Thursday, February 5, 2015

Angela Lee Duckworth: It's all About Grit

Reading articles about the misuse of the SAT reminded me of Angela Lee Duckworth's TED talk titled The Key to Success? Grit
Some of my strongest performers did not have stratospheric I.Q. scores. Some of my smartest kids weren't doing so well.
Dr. Duckworth studied grit at West Point, in K-12 schools, at spelling bees, and at private companies. The main predictor of success in these diverse contexts was grit. There are articles all over the place about Dr. Duckworth (a MacArthur Fellow); here is a link to an article at National Geographic: Grit Trumps Talent and IQ. One of her key points is that we need to figure out how to measure and instill grit. We understand how to measure IQ, but we don't understand how to measure grit, which is almost certainly more important.

I hope Dr. Duckworth and others like her figure out some good ways to measure and develop grit. We need to learn how to help every student be more gritty.

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