Monday 26 September 2016

IB: Why action not grit!


Grit has been lauded as the potential holy grail for academic success.  If you have grit it is argued you a more than likely to be successfully academically and professionally.  




Willingham defines being gritty as:




Such ideas send Senior Leadership Teams into overdrive in an attempt to give their students additionally weaponry to succeed academically; the term Grit suddenly appears on curriculum models. SLT brainstorming sessions occur to identify what is already in place to develop grit and what else could be done.  The school vision for the year adopts a grit theme to take its pride and place next to previous award winners: Accelerated Learning, No Child Left Behind, Moral Purpose.  Headteachers have a new catch phrase to give backbone to support the classic statement ‘rapid and sustained improvement will be achieved by…..’   And governors can sleep at night knowing their General has a plan.  All this despite no clear evidence to date that grit can be taught, learnt or developed.  And of course such leaps in faith send panic through the teaching ranks at the thought of another ‘great idea’ to be implemented with a potentially short life span until the next great education eureka moment.  


Whether Grit can be taught, learnt or developed, the International Baccalaureate’s curriculum model appears to be in an advantageous position due to its focus on promoting a change agent mindset in young people as opposed to grit mindset. The IB’s focus on Action as a compulsory element of the IB curriculum endeavours to help foster such a mindset. According to Asker International School:


“Action is a part of who we are. If we want to change the world we need to start with changing ourselves. If we want children to make a difference in the world we need to help them personalise the action they take, and understand that it is not just a mandate from their teachers and parents, but a life long mindset they develop. Taking action can happen at any age and may be inspired by a learning experience in the curriculum; from a homeroom project; from a student’s own initiative or from someone/an organisation outside of AIS.  It’s all about how we as parents, educators, and the community, support children and youth as they begin the learning journey towards becoming adults that are change agents!”


It is this type of mindset that has been linked to students who display Grit:


“In one study, researchers asked 1,364 high school seniors who planned to attend college why they wanted to do so. Most of the students were from low-income homes and would be the first in their families to attend college, populations in which college attrition has typically been high. In this group, grittier students were more likely to say they wanted to attend college for reasons that transcended personal success (e.g., they wanted to make an impact on the world or help others) and were less likely to offer reasons related to self-development (e.g., they wanted to develop their interests or learn about the world). These students also said that they found schoolwork more meaningful than did less gritty students. When the researchers followed up months later, they found that the students who had offered transcendent reasons for attending college were more likely to still be enrolled. The researchers explained that the fortitude to continue with difficult tasks can come from seeing them as contributing to a transcendent goal, something larger than oneself.”

So whilst educationalists worldwide continue to seek the holy grit.  This teacher will continue to promote an interest in Action

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