When Grit Isn't Enough by Linda F. Nathan

Author:Linda F. Nathan [Nathan, Linda F.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780807042991
Publisher: Beacon Press
Published: 2017-04-06T04:00:00+00:00

MORE THAN GRIT: A GROWTH MINDSET

In Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, Carol Dweck describes two different mindsets. The first she calls a “fixed mindset,” a belief that intelligence is static. Although you can learn new things, you can’t change how intelligent you are. You are either smart or not smart. People with fixed mindsets don’t believe that effort can change intelligence and so they have a very deterministic view of the world. “I’m not a good reader no matter how much I try.” Or, “Math is always hard for me. I’ll never be good at it.” In contrast, an individual with a “growth mindset” believes that she can always increase her intelligence. Someone with a growth mindset sees “effort as the path to mastery” and is willing to learn through criticism and persist in the face of challenges.

I’ve had so many students who tell me: “I can’t do this. I’m just not smart enough.” Yet Dweck’s ideas helped in our teaching of such students who could, in fact, develop a growth mindset. Along the way, we created some important connections between grit and growth. When grit is discussed within the context of a growth mindset, it is less of a stand-alone pedagogy. Also, we recognized, as did Duckworth, that grit is not just about perseverance over time, but also passion over time. Since BAA is ever focused on student passion, we wanted to better understand these connections. Dweck’s work complemented our observations about our students.

The BAA faculty committed to read the book and discuss how to adapt our teaching to embrace this new psychology of success. We had talked and shared for years our frustrations about how our students seemed to be able to successfully run a sprint in mastering content and skills for a score on a test. Yet, to successfully run a marathon required different muscle conditioning and development. Our students were great performers in the moment, but needed to develop the persistence and dedication of marathon runners. We have teachers and staff who run annually in the famous Boston Marathon. To complete a marathon, they train over time and believe they can accomplish something incredibly difficult—even when they doubt their ability. We wanted our students to adopt that kind of mindset.

Dweck possessed insights we could use. We began by increasing the commitment to our summer reading program. In this program students worked in small groups over a five-week period and improved reading scores by two grade levels. Our curriculum reflected an understanding of growth mindset and we began to realize the power of developing lessons that helped students see themselves as powerful and competent readers. We also structured classes so that students would feel stretched by their reading levels but not overwhelmed. We began to explore the literature about how to help students increase their independent reading skills and how to be more purposeful as teachers about determining those levels. We wanted everyone to see themselves as readers and writers with muscles that could expand.

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