Teaching character: Grit is critical to how and why people succeed.
Greene, Jay P.
Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance
by Angela Duckworth
Scribner, 2016, $28; 352 pages.
Helping Children Succeed: What Works and Why
by Paul Tough
Houghton Mifj1in Harcourt, 2016, $18.99; 144 pages.
As reviewed by Jay P. Greene
Education reform has fallen prey to one ill-conceived fad after
another. Whether the trend du jour is tearing down classroom walls,
adopting whole language reading, or pursuing "21 st-century
skills" such as creative thinking and collaborating, we eagerly
latch on to reform after reform with little skepticism and before the
effectiveness of a new approach has been tested by research.
This historical pattern has made people understandably wary of all
the recent excitement about noncognitive or character skills, like grit,
emotion regulation ability, and growth mindset. This new attention to
character skills has many of the markings of previous failed fads. Key
school leaders are embracing the importance of character skills before
we've even clearly defined the concepts, let alone how they could
be measured. And a variety of vendors are hawking character-skill
curricula and pedagogical practices before they have been validated by
rigorous research. In short, school and educator practice with respect
to character skills is running far ahead of knowledge.
When I picked up Grit by Angela Duckworth and Helping Children
Succeed by Paul Tough, I was afraid these two volumes would simply be
written so as to provide fuel for the noncog fad. Instead, I was
impressed by the extent to which both books attempt to popularize the
importance of character skills while keeping the reader firmly grounded
in what we actually know and don't know about the topic from
research.
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Angela Duckworth is a professor of psychology at the University of
Pennsylvania and recipient of a 2013 MacArthur "genius" award
for her work on grit. While she has published extensively in scholarly
journals, her new book reads more like a self-help volume than an
academic one. It is filled with inspirational examples of famous people
whose passion and perseverance have helped them accomplish great things
in a variety of endeavors, from sports to art to science.
Importantly, Duckworth does not present these anecdotes as proof
that grit is an essential character trait for success. Though she uses
stories to illustrate her points, she also makes reference to rigorous
research, including some of her own.
She makes a persuasive case that "talent" and
intelligence alone cannot fully account for how and why people succeed.
Passion and perseverance, which together make up grit, are also critical
elements. Duckworth's proof lies in research showing that her
measure of grit is predictive of accomplishments, such as thriving at
West Point or advancing in the National Spelling Bee. The book would
have benefited if she had gone further in acknowledging the limitations
of her measure of grit, as she has done in other publications, but in
general her claims and anecdotes stick pretty closely to the evidence,
which is fully documented with citations.
In the latter half of the book, when she shifts toward how grit
might actually be taught, she notes:
Before I say more, let me repeat the caveat that, as a scientist, I'd
like to collect more data points before coming to firm conclusions. In
a decade, I should know a lot more about parenting for grit than I do
now. But because there's no pause button for parenting the people you
care about, I'll go ahead and tell you my hunches.
By citing evidence when she has it and cautioning us when she
doesn't, Duckworth sets an example that would be well heeded by
other authors of popular books about social science.
Helping Children Succeed by journalist Paul Tough is the follow-up
to his bestseller, How Children Succeed. In the earlier book, Tough
popularized work by Duckworth and others on the importance of character
skills. In this short volume, he tries to explain how policymakers and
educators might improve those skills.
Tough is a journalist with a strong command of research on the
topic, and his book feels more like a work of social science than does
Duckworth's. He rarely illustrates his points with colorful
anecdotes or inspirational stories of success. Instead, he tries to
describe research on the building blocks of character skills, all the
way from early brain development to later disciplinary problems in
schools.
His credibility would be enhanced if he avoided such broad
declarations as "the science tells us" or "according to
neuroscientists," and the absence of citations in the book is a
major shortcoming. But overall, Tough backs up his claims with accurate
descriptions of rigorous research.
Tough argues that children raised in adversity are exposed to
environments that induce "toxic stress." As a result, these
youngsters develop overly strong "fight or flight" reactions
that undermine engagement, compliance, and motivation in the classroom
years later. The solution, he suggests, does not lie in explicitly
teaching children character skills: you can't teach character the
way you teach math or reading. Rather, Tough espouses changing the
school environment in a way that undoes the effects of earlier toxic
stress. In particular, he supports the approach articulated by
researchers Edward Deci and Richard Ryan:
Classroom contexts where students experience autonomy, competence, and
relatedness tend not only to foster more intrinsic motivation, but also
more willing engagement in less interesting academic activities.
I'm not fully convinced that Tough has connected all the dots
between early brain development and an effective method of conveying
character skills. I tend to be skeptical of claims about educational
practice that are based on neuroscience, given how difficult it is to
observe brain development directly and how little we understand about
the underlying processes. But Tough makes a compelling enough case that
it should help inform policymakers and practitioners as well as generate
additional hypotheses for researchers.
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He's almost certainly right that character skills are shaped
by a child's social context and modeling rather than by direct
instruction. And he's probably right that helping students feel
authentic connections to the adults in their school and what those
adults are trying to accomplish is incredibly important. Thinking about
schools as social organizations, as James Coleman once did, will likely
prove a much better approach to addressing problems of motivation than
pursuing solutions that focus on using incentives or information to
change outcomes. Students do not lack rewards for caring about
succeeding in school or information about those rewards, since almost
everyone knows that students who do better and go further in their
education tend to make a lot more money. What they do lack, too often,
is a connection with adults who would be disappointed if students
didn't care and strive for better outcomes.
Neither book fully solves the riddle of how schools might improve
character skills, but they both take a solid first step in that
direction. Both authors suggest that students need to feel supported and
connected. Duckworth leans toward setting high goals that stretch
one's ability, while Tough supports goals that are not so high as
to undermine a sense of competency. The truth is, neither one can say
with confidence based on rigorous research exactly what strategies best
convey character skills. But the authors' latest books should
advance popular understanding of these complex issues without fueling an
irresponsible fad or reckless changes. That alone makes these books
valuable reading for educators, policymakers, and scholars.
Jay P. Greene is Distinguished Professor of Education Policy in the
College of Education and Health Professions at the University of
Arkansas.