Listen to the following story that was featured this week on National Public Radio. Do you have a growth or fixed mindset? What are the benefits to this educational notion?
http://www.npr.org/2014/03/17/290089998/does-teaching-kids-to-get-gritty-help-them-get-ahead
150 word minimum - due by Friday, March 21st by 11:59 PM EST.
I personally believe that teaching kids how to get out of their confront zones and making them feel unconformable at times is a good decision. After dealing with the same problem, I believe that making kids feel unconformable at some things will just only make the better in the long run. They said that people use their mistakes to help them along the journey and that is so beyond true. They kept repeating that even if a student thinks they are so good at something, they will eventually hit the wall and that’s when they realize they aren’t that good at something. They had students explain about how even if you aren’t the smartest, or if you are the smartest you still will end up having little problems throughout the way. A 6th grader said, “I learned how, every single day, the more you learn things, the more neurons that pop out of your brain”, and I believe that is completely right.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion I think this is a great idea. i personally have troubles speaking up in class just because half the time I don't even understand what is going on. Even though at first it will make kids feel uncomfortable in the end they will benefit from this a lot. The idea of having teachers be more understanding of the fact that not every student is going to have the right answers. And students need to understand that it is okay to not always know the answer, as long as they learn from it in the end, it benefits them. Honestly, this is a great idea and I definitely think it will work. After a while I believe that it will make kids less scared to present things in front of their class and ask more questions therefore they can learn more and get ready for the test and get more from the class.
ReplyDeleteI think that this could go either way. Yes, I think that children these days have forgot how to persevere when things get difficult. I think that is due to mainly, the child’s parents. I don’t want to point the finger at anyone, but if kid’s parents are constantly there to give them everything that they want without letting their kids fail, they will develop in a way that will lead that child to have that same mindset as an adult. Most people just call them brats. I can also see the other side of the argument though. If you let a child fail too much, it could lead them to give up altogether, which is something you never want. I think that it needs to be somewhere in the middle. Almost everything can be seen as harmful when taken to the extreme. Kids need to learn how to fail and be able to pick themselves up, but they also need some help until their minds are developed enough to help themselves.
ReplyDeleteI agree with getting kids out of their comfort zones. I know this personally. When I was put outside of my comfort zone, I learned there are more things that I enjoy and like doing. Some of the classes I take require presenting in front of the class. I am not a fan of presenting in front of a class, but the more presentations I have to do, the more presenting isn’t a big issue for me. It will also show kids that it’s alright to make mistakes in front of the class, especially when the teacher asks for an answer to a problem. If one kid answers it wrong, chances are there are kids who will answer other problems wrong to. Overall it’ll be a confidence booster for kids. If a kid is uncomfortable to do something because they aren’t sure they will succeed and do succeed at it, then they will gain confidence and the mentality that they can do anything. I think that putting kids out of their comfort zone will help them out rather than hurt them.
ReplyDeleteYou cannot teach grit. Why do I say this? Very simple, teaching grit is basically forcing a child to do something they don't want to do, and they will be resilient. I will admit it is good for a child to learn to get out of their comfort zone, but forcing them into an unfamiliar 'area' is not a good idea. To teach them grit you have to make a steady pace at it, or use example. Maybe a teacher can share stories of their experiences with grit. Though this will lead me to another debate; what do scientists do in their spare time? I remember as a child they would come out almost every week with something that caused some illness. Do they just think of some random idea, and actually test it? I'm not trying to thrash on them, but I'm just saying. Though onto the main topic, can grit be taught? Yes, but it has to be a very strategically thought of first as to not make the child scarred or cause severe stress.
ReplyDeleteMegan Bradley
ReplyDeleteI believe that this could be positive, but I would definitely label this as a more negative thing to do. The only positive I can seek out in the idea of grit is that it will push students to pay attention more often in class, but that is driven by fear. I was in a class that fear was the main motivator and personally, it did not help at all. Using scare tactics to learn does not work as well as one think it might. A classroom should be a positive environment, not one that has you feeling nervous and anxious when you walk in. I think that for some people, forcing an idea upon them could work. But then again for a lot of people, that could push stress and uneasiness on them. If a student doesn't comprehend something, one of their biggest fears is being called on for something they don't know. Letting a student give up on something is wrong, but don't push a concept on them when they clearly don't know the answer.
I’m not sure what my viewpoints are on this topic of “grit.” I mean, I guess it seems alright. I like that it focuses more on students being more comfortable in the classroom and not being afraid of failure. As high schoolers, I think at one point or another, we are all afraid to answer a question in class because of the possibility of getting the answer wrong. I don’t like that they make students uncomfortable by not letting the teachers help the students if they don’t know the answer, though. I feel, at least for me personally, that if I was put into an awkward situation because my teacher wouldn’t help me, I would shy away from participation more in the classroom. I do think that effort should be praised rather than just grades because right now at Alden, I think that grades are more important than learning the information. On your report card, the main thing that is looked at is the grades. The multiple comments of “your student is a pleasure to have in class,” are just glossed over and seen with less importance.
ReplyDeleteI can see the benefits to grit I guess, yet I think that I disagree with it more. It's true that in order to succeed, many mistakes are made. That doesn't mean that you ALWAYS have to fail to accomplish something. Also, I get the impression that grit is basically perseverance. Kids can't be taught how to be perseverant, they just are. It's a character trait, and it's not easy (maybe not even possible) to change someone's character. Kids probably wouldn't participate in class as often because they wouldn't want to deal with awkward silence while they attempted to come up with the right response. While I do agree that the right answer isn't everything, it's obviously still important or why would we bother learning it? The thought process to come up with these answers was invented in order to...come up with answers. I feel that kids will be more discouraged if grit was used in the classroom. They could become more afraid of failure, and it could lower their self-esteem instead of encouraging them to do better.
ReplyDeleteI do not know how I feel about this honestly. I know it is good to get out of your comfort zone at a young age so you can experience new things but I don't know if you can force someone to get out of their comfort zone. For me, I personally do not like presenting in front of the whole class and no matter how many I do I will still not like doing it. If a student is unsure or not confident in an answer they will probably just not answer the question and I don't think the teachers should make them answer. If they are wrong the student could be embarrassed and not want to answer any more questions. I do not believe that a student should be forced to do things they don't want to do because they might not like it or they also could not be good at it. If a student is not good at something they could get embarrassed and not want to do it again.
ReplyDeleteI have mixed opinions on this topic. I understand where it could be helpful, but I’m more against it than anything else. I don’t believe this is how all students would learn. If it was me I would much rather a sincere good job on a project that I did good on rather than a good work on a project I did poorly on. If you keep drilling a student they won’t want to keep trying. A perfect example of this is when I skateboard. If I’m trying a trick that I just cannot land I’ll try it over and over until I land it. That’s when everyone skating gets excited and says good job, but if I quit trying and they say good try it just kind of gets me mad because I didn't land it and the complement wasn't sincere. Basically in my opinion students should get told good job, but only when they get everything done and done efficiently.
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