The first was Mark D. Jacobson's Afraid of Looking Dumb where he discussed how students perceive the classroom as a stage on which they need to perform well and how we need to change their mindsets and sometimes ours. He questioned what it means to be smart and how feel students feel about their intellect and if that can change. He discovered that people either feel that intelligent is fixed and can't improve or they believe we can grow by working hard or having grit. Students can be influenced by how teachers approach them and how they see learning. Teachers must give feedback that is consistent and relevant to the task at hand, ask open-ended questions, and challenge reluctant learners. The way teachers think reflects what they do in the classroom. If educators have a fixed belief they may not model taking risks for their students.
I have realized that grit is something that I need to show my students by taking risks and trying new things in the classroom.
The next article was The Significance of Grit based on an interview of Angela Lee Duckworth. This article follows her 2009 Ted Talk on the same topic. One of the most important things I learned from this article is that grit is one of the most reliable predictors of success. Angela completed a study at West Point Military Academy where students were given a Whole Candidate Score and a grit questionnaire to see who would stay in the program throughout the first summer. The grit survey better predicted who stayed on into their first academic year and who dropped out.
Students learn grit by sticking with the same thing for the long-term. Staying focused like that helps people realize what their passions are and better decide the course they want to take. Grit can be developed and we need to teach our students that. I have read Your Fantastic Elastic Brain with my students to show them how their brain grows, what parts of their brain does what, and that they need to make mistakes and stick with things in order to really learn. My students are third graders and they are nearing the end of what the book calls their "magic decade" so we talk about how what they do this year will affect how they learn for the rest of their lives. Our motto is to be brave and to take risks in our safe classroom so that we can stretch our brains really far this year.
References:
Perkins-Gough, D. (2013). The significance of grit.Educational Leadership, 71(1), 14-20.
Jacobson, M. D. (2013). Afraid of looking dumb.Educational Leadership, 71(1), 40-43.
These sound like great articles. I agree that teachers need to model risk taking for their students. A great way to do this is by trying new things in technology like you plan to do.
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