Duckworth (2013) became interested in a motivational aspect of learning during her job as a math teacher in the public school. She noticed that IQ did not determine the success of students at school. This is why she began to research to find the answer to the question: What predicts the success of people in various challenging situations? She found out that passion and ability to work hard to achieve long-tern goals – the characteristic, she called “grit” predicts success in various areas. Other characteristics, such as IQ, nice appearance, talent, or health did not play as an important role as grit. According to Duckworth, “Grit is living life like it is a marathon, not a sprint” (2013, 3:20). Thus, people, who achieve success, are passionate about something: studies or work, are focused on the long-term goals, stick with them, and are internally motivated to achieve more.
Another question, that Duckworth (2013) asks, is how to develop this characteristic in children, to help them to become persevering. She adduces the example of the “growth mindset”, developed by Carol Dweck. According to this idea, human ability to learn is not a fixed condition; it can be developed when enough efforts are applied. Thus, when a person fails, he or she should recognize that it is a temporary set-back and can build upon it and learn from mistakes. In this fashion, a person is able to build grit and succeed, despite the initial failure. The speaker encourages further research in this field, to understand grit and its development better.
In my opinion, the talk misses out one important factor that may help or prevent a child to achieve success at school. When Duckworth mentions that gifted students often do not succeed, as they are not as persevering as others, the reason can be easily explainable: they are not as challenged by curricula, as their peers. If they are bored by the school program, it is not surprising that they lose interest and become demotivated. While I agree that grit is an important characteristic of successful student, school curricula often prevent it from developing, as it fails to challenge talented students, who study easily and quickly.
Reference
Duckworth A.L. (2013). Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance. Video retrieved from http://www.ted.com/talks/angela_lee_duckworth_grit_the_power_of_passion_and_perseverance
