What’s Next – 2 Grit vs. Growth Mindset

The idea of “grit” is powerful; passion and perseverance are certainly two critical aspects that lead to success. Highlighting effort, persistence, and resilience motivates students to keep trying when faced with challenges. The obstacles can be overcome through effort and perseverance.

It is interesting that Duckworth points out how “growth mindset” is helpful in building grit. The growth mindset allows one to believe that “the ability to learn is not fixed,” and failure is reframed as an opportunity to learn and grow. As a result, students are more likely to persevere after failure.

I think the emphasis on grit is important because it holds students accountable. But we also need to recognize that there are external conditions beyond students’ control, such as socioeconomic status, educational resources, institutional barriers (as in Ferrera’s video), and so on. Each student is an individual, but they are also part of an interconnected social web that constantly shapes and is shaped by them. We need to balance the grit model with an awareness of external factors. Furthermore, an emphasis on grit does not mean that other skills such as teamwork, emotional intelligence, etc. are not important for success.

The concept of “grit” can be used as a model to motivate students’ success by allowing educators to demonstrate passion and stamina for the subject matter being taught. This helps motivate students to exhibit similar behaviors as self-directed learners.

Creating a learning environment based on “grit” involves using language and providing feedback to affirm students’ efforts and hard work, even if they haven’t yet met their goals. This mindset helps students learn perseverance, stamina, and resilience. For example, if a student receives a failing grade, they can be given the opportunity to redo the assignment, allowing them to progress with hard work and effort. As mentioned in the module, academics and life in general are a marathon, not a sprint. By emphasizing this concept with language, actions, and opportunities, students are more likely to embrace the idea of resilience and hope.

Angela Duckworth’s Ted talk on “Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance” emphasizes the importance of fostering a growth mindset in the classroom. What resonates with me is that the most important predictor of outcomes is not a student’s IQ, but their ability to have passion, work hard, and persevere in the face of setbacks.

America Ferrera’s “deeply entrenched value system” of exclusion highlights the importance of creating a classroom environment that promotes diversity, equity, and inclusion. Creating opportunities and access for students with disabilities, such as accessibility services for exams, allows students the chance to be successful without feeling the need to overcome disabilities in order to succeed.

“Grit” is clearly a great tool, or resource, to call upon, to support a growth mindset, to not let failure get you down but experienced as a learning opportunity, the “not yet” framework. But it may obscure the materials conditions of students lives that make it difficult to live by the motto “if at first you don’t succeed, try, try, again”, especially competing obligations in and out of school. I can see where sometimes a student wants to persevere, really wants to be in class, pay attention, participate, but they are struggling with lack of sleep, work schedules that don’t always respect their course schedules, transportation problems, elder care or child care, etc.

The first discussion board we responded to was about the quote, “Failure is a greater teacher than success.” I commented that it was the idea of falling and getting up as many times as necessary. It was the way to succeed at something. And that quote relates to Angela’s concept of grit: passion and perseverance to achieve our goals. It is an essential concept for the growth mindset, and she mentioned it. The purpose of persistence in our students (and ourselves) is where instructors play an essential role: instill perseverance and not give up their studies, and if they do drop out, remind them that they can always come back.

“Grit” is great. It offers itself as a nice metaphor for development that results in a pearl. However, I think “grit” also tends to get thrown around too casually, particularly by those who are just annoyed by how someone else works and struggles. “Resilience’ seems to me to be the better vocabulary because it is pretty much always going to be positive.