DaveShearon

GRIT in Schools

I got an email recently from a elementary school principal I work with about his school focusing on Grit. Attached to the email were materials that one of his staff had provided to the school's teachers - posters, worksheets, etc. Their were 11 attachments, some with multiple quotes on them. Only two mentioned passion. One was Angela Duckworth's definition of Grit: "passion and perseverance for very long-term goals." The other was a quote the internet attributes to Abraham Lincoln (I could not confirm): "Discipline is choosing between what you want now and what you want the most." Other than that, everything focused on hard work, perseverance, etc.

Passion: I'd suggest emphasizing with teachers the passion component of Grit. (Grit is very similar to a construct developed and studied by Robert Vallerand called "Harmonious Passion.") Without emphasizing passion, it's easy to turn Grit into "Eat your peas," or, perhaps even better for schools, "Do your homework!" Passion is the "why" of effort. Vallerand defines passion as follows:

Passion is a strong inclination toward a self-defining activity (object, person, belief) that we:

• Love
• Value
• Invest time and energy in

A lot of what I see in schools about Grit can be boiled down to "Work hard at the work I give you even if you don't really care about it." That's not Grit. A true Grit focus would help students discover their passion and then consider how working in school could be a step towards that passion.Once connected, then the hard work of focusing on boring or difficult practice becomes something one just does because... Love.

You can't teach passion. You can help students discover theirs, then pursue it. Angie Duckworth writes about engaging with activities for at least two years in high school just as a way to discover what it means to work hard at something over and extended period. She believes this helps students learn to recognize areas of passion where they are willing to work that hard over time.

Obviously, younger students may not yet be sure of their passions (or, they may think they are, then change later). That's ok. They can still explore passion, interest, and sustained effort.

Character Strengths: Passions are often going to align with Character Strengths. My strengths (Curiosity, Love of Learning, Judgment) have made it easy for me to sustain efforts to gain and use new knowledge over my lifetime. Those with different sets of strengths might have found such a focus uncomfortable and unfulfilling and have chosen, instead, to focus on something else: developing relationships, mentoring others, leadership, a sustained focus on improving one skill, etc.

Connecting School to Passions: For those whose passion isn't school, the fact still remains that they have to go and, in today's world, they have to achieve some level of success. Connecting school to those passions can help. For example, my older son became passionate about baseball in the second grade. Very early on, I told him that, if he wanted to play baseball, he would have to keep up with his homework and that I wasn't going to do it for him. He'd either keep his grades up or he wouldn't play. He knew I wasn't kidding; I didn't really care that much about him playing baseball anyway - when he first started, I didn't even like the game! And he did. Never had to oversee whether he was getting his work done. (Later on, when he was in high school and I wanted to push him to work harder, he reminded me of that, said he was taking care of it, and to leave him alone!)

Gabrielle Oettingen in Re-Thinking Positive Thinking tells a similar story about a little girl who's dearest wish was to be a dancer. But, when she thought about what might keep her from achieving this wish, she said that she wouldn't finish school:

“What will prevent you from finishing school?”
“I’m not good enough at schoolwork.”
“Why aren’t you good enough?”
“Because I don’t get good grades in English or math.”
“Why don’t you?”
“Because I don’t do my homework.”
“Why don’t you do your homework?”
“Because I watch TV in the afternoon.”
We now had the obstacle—too much television watching in the afternoon. Now it was a simple matter to come up with an if-then plan. “If I start watching TV in the afternoon, then I will switch it off and do my homework instead.” If we had started with “doing more homework” as the wish, the child wouldn’t have become engaged in the exercise.

Oettingen, Gabriele. Rethinking Positive Thinking: Inside the New Science of Motivation (Kindle Locations 2399-2408). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

Those teaching Grit should consider what they have been and are Gritty about. What are they passionate about? Looking at their day-by-day efforts over the last six months, what would an observer conclude are the very-long-term goals they are working toward?

Hope this helps.

Most Effective Biology Instruction

North Carolina has done a study I had hoped Tennessee would do.

North Carolina state testing results were used in regression and residual analyses of student achievement. This analysis allowed for identification of the “most effective” and “least effective” biology teachers in Wake County Public Schools (WCPSS). The study found that the “most effective” biology teachers were focused on the delivery of biology instruction; resisted distractions from their classroom efforts; maximized student use of class time; studied and planned with other teachers using the North Carolina Biology Standard Course of Study; focused all student time on the Standard Course of Study goals; carefully planned teacher controlled student activities; and used data to guide their instructional practice.

This research study developed a value-added instructional improvement analysis model.

Now, how's the best way to help teachers adopt these practices?

