The TEDTalk that Angela Lee Duckworth gave on grit and perseverance was thought-provoking, but lacking in substance. Her assertion that grit is the best predictor of success is hardly groundbreaking, and she provided mostly anecdotal evidence to support her claim.
Ms. Duckworth begins her talk with a story about having a teaching position in which she instructed seventh graders in mathematics. She determined that her brightest kids were not the ones who did the best in her classes, and that some of her strongest performers did not have the highest IQ scores. This revelation seemed to spur her to move on to graduate school to pursue the question, “Who is successful and why?”
To answer that question, she observed and polled a variety of different people in varying contexts and came to the conclusion that the one characteristic that is a significant indicator of success is grit. On
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There are innumerable quotes dating back to Confucius about the importance of perseverance in reaching goals. Why, then, after dedicating a significant portion of her academic career to studying it, does Ms. Duckworth have so little to share with us about perseverance? She readily admits during the course of the TEDTalk that she does not know how to foster grit in children. Toward the end of the talk, she does offer one concrete piece of information, which is that metacognition may be helpful when it comes to grit. Ms. Duckworth refers to the “growth mindset,” which is the belief that the ability to learn is not fixed. She continues on to say that when kids learn how the brain changes and grows in response to challenges, that the students are more likely to persevere and not view one failure as a permanent failure. If this is true, where is the evidence, and why aren’t we teaching students more about how the brain functions in order to foster
Various psychologists define grit in different various ways. According to Duckworth et al (2007), they define grit as the perseverance and passion for long-term goals. Scientists and researchers while integrating biographical writings of the world famous figures have derived the same conclusions on the individuals who are known to be high achievers in the world and the connections their achievement have to grit.
Duckworth explains people with grit are those who confront failure and don’t give up easily. She did research on the U.S Army to determine their grit. She realize, if the soldiers had a though of mind of grit they showed good results in their military performance on summer camp. Also, there was a fascinating research she had with taxi drivers relating to grit. Commonly, one would think that taxi drivers make more money in a rainy day. But what she found out was that taxi drivers work less hours in rainy days because they would make the sufficient money they needed for the day. In similarity, she compare this research to talent and grit. One with talent will spent less time on something so they stop immediately once they have proficient. In the other hand, someone with grit will spend longer time and get more out of it.
Grit, what is this? Is it success, is it failure, or is it talent? As Angela Duckworth said “Grit is passion and perseverance for very long-term goals. Grit is having stamina. Grit is sticking with your future, day-in and day-out. Not just for the week, not just for the month, but for years. And working really hard to make that future a reality. Grit is living life like it’s a marathon, not a sprint.” Grit is a combination of strength, persistence, focus, and dedication that helps a person to maintain the optimism and discipline needed to persevere in their goals even if they are head to head with failure. Grit does not depend on talent, IQ, or success. Grit is the ability to fail and learn from your mistake, in order to come back next
Perlis, Margaret M. “5 Characteristics Of Grit -- How Many Do You Have?” Forbes, Forbes
Throughout Grit, Angela Duckworth argues that grit is the single most important factor in determining success of an individual. She splits the argument into three parts: the concept of grit and why it matters, the proper use and understanding of the goal hierarchy, and how an individual can develop grit. Duckworth’s argument is important because it replaces the traditional viewpoint of success being determined by talent to one which sees success as a result of passion and perseverance.
In Chapter 9 of Grit, Angela Duckworth argues that a growth mindset, rather than a fixed mindset, leads to more success. She shows that a growth mindset leads to a more optimistic outlook on failures, which further leads to perseverance and the ability to take on new challenges without giving up. Using additional research, I agree with Duckworth’s claim that a growth mindset makes an individual more successful because a growth mindset transforms obstacles into learning opportunities and fosters hope, which are essential skills to overcoming failures and becoming successful.
In one of the most watched Ted talk videos, “The Key To Success- Grit,” recorded in May 9 2013, the speaker Angela Lee Duckworth explains how the strongest performers in their fields were typically not the ones with the highest IQ’s, but the ones with the most amount of Grit. What is that? Angela defines Grit to be the passion and perseverance for a long-term goal and to go through with it with no quitting. She then goes on and talks about the studies and their results relating to pure Grit being the answer. Although her her speech is moving and brings hope to those who don’t think they can do much with a low IQ, her reasoning seems to not carry enough evidence.
