Grit and Learning
Grit is...
- “perseverance and passion for long-term goals” (Duckworth, et al., 2007)
- A growth mindset – thrives on challenge (Dweck, 2006)
- A consistency of interest and perseverance of effort (Datu, Valdez & King, 2015)
- Research indicates that grit is positively related to metacognition (Arslan, Akin & Citemel, 2013)
- May be domain-specific (Schmidt, et al., 2017)
- “.. grit may have better postdictive power especially among older populations,” (Bazelais, Lemay, & Doleck, 2016)
Is Grit Important?
- Research indicates that “individuals with higher levels of grit are expected to exhibit greater persistence in the pursuit of their goals despite setbacks, distractions, or other forms of interference,” (Wotters and Hussain, 2015).
- Grit is a better predictor of success than IQ (Duckworth, et al., 2007)
- Bazelais, Lemay, and Doleck, (2016) suggest “..grit was not a significant predictor of academic achievement in pre-university college-level physics program,” (p. 42), but supported research that found "prior academic achievement is the most reliable predictor of student success in college," (p.42).
- “..engagement inSRL (self-regulated learning) may serve as one key pathway through
which grit leads to academic success,” (Wotters and Hussain, 2015).
- Self-regulated learning (SRL) is active and purposeful management of one’s own learning via goal setting, motivation, metacognition, strategy utilization, progress monitoring and reflection (Pintrich 2004; Zimmerman 2000; & Winne and Hadwin 1998)
More on Grit
- Duckworth, A. (2013). Grit: The power of passion and perseverance. TEDtalk
- (Duckworth and Quinn, 2009)
- Denby, D. (June 21, 2016). The limits of “Grit”. The New Yorker
- Grit – Character Lab
- Kamenetz, A. (May 28, 2015). Nonacademic skills are key to success. But what should we call them?nprEd – How Learning Happens
References and Resources
- Arslan, S., Akin, A. and Citemel, N. (2013). The predictive role of grit on metacognition in Turkish university students. Studia Psychologica, 55(4), 311-320
- Bazelais, P. Lemay, D. and Doleck, T. (2016). How does grit impact college students’ academic achievement in science? European Journal of Science & Mathematics Education,4(1), 33‐43
- Datu, J., Valdez, J. and King, R. (2015). Perseverance counts but consistency does not! Validating the short Grit Scale in a collectivist setting.Current Psychology, 35(1), 121-130
- Duckworth, A. (April, 2013). Grit: The power of passion and perseverance.TEDtalk
- Duckworth, A. and Quinn P. (2009). Development and validation of the Short Grit Scale (Grit-S). Journal of Personality Assessment, 91, 166-174
- Duckworth, A. L., Peterson, C., Matthews, M. D., and Kelly, D. R. (2007). Grit: perseverance and passion for long-term goals. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 92(6), 1087–1101
- Dweck, C. (2006). Mindset: The new psychology of success. NY: Random House
- Schmidt, F., Fleckenstein, J. Retelsdorf, J., Eskreis-Winkler, L. and Moller, J. (June 28, 2017). Measuring grit: A German validation and a domain-specific approach to grit. European Journal of Psychological Assessment. Hogrefe Publ. https://doi.org/10.1027/1015-5759/a000407
- Smith, T. (March 17, 2014). Does teaching kids to get 'gritty' help them get ahead?NPR
- Vedantam, S. (April 5, 2016). The power and problem of grit.Hidden Brain, NPR
- Wotters, C. and Hussain, M. (December, 2015). Investigating grit and its relations with college students’ self-regulated learning and academic achievement.Metacognition and Learning, 10(3), 293-311