A.  Hire a tough, disciplined Superintendent and CIO who'll demand that teachers focus on these principles?

B.  Teacher-Led Instructional Improvement?

I'm voting for B, and I submit Bellevue Schools as evidence supporting my choice.  What's more, I was talking about Bellevue when I was on the Board.  Mike Riley started lesson study in Bellevue the year before we began it here.  He stuck with it.  We hired a superintendent who dumped it.  Which looks like the better choice now?   The <funny> thing is, I asked our search consultant back in 2000 about Mike Riley.  His response?  "He spends too much time out in the schools."  Really.  Of course, that's the same search consultant who told us that top down leaders were no longer candidates for major school systems.  Really.  I couldn't make this stuff up.

Strengths, Teaching, and Learning

Whew!  Using a term from white-water rafting that refers to a dangerous passage with currents that can take anyone in the water under and hold them there, we're going through a "suckhole."  I flew back last Tuesday-week from our five day "Immersion" start and fly back out this coming Tuesday for five days in DC with classes and the Positive Psychology Summit.  Three of our four classes will meet and the reading, writing and work in our "cohort" (4-person small group) has been intense!  So, this post really comes from work I did in one of those classses, with names changed to respect privacy.

As part of our work, we logged on to AuthenticHappiness.org and took seven of the surveys, including the VIA Signature Strengths survey.  Then we wrote a "profile" based on the surveys and posted them and discussed themes, etc.  I felf t my blogger experience kicking in as I went off about teaching and learnning -- my group has one current and two ex-teachers in it!  Here's the map of our strengths and that post (done while our fourth was unavoidably delayed in posting):

  Now, here's a thought from an education perspective. Think about the three of us sitting in a classroom. I could be "hooked" by almost anything. And, that has always been pretty much the case with me.

Shannon , you would be next easiest, especially if given an opportunity to create. But, you could easily be turned off by a drab room or distracted by the needs of a fellow student.

Joe, you would be the most sensitive to "culture" within the class and the school. Any hint that things were unfair, that some were being "picked on", or that hypocrisy was rampant would absolutely send you up the wall. Under those circumstances, I suspect you would be difficult to engage in anything until those more important matters were addressed.

That's part of what makes teaching tough! And then what if your distribution of strengths in the class is different the next year, or at least if the dominant personalities have different key strengths? Wouldn't that require a very different way of engaging that class?

Now, turn it around and think about us as teachers -- which, of course, isn't much of a stretch for Joe and Shannon!

Starting with me again, I've got to come from my strengths -- ideas, knowledge, love of the subject. I engage students by sheer intellectual excitement. I'm likely not going to be good at individualizing instruction, and, regardless of subject, I'm unlikely to willingly skip a class, much less a week, to resolve issues of justice and equity impinging on my classroom from outside. (Although it didn't show up in my strengths, I actually have a history of getting riled when teachers are unfair, especially by picking on weaker students. I tend to take them on as a way of diverting them from that activity. So, I think there would be fairness, respect, and appreciation within my room.)

Shannon, I'm betting you have an amazing amount of flexibility, both in going from ideas to aesthetics and in tailoring what you do to individuals within the class as well as to the group character of each class. And, kids will feel cared for and respected, and sense that, if they need something, you're an adult they can trust.

Joe, you're going to run the class where kids sense the quality of their relationships with each other. They're going to be more aware of justice and equity, or the lack thereof, in their lives when they're in your class. I suspect that you're either at your best teaching subject matter that resonates with your strengths (can't remember right now what you teach), or else you teach something that let's you both attend to the teaching and to the culture without sacrificing either. However, in a school or community crisis, you'd sacrifice instruction for building culture and justice without blinking -- and you would be right to do so! You'd get the other done, but the lesson the kids will remember would be the one on how to treat others! Hmmm... wonder what you did 9/11, or the rest of that week for that matter!

Finally, a point about diversity -- if a school has all three of us, and hasn't managed to piss us off or clearly convey that all we're to do is go in our rooms and teach, but has instead engaged us actively and passionately in the life of that school, what's the likelihood it's going to be anything less that good? And, assuming we were treated well and invited to the party, so would the rest of the faculty, and then there's virtually no way our school would be less than very good to excellent!

Now, tell me again why it's we need a new program from the central office to get better?

Formulas and teaching math

For those of you interested in the role of formulas in teaching math, see this discsussion between statistics professors.  I got to it as part of my effort to bring my understanding of statistics up to where I think it needs to be for the MAPP program!

Formulas and teaching math

For those of you interested in the role of formulas in teaching math, see this discsussion between statistics professors.  I got to it as part of my effort to bring my understanding of statistics up to where I think it needs to be for the MAPP program!