NprEd stated that, “research shows that at least half of long-term chances of success are determined by nonacademic qualities like grit, perseverance and
Psychologists have been researching what traits are highest correlated with success for decades. A professor at the University of Pennsylvania, Angela Duckworth, has come across a breakthrough in the secret of success, but Marcus Crede disagrees. In Anya Kamenetz’s article “MacArthur ‘Genius’ Angela Duckworth Responds To A New Critique Of Grit” she discusses assistant professor of psychology Marcus Crede’s assessment of grit, which he effectively denounces Duckworths findings. Crede argues, “Effect sizes in one of Duckworth's major papers on grit were described incorrectly to sound misleadingly large. The impact of grit is exaggerated, especially when looking at broader populations of people.” Therefore, Crede states that Duckworths findings
For some people, Duckworth’s theory of ‘Grit’ and perseverance is just not enough to get a college student through to college completion. According to Beegle, “[m]entors, [m]iddle-[c]lass [l]anguage” (247) and people seeing her for where she was “[w]ere [k]eys to [m]y [e]ducational [s]uccess”. For me personally, if I did not have my family, financial aid and the Women’s Program at Highline Community College, I really don’t think I would be able to manage. Even if I had ‘Grit’, there are road blocks like child care and having affordable housing that make it possible for me to stay in college. In my experience, ‘grit’ has helped tremendously when combined with the other elements in my life. For example, I recently helped my mother move from her apartment she has been in for over 24 years, to her home she now owns. Between my brother and I and just a few friends, we spent weeks of packing, updating the new house and unpacking. It was ‘grit’ that helped me through doing this huge move while still making it to class every day, turning in all my homework, and acing two quizzes. I was determined to make school a priority over all the other important events that were going on around me.
Have you ever set a long-term goal and were so determined to meet that goal no matter what happened? Angela Duckworth states, “Grit is passion and perseverance for very long-term goals. Grit is having stamina. Grit is sticking with your future, day in and day out. Not just for the week, not just for the month, but for years and working really hard to make that future a reality”. Sticking with a long-term goal, when you seem to have hit every bump in the road possible means that you contain grit. In class, we discussed how talent is inversely related to grit. Angela Duckworth did a study and made high school students take her grit test. In this test, she realized that the more grit that the student possessed, the higher chance that student would graduate.
Duckworth begins her argument by establishing her ethos and builds her credibility by expressing her past. She spent over five years working in the New York education system, teaching math to 7th graders, after going to the University of Pennsylvania to finish her Ph.D. in Psychology. Duckworth has received numerous awards from the K-12 educational system. She then began to conduct research to identify whether becoming a success depended on more on hard work and dedication or IQ. “Our potential is one thing. What we do with it is quite another.” This statement was quoted from her book “Grit”. Her past education helps build her credibility because she grounds her argument in the research she conducted while earning her Ph.D. Duckworth then looked at public schools located in different cities and examined if
I chose the Ted Talk called Grit and perseverance. In this video Angela Lee Duckworth argues that the key to success is grit, a characteristic she defines as “passion and perseverance for very long-term goals”(Angela Duckworth). she talks about how having perseverance can motivate and change the outcome of your life and career. You don't have to be perfect physically or have a High IQ, all you need is Grit and perseverance. Life can be very difficult at times it will slam you on the ground roll you in the dirt and kick you in the ribs all at once. Being able to get back up is the reason people can be successful. Having perseverance and show great ethics and starting at the bottom being poorer than dirt will give you
Grit: “Perseverance and passion for long-term goals” (p. 207). What have you done to infuse perseverance in your people? What will you do in the future?
Grit is often used to view how successful a person will be because of their willingness to not quit on a task. A major supporter of grit is Angela Duckworth, a professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania. Duckworth had tested cadets of West Point Academy as they experience the “Beast”. The “Beast” is the first