As a senior, I have the opportunity to do a Senior Project during my third trimester of my senior year. This blog will be me relaying my research and experiences during my project, "The Importance and Application of Grit in Today's Education System."
In my project I want to answer, why are some students not motivated to do well in school even if they are gifted. I have some hunches, at the moment I'm trying to find a link between academic achievement and grit, the research is promising. Additionally, I want to determine how teachers can teach this idea to their students in the classroom.
I'm going to be doing this by using the concept of grit. Angela Duckworth, one of the leading researchers on grit defines it as, "perseverance and passion for long-term goals. Grit entails working strenuously toward challenges, maintaining effort and interest over years despite failure, adversity, and plateaus in progress. The gritty individual approaches achievement as a marathon; his or her advantage is stamina."
There are going to parts of my internship, the first part will be me writing a research paper on the concepts I discussed. Then, I will be going into classrooms to actually test my theories.
For my internship, I will be working at Payne Hall, within the teachers college at ASU with Wendy Barnard and Megan O'Donnel.
Thank you for reading and check back every week for more exciting discoveries!
This looks like a very interesting project Nic! What age group at you targeting in your research?
ReplyDeleteThis is still up in the air, I'm leaning toward middle schoolers or early high schoolers because I don't think younger kids in elementary school really understand this concept fully.
DeleteHi Nic,
ReplyDeleteI look forward to seeing how your project goes. I was wondering how you will quantify grit to compare it to academic achievement.
Good question, I've looked a lot of variables so far, IQ, standardized testing, engagement, ect. The one that I think would be the best to use in my study would be GPA. The only problem is that I limit myself to specific classes instead of an entire curriculum.
DeleteSounds very interesting, what are some of those hunches you mentioned having in the article? I am interested to hear your initial thoughts.
ReplyDeleteStudents who are gifted can develop fixed mindsets, the belief that intelligence is something that you are born with or without. These students often equate with having to work harder with stupidity. If they find themselves struggling to complete something they might become frustrated and lose their motivation or feel as if they aren't smart enough to complete a task. This leads to students losing their motivation to do well in school or life when confronted with challenges. This is the behavior I'm trying to change with my project.
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