Anyway, Lee Duckworth tells her tale of how she left a demanding but successful job in consulting to teach math to 7 graders. That's where her ideas and research started to develop when she observed the struggles of her pupils. After a few years she started studying psychology and pursue the unverified observations she made as a math teacher.
You can see the entire 6 min talk right here.
In her talk she also mentions, at the very end, a concept called the 'growth mindset'. This is also an idea that has been around for quite a few years. It was coined almost 30 years ago by Carol Dweck who studied how students dealt with failure. The opposite of the 'growth mindset' is the 'fixed mindset' and what sets them apart is the belief that talent is either static or developmental. This means that if you believe in the 'growth mindset', talents, abilities and even intelligence is not something that is restricted to life's lottery, but is actually something you can improve and develop.
I first heard about the 'growth mindset' during the workshop I co-hosted in Communication, feedback and presentation techniques, where I had a very interesting discussion with my department's Public relations manager. I didn't think much more of it after that, to be honest, but when I now heard it in the context of Lee Duckworth's TED talk, it made perfect sense. It is also how I would define my own success.
So together with the 'take home word of the talk': grit - the 'growth mindset' is what defines success. As nicely put by Lee Duckworth "grit is living life like it's a marathon, not a sprint". It's about setting up long term goals and sticking to them, not by hours, days or weeks, but years. Perseverance.
It's about not giving up, and use the inevitable failures to grow, work harder/smarter, and eventually succeed. Because the thing about success is that it doesn't always happen right when we want it to happen.
Lee Duckworth wraps up her talk with the task that stands before us all, and that is teaching our kids to be grittier. Because talent and intelligence means nothing if you're not willing to work hard.
When I was a kid I played hockey and I strongly remember a small piece of paper that hung on the whiteboard in the club's meeting room. It said: "The will to win must be stronger than the fear of losing". I didn't quite understand the deeper meaning of it back then, and I'm not sure whoever put it up did either.
In hindsight I wish that someone would have explained it to me. I wish that I had even a fraction of the knowledge I have now, back then, and I'm surely not alone with that wish.
I think Lee Duckworth is right, and when I think more about it, I'm actually subtly teaching my kids grit. Perhaps it's time that we do the same, although more formally, in our schools.
No matter how small the task I always tell my kids to never give up and keep trying until they make it. Often to their utter frustration, when they can't get their seatbelts fastened in the car. However, not a single occasion have they not made it, eventually, and their howling annoyance been instantly replaced by silence. Dad was right.
Inga kommentarer:
Skicka en kommentar