eds.), Whither opportunity? Rising inequality and the uncertain life chances of low-income children. Russell Sage Foundation Press. New York.
Rimfeld, K., Kovas, Y., Dale, P. S., & Plomin, R. (2016). True grit and genetics: Predicting academic achievement from personality. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 111(5), 780-789.
Ris, E.W. (2015). Grit: A short history of a useful concept. Journal of Educational Controversy. 10(1) Article 3
S. Lapierre, M. Dubé, L. Bouffard, M. Alain. (2007). Addressing suicidal ideations through the realization of meaningful personal goals. Crisis: The Journal of Crisis Intervention and Suicide Prevention, 28 (2007), pp. 16-25.
Yeager, D., & Dweck, C. (2012). Mindsets that Promote Resilience When Students Believe that Personal Characteristics Can Be Developed. Educational Psychologist, 47(4), 302-314. doi: 10.1080/00461520.2012.722805.
Al-Mutawah, M.A., Fateel, M.J. (2018). Students’ achievement in math and science: How grit and attitudes influence? International Education Studies. 11(2) 97-105
Blazar, D., Kraft, M. (2017). Teacher and teaching effects on students’ attitudes and behaviors. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 39, 146–170. https://doi.org/10.3102/0162373716670260
Duckworth, A.L., Peterson, C., Matthews, M.D., Kelly, D.R. (2007) Grit: Perseverance and passion for long-term goals. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 92(6) 1087 http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.92.6.1087
Duckworth, A. L., & Quinn, P. D. (2009). Development and validation of the short grit scale. Journal of Personality Assessment, 91(2), 166-174.
Duckworth A. Don’t grade schools on grit. (2016, Mar 26) The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/27/opinion/sunday/dont-grade-schools-on-grit.html.
Farrington, C.A., Roderick, M., Allensworth, E., Nagaoka, J., Keyes, T.S., Johnson, D.W., Beechum, N.O. (2012). Teaching adolescents to become leaders: The role of noncognitive factors in shaping school performance: A critical literature review. Consortium on Chicago School Research.
Golden, N.A. (2015). “There’s Still That Window That’s Open”: The Problem with “Grit”. Urban Education 52(3) 343-369
Hochanadel, A., & Finamore, D. (2015). Fixed and Growth Mindset In Education and How Grit Helps Students Persist In The Face of Adversity. Journal of International Education Research, 11(1), 47-50. Retrieved from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1051129.pdf
Huang, H. (2015). Can students themselves narrow the socioeconomic-status-based achievement gap through their own persistence and learning time? Education Policy Analysis Archives. 23(108) 1-37
Huang, H., Zhu, H. (2017). High Achievers from Low Socioeconomic Backgrounds: The Critical Role of Disciplinary Climate and Grit. Mid-Western Educational Researcher. 29(2) 93
Kleinman, E.M, Adams, L.M., Kashdan T.B., Riskind J.H. (2013). Gratitude and grit indirectly reduce risk of suicidal ideations by enhancing meaning in life: Evidence for a mediated moderation model. Journal of Research in Personality, 47(2013) 539-546, doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2013.04.007
Kraft, M.A., Grace S. Working Paper. Providence, RI: Brown University (2016). Teaching for tomorrow’s economy? Teacher effects on complex cognitive skills and social-emotional competencies. Retrieved from http://scholar.harvard.edu/files/mkraft/files/teaching_for_tomorrows_economy_-_final_public.pdf.
Reardon, S.F. (2011). The widening academic achievement gap between the rich and the poor: New evidence and possible explanations. In R. Murnane &
G Duncan (Eds.), Whither opportunity? Rising inequality and the uncertain life chances of low-income children. Russell Sage Foundation Press. New York.
Rimfeld, K., Kovas, Y., Dale, P. S., & Plomin, R. (2016). True grit and genetics: Predicting academic achievement from personality. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 111(5), 780-789.
Ris, E.W. (2015). Grit: A short history of a useful concept. Journal of Educational Controversy. 10(1) Article 3
S. Lapierre, M. Dubé, L. Bouffard, M. Alain. (2007). Addressing suicidal ideations through the realization of meaningful personal goals. Crisis: The Journal of Crisis Intervention and Suicide Prevention, 28 (2007), pp. 16-25.
Yeager, D., & Dweck, C. (2012). Mindsets that Promote Resilience When Students Believe that Personal Characteristics Can Be Developed. Educational Psychologist, 47(4), 302-314. doi: 10.1080/00461520.2012.722